Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

It sound like things are going well. It's nice that you were able to give him a new home. :)

How is Aiden doing?

Thanks for asking, XBRIT ... it's been an interesting few days.
There were a number of breakthroughs since last Friday, starting with Friday evening when I decided it was time to coax him out out his hidey hole (AKA bed in the laundry / mud room) and into the kitchen. That was accomplished with the help of a liver treat. Once he was done with the liver treat, I enticed him into the living room and onto his bed there with a piece of chicken jerky. I sat on the couch while he finished eating it, and then he suddenly decided to get up on the couch beside me and he lay down with his head against my leg. :o
He did go back to his bed in the laundry room at bedtime that night.
On Saturday afternoon hubby took him to the vet for his first set of shots, and while he was there the vet and vet tech gave him his first nail trim. His nails are in terrible shape - really overgrown and gnarly. It will take regular trims over the next few weeks to get the quicks to recede to where they should be. He gets another trim in three weeks when he goes back for his next shots. The vet and the vet tech thought he was a sweetie - he was much less terrified on his second visit. He was also quite happy and relaxed in the car, and went in with little or no direction.
Saturday night he was brave enough to venture about the downstairs living ares without any encouragement. When it came to bed time, hubby and I headed upstairs as usual. Aiden came to the bottom of the stairs and started crying. He was too afraid to come up, since he hadn't ventured upstairs yet, and except for a little bit of light coming from the bathroom nightlights in the laundry on the main floor and the bathroom upstairs, it was quite dark. I tried just ignoring him, hoping that he would go back to one of his beds, but he didn't quit, so I bribed him upstairs using a liver treat. I showed him his bed on the floor. I had to tell to get off our bed a couple of times, but he did get the message, and he settled in on the floor for the night without any more fuss.
Our neighbour took him for his first walk with her yesterday afternoon. It could have gone better, but at least he did walk with her a little way up the street before wanting to come back. I think he just didn't want to lose sight of the house because he had only met her a couple of times before. Hubby did offer to come along for the first walk, but she wanted to see how it went with just her walking him first. In case you're wondering, our neighbours are dog lovers, but they travel a lot, so they always borrowed our dog Scooby for afternoon walks during the week while he was alive and able. They are hoping to carry on the rent-a-dog tradition with Aiden.
Aiden's fecal test results came back yesterday. He has round worms , so we'll pick up his meds for that today. His first grooming appointment is on Thursday. I am so looking forward to that being done, and I'm sure Aiden will be as well. I've managed to get the crap buildup in the corners of his yes cleaned up. It took me two sessions to get it all done, but I'm sure he feels so much better now.
Well, this has turned into a really long update, so I'll stop for now ...

Sounds like he's doing really well!

Great sounds like he's comin along just fine . Kudos ..

Thank you for sharing, it is very welcome news, sounds like in his past he had someone who really loved and cared for him and it is slowly coming back to him. He is home:)

sounds like maybe you and he have hit the jackpot. Good on both of you.

Good morning Jaye. Do we have any updates?

Good morning, XBRIT.
As per your request, another update on Aiden ...
He's doing better every day: much more curious than nervous at home now. He's quite comfortable with both hubby and me. He's even started playing a bit with a few of the toys I've introduced to him. I can't wait for spring so that I can teach him recall and how to fetch in school grounds next to our neighborhood. There's not a lot of room to play fetch indoors, and difficult to teach fetch: though he happily scampers after any toy I throw down the hall, he promptly runs back to his bed and deposits it there rather than bringing it back to me.
His trip to the groomers, unfortunately, was a less than stellar experience. He was terrified. Of everything. The groomer had asked that hubby leave so that he was focused on her rather than him, but he got a call about a half hour later to come pick him up because there was no way she could get him done by herself - at one point he was almost literally climbing the walls. She did relent after hubby got there and held on to him while she did her best to finish the head,body and feet trim. Not super neat, but a huge improvement. The groomer suggested that I bathe him the night before his next appointment; that way she doesn't have to spend as much time fussing with him, so that she can get some of the fine tuning done next time. Aiden was still a bit damp when hubby brought him home: the professional power dryer was the final straw and what sent him off the deep end.
Fortunately he's been cleaned up enough to be able to work on getting him used to regular brushing and eye, ear and foot care, and I'm sure he feels much more comfortable. I've been brushing him a bit every night, slowly moving on to his more sensitive areas and increasing grooming time. He's more relaxed and seems to be enjoying it. I can't touch his ears yet, though: one of them got clipped and has a wound that needs to heal before I go near it with a brush. Hopefully the next trip to the salon will go much better.
Here's some before and after pics of Aiden:

Great pictures, perhaps he is already Mommas boy and will cooperate better with his Mum around especially if she has treats. Perhaps this groomer needs to take baby steps with Aidan rather than trying to expose him to so many scary things. If he is so terrified it is for a reason, don't mean to be negative as you both are doing a wonderful thing and are making great progress but the groomer needs to slow down and work with him, perhaps a groomer with a little more patience. With saying that there is only one groomer that I could totally trust with my most terrified and abused dogs. She would spend the first grooming session getting to know the dog and for the dog getting used to not only her but also the noises i.e. clippers, dryer etc. and yes she was one in a million. Thank you for sharing.