Champion of My HeartA real-time memoir about life with a fearful border collie, by Roxanne Hawn

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Miss Lilly and I hauled our silly selves across town for her veterinary neurology recheck appointment this morning, in advance of this weekend’s third round of cytarabine injections. It has been 6 weeks since her last neuro exam and 9 weeks since her major adverse vaccine reaction relapse. Here is today’s news.

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Monday dawned with a full-blown anxiety attack hovering. Seeking just an hour of quiet, an hour or solace, an hour of something other than work or worry, I headed out to the greenhouse. Big mistake. An unsupervised and steroid-fueled Lilly helped herself to a non-food snack. There went my day.

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If your dog has never required medications that cause dramatic behavioral side-effects, count yourself lucky. Friday (3/9/12), we had another MAJOR scare with Lilly. <insert expletive here>

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I’m doing my best to share the whole picture of what exactly went wrong in Lilly’s body and brain following her adverse reaction to a rabies vaccine nearly 2 months ago. My dog training / dog behavior friends will find this VERY interesting.

One of the things Lilly lost along the way — entirely for a while and now spotty? Canine calming signals. For example, typically when you kiss a dog (even one who is used to it), the dog will lick its lips as a way of saying, “I don’t like that” or “You’re making me nervous.” Calming signals can also be used to prevent altercations between dogs. For weeks and weeks and weeks, Lilly did not do that … at all.

Not a big deal to us, but to Ginko? Kind of a big deal.

Combine missing calming signals between dogs with her lifelong behavioral challenges and now poor body control, and you get a tense canine household.

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Any time an otherwise “normal” dog shows a sudden increase in fear, everyone recommends a thorough physical exam to rule out medical causes for the change in behavior. BUT, when you have a dog already diagnosed with a real case of clinical fear, it’s easy to overlook possible bodily causes for any spikes in fear behaviors.

Especially in Lilly’s case where a summertime increase in fears is “normal” for her.

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The Relaxation Protocol for Dogs audio files we created remain one of our most popular fearful dogs resources on Champion of My Heart. Perhaps it’s time to revisit how this behavior modification plan for dogs works.

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Lilly and I enjoyed hiking with more summertime guests last week. Can you deduce from the post title who that might be? Or, are you wondering, “What on earth is a Brew Babe”?

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After more than four years blogging about real life with a fearful dog, I’ve learned a lot and made oodles of mistakes. When Caring 4 Creatures, a rescue group based in Atlanta, Georgia, asked me to write a guest post, I summed up several important lessons for anyone who adopts a fearful dog.

I hope you’ll pop on over there today to see what I have to say in the guest post called “Adopting a Fearful Dog,” including:

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Since Ginko is pretty much Sofa Captain, homebody, boy about the house, I forget what he is like in public. In a word: Unruly. It’s a good reminder for me when I get my rant on about people who have little control over their dogs and how that affects my sensitive Lilly Girl.

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