Lilly’s regimented behavior modification plan may help her overcome her generalized anxiety, social phobia, sound sensitivity, and other fear-based issues, including snarking at other dogs. BUT, I think it’s making me obsessive-compulsive. I feel like I’m developing OCD. …
Last Friday, one of my canine nieces underwent surgery to repair a compound fracture in one of her rear legs. Daisy, a poodle-yorkie mix (apparently known as Yoodles in some circles), had a run-in with a bigger dog with whom she shares a fence line. The other dog is already “red flagged” by animal control for some aggressive act, but since it’s unclear which direction the fence breach originated, the encounter, which broke Daisy’s leg, doesn’t count as another strike against him. From my perspective, there are many lessons here.
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While this is technically week 5 of the new plan, it is the first week with Lilly on the full therapeutic dose of clomipramine. So, she’s up to 60 mg twice a day, plus the .5 mg of alprazolam twice a day (that dose has been the same since we added it). So, we’re up to ramming speed in terms of brain chemistry. Like me, you might be wondering: Now what?
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By now, you’ve likely heard news reports about the German Shepherd who stayed with her owner’s body for 6 weeks, after the man committed suicide in a rural part of my home state, Colorado. It’s very sad. At the same time, it got me wondering — On the loyalty scale, where would my dogs rank? …
Cheese plays a tremendous role here at Champion of My Heart. I hide pills in cheese for easier medication dispensing. I use cheese as training food. We’re a cheese eating bunch. So, my head just might explode thanks to new industrial packaging on Frigo String Cheese because it’s impossible to open. If you’ve ever unzipped a stick of string cheese, you know that happy sound. This new stuff, I swear, was designed to survive a nuclear attack. …
Loyal reader and occasional classmate Claire asked in her comment Friday: “Just curious — what’s the idea underlying all of the sit-stay work?” I bet a lot of you are wondering that. …
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. …
