Author: Roxanne Hawn

Trained as a traditional journalist and based in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA, I'm a full-time freelance writer for magazines, websites, and private clients. My areas of specialty include everything in the lifestyles arena, including health and home, personal finance and other consumer interests, relationships and trends, people and business profiles ... and, of course, all things pet related. I don't just love dogs. I need them in my life. Seriously.

Blog Swap | Guest Blogger | Musings

Guest Blogger – Dara Chadwick (When the Dog Becomes the Trainer)

Today, I’m teaming up with fellow freelance writer Dara Chackwick from Fit in Real Life for a blog swap. So, her entry appears here, and mine is posted on her blog. Keep an eye on Dara, she’s HOT STUFF, her book about how mothers shape their daughter’s body image is set to publish in 2009. One of the reasons I find Dara’s blog so compelling is that we have essentially the same body and similar issues with food and exercise. BUT, for today, she’s musing about …

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Info-Share | Musings

How I Define Hiding

I pretend I’m Dian Fossey as I track Lilly’s various fear behaviors so that we can gauge their severity, speculate about their cause, measure any changes. Was that a happy kiss or an anxious one? Is not actively wanting to come in a door refusal or does it only count when she throws a true shutdown behavior at me, playing the writhing dustmop or the boat anchor? And, what constitutes hiding? …

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Dogs on Drugs

We’ve Added Alprazolam (Xanax)

To help mitigate Lilly’s recent upswing in fears, especially at home, our working theory is that they are based more on her noise sensitivities than first thought. So, enter alprazolam (Xanax), a benzodiazepine. She’ll take .5 mg twice a day. On Friday, our vet called in 6 weeks worth of medicine. It cost me about $26 at our local Walgreens. Once again the whole thing was unusual enough that the pharmacist’s eyes were as big as saucers.
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Dog Training Update | Dogs on Drugs

Weekly Training Update (July 25)

I wish I had some exciting news to report, but we’re mostly mired in the nitty-gritty foundation work of our new behavior modification plan. Not very sexy stuff, I’m afraid. But, here are a few observations and struggles. …

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Info-Share | Musings

Classical Conditioning: What it doesn’t mean

One of the headlines from our animal behavior consult is that I’ve done far too much operant conditioning and not enough classical conditioning. Generally I assume that experienced “dog people” know what this means. A recent conversation proved otherwise. At least one person thought I meant punishment-based training when I said classic. So, just to be clear, classical conditioning is a way of learning, not the out-of-date punishment/dominance obsessed style of dog training.
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Dogs on Drugs | Info-Share

TMI – How Much This is Costing Me

Someday, I’ll add up everything I’ve spent (which is A LOT) trying to help Lilly’s canine generalized anxiety and somewhat severe social phobia of people and dogs. For now, however, here’s a recap of very recent spending: …

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Musings

To Spray or Not to Spray

I’ve ranted before about encounters with loose dogs (some friendly, some not) that Lilly and I have on our walks in our rural neighborhood. When we talked about these events during our behavior consult, the recommendation for carrying a spray with stopping power came up. Earlier this year, I bought the citronella kind to carry. But, I’ve yet to use it. Maybe I’m just being too nice. …

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Dogs on Drugs | Info-Share

Lilly’s New Meds (clomipramine) Arrive

After last week’s drama, I’m happy to report that Lilly’s new medicine (clomipramine), the one the animal behaviorist recommended, arrived Friday (7/18) from 1-800-PetMeds, just 2 days after the order was shipped. It took a full week and something like 20 phone calls to make it happen, though. Seriously, it took less time to get the meds here from a warehouse in Florida, than it did for someone to OK the order by phone. All manner of things fouled us up — a lack of responsiveness from my regular veterinary practice, an …

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Dog Training Update | Dogs on Drugs

Weekly Training Update (July 18)

I worked hard this week to track Lilly’s behavior patterns so that we’ll have something concrete for comparison down the road when the new drugs and behavior work kick in. Here are a few things I found interesting: …

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Musings

Where’s Willy Wonka When You Need Him?

I’ve always given Lilly about 300 x more treats than anyone else I know. I can easily go through a quart-size ziplock of of training food in an hour. It’s one reason she often eats small meals. So, now that we’re working entirely under the behavior modification model that says “food changes how a dog feels emotionally about a situation,” I’m going through even more food. Which makes me wish for a Willy Wonka creation — something like the bottomless bait bag. …

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