Two Month Med Report

It is officially two months since Meadow began taking Fluxoteine (Generic Prozac), and I have really been looking forward to sharing this post with you, but have kept myself under a strict, self-inflicted gag order since early April.

I did not want to jinx myself, because for the most part – Meadow is doing phenomenal.

Inside the house, Meadow has been initiating play with me, almost daily, carrying toys over to me and wanting me to tug with her. When I remove the toy from her mouth, she promptly sits, asking for the game to begin anew. She never initiated play before the meds, I always had to practically beg her to take a toy and tug.

Also indoors, Meadow has been playing the ‘touch’ game with objects like books, coffee mugs, pens, etc. Pre-Med Meadow would have crossed the room to avoid anything novel that we may have held out to her. Now she touches the item, and then wags in delight as we tell her how brave she is.

Her barkiness has subsided to an acceptable level, although it has not completely disappeared. Meadow still sometimes erupts when one of us leaves the house, or if she hears Nick arriving home from work, but is no longer lunging at the crate door or trying to nip our hands when we need to close her in, and Nick is still calling me when he comes home, so I can get a hold of her. She has not chased the cats or Toby in at least a month, and on the one occasion that Nick forgot to call, Meadow raced up to Toby, barking, but nothing more.
 
A few weeks ago, I was sitting in the house when a clap of thunder went off. Meadow tried to squeeze herself between the sofa and the wall, which usually prompts me to put her in her crate until she snaps out of it. Often, I’ve had to physically remove her from her hidey hole, although sometimes she’d back out when I called her – so I always try the latter. This time, when I called her out, not only did she back out on my first call, but when I said, “It’s okay, it’s just thunder silly,” she looked at me, wagged her tail, and laid on her mat. No crate needed.

Sadly, ever since the day of the first firework, Meadow no longer fetches while out in the yard, (I don’t clearly remember, but I’m guessing she must have been fetching a toy at the exact moment of the ‘incident’), but she is now exploring the yard instead of just remaining in one little corner of it, which is a relatively new behavior. In addition, she is assisting Leah in guarding the fence line against intruding cats and squirrels. Whether or not that’s a ‘good’ thing, at least she is having fun.

And now, for the biggest news of all:

Nick and Meadow were outside in the yard a few weeks ago when a firework went off. As expected, Meadow looked extremely spooked; she jumped, looked around anxiously, and appeared about to bolt, but…she didn’t. Instead, Nick spoke to her in an upbeat, assuring voice, and…

…Meadow snapped out of it, wagged her tail, and continued to work with him.

Unfortunately, when a second one went off, Meadow looked a bit more worried, but once again, she did not bolt. It took Nick a few minutes to coax her from her fear for the second one – but she did come out of it again – and then he ushered her inside before a third could go off. When the same scenario happened to me at the end of March, she bolted without hesitation and refused to make eye contact. So, I say – success!

For someone who was genuinely against medicating their dog, as you can imagine, I am now extremely pleased that we made the decision to give it a try. All in all, I don’t have much negative to report, other than on and off appetite loss, which I have found a cure for. Each week I dutifully sauté a batch of ground venison in a dollop of olive oil, lightly sprinkle it with garlic powder and parsley, and spoon some over her kibble with each meal. Quite possibly, I am being played, but I’m so happy that she’s eating and that we don’t need to adjust the dosage of her meds, (since they’re working so well), I’ll allow the deception…for now.

Besides medication, you are probably wondering what else we are doing to help Meadow?

Nick continues to walk her to K-Mart to play Leslie McDevitt’s “Look at That” game with cars, crowds, and carts, and he also takes her to weekly Rally classes. During the last few classes, he reports that Meadow is walking past the dreaded jumps more readily now. He even enticed her to touch one. She is also calmer in the far corner of the room, an area that seems prone to loud noises, and was extremely 'scary' for her in the past.

Her last few runs went so well, Nick feels she could have qualified in a novice level competition.

We are playing the “through a Dog’s Ear” CD after breakfast to try and connect it with relaxing moments, although it’s calming effects seemed to have worn off – at least with Meadow. While the other two are snoozing, she has been taking the opportunity to horde all the toys, or stare at us woefully, pleading for a pet. This attention getting behavior has also been a recent improvement, and she is even offering a sit to get it! Meadow has always been a morning dog, so this may be why the CD is losing its effectiveness, but we’re going to keep at it, in hopes that it will benefit her in the future.

As far as teaching her K-9 Nose Work, I have been practicing food hides without boxes, since Meadow is so afraid of anything novel in her environment. She finally seems to be getting the idea of the game, and in a few weeks I plan to place the food on plain cardboard, and eventually shallow boxes, etc. It is a slow going process, but I'm in no rush to go anywhere with the sport, I more want to do it to teach her to be brave about approaching objects.

I want her to think, If strange things in the environment could contain chicken or salmon, maybe they aren’t so bad.

Just a few weeks ago, Nick and I took both Meadow and Toby to a quiet park that Meadow was not familiar with, and she did very well in her new surroundings. She was a bit frightened of a flag that was whipping in the wind, but she recovered quickly from her fear and seemed to enjoy the outing. Since the presence of another dog helps Meadow substantially on outings, Nick and I need to wait for opportunities that we can both go together, and our schedules don’t often converge. But we are planning more outings in the future, as soon as my job slows down after July.

A while back a wonderful trainer friend of mine, Peg Munves, suggested that I look into Dr. Karen Overall’s “Protocol for Relaxation” for Meadow. Just last week I finally had a moment to spare and discovered it was not at all what I expected. I thought it was a hands on approach, like canine massage, but it is actually a systematic method of teaching your dog to sit, relaxed, in all sorts of scenarios. Not only is it beneficial for fearful dogs, it is also good for excitable dogs and reactive dogs.

Hmmm…I believe I have one of each.

Since everyone in the family needs to be on board for this program to work, I am waiting for Nick to get a chance to give it a read, and as long as he agrees, I feel it will be the next thing that we add to our arsenal. It looks like a sound program – although, since the initial program takes approximately ½ hour a day per family member for approximately 15 days (more or less depending on the dog), we’ll probably only take one dog through the program at a time, starting with Meadow.

And finally, I have been reading good things about “CURING YOUR DOG'S FEAR OF THUNDER,” a CD created by Stephen Rafe, which is accompanied by an in depth instruction manual on how to use his desensitization and counter-conditioning program. He claims, if done properly, it should help with both thunder and firework phobia, but he also offers a second, CD, “CURING YOUR DOG'S FEAR OF FIREWORKS” as well. (Same link as above). I plan to order the thunder one when I can and give it a whirl over the winter, once the thunder and fireworks stop for the season. I’m looking forward to seeing how well it works – which I will of course, share with all of you. 

Thanks for checking in on Miss Meadow, affectionately  called "Med." I hope you enjoyed reading such a good report – I know I am thrilled to be seeing these remarkable improvements firsthand.

Note: For those who are wondering, no news on Toby's bloodwork yet, and no news on the missing dog, Kirek.