Oh, how I want to shout from the rooftops about a big breakthrough in dog training. But, this week we had a couple rough days with fading fears at home flaring up. Alas, the progress Lilly is making measures in infinitesimal degrees. It’s no longer merely snark/no snark, work/no work … It’s pupil size. It’s breathing pattens. It’s even the shape of her black-and-white, border collie head. …
Part of fixing Lilly’s nighttime anxiety behaviors at home required restructuring our evenings to prevent any conflict over coming inside and to encourage her to remain in the social areas of the house instead of hiding. Rather than confronting the issues head-on, we’re basically creating new routines aimed at helping her relax (with the help of the meds, of course). In the month or so since the consult, we can practically tell time based on Lilly’s location and body posture. …
Since our regular exercise walks are about the only outings we have, Lilly and I really look forward to them. Each day I adjust my schedule to avoid as much other traffic (people, dogs, horses, cars) as I can. Still, some days we cannot help but cross paths with someone or something. Most times, I just work her classical conditioning and feed our way past whatever it is, but last week, an older man who walks for his heart stopped to chat with us. …
Knock on wood, so far we’ve seen no real side-effects from Lilly’s new medicines (clomipramine & alprazolam). One thing we have noticed, however, is that she’s rather talkative. She’s always been a somewhat noisy girl, but these days, she uses all manner of noises to express herself. Mostly she’s being silly. We call it Yawn Talking. Maybe your dog does it too. …
Last weekend, we bumped Lilly’s clomipramine up to 40 mg twice a day. Her alprazolam stayed the same at .5 twice a day. While I wait for the OK to move onto the next stage of the behavior plan, which includes noises, I’m doing what I can to spice up the routine and challenge Lilly in mild ways. I’m starting with visual things since they generally cause less fear than noises. …
Gosh, could I be any more isolated this summer? Between gas prices limiting my driving, other economic woes affecting my budget, Tom spending long hours several days a week painting his mom’s house, and NOT being able to take Lilly all the places we usually go, it’s been a long, lonely summer so far. I’m trying hard to change my thinking about it, but I do feel like a hermit. …
As the parsing of stimuli continues, I find myself also splitting out individual behaviors from their many partners for sanity’s sake. Take the hubbub at the door before going outside.
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Lilly and I cut our Sunday morning walk short — partially because it was already hot-hot-hot and partially because our neighbor Debbie reported seeing TWO rattlesnakes on her walk. She got back just a bit before we left. THEN, when we got back home, another neighbor called. …
I’m sad to report the passing of my friends’ (Jess and Linda) lovely sheltie, Onchu (pronounced Awn-shoo, which is Gaelic and translates roughly as “mighty dog”). He was only 7 years old and was diagnosed with squamous cell cancer just 3 weeks ago. Here’s an excerpt of a tribute Jess wrote: …
Our baseline sit-stay relaxation work continues, as does the process of extinction on attention seeking behaviors. We had to up the ante on bugging me because just turning away from her wasn’t working. So, now, I leave the room and close the door for at least 20 seconds. It might be working. On Monday, she only bugged me 7 times between 9 am and 5 pm. That’s actually good, compared to 20+ most days last week. Otherwise, here are a few things to note: …
