Author Topic: Today's the day...  (Read 794 times)

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Offline makenna

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Today's the day...
« on: April 26, 2017, 02:44:30 PM »
I'm taking Chisum to a vet behaviorist today to see about evaluating his medication and seeing what else we can do for his fear reactivity/anxiety.

I'm quite nervous myself - it's about a 2.5 hour drive. We've also seen two regular vets + one regular vet in the area who claimed to be some kind of "behavior specialist" (which was a disaster - she was a crackpot) so I'm just unsure of what to expect.

I've been reading reviews for the practice like crazy and they're very positive, so holding onto that. I leave in three hours, trying to calm myself before then! Thankfully I'm at work now so my nerves can't transfer to Chisum yet.  :005:

Offline lescef

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Re: Today's the day...
« Reply #1 on: April 26, 2017, 05:49:01 PM »
Good luck. Let us know how you get on. ;)
Lesley, Maddie and Bramble

Offline jennycockerspaniel

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Re: Today's the day...
« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2017, 11:05:02 PM »
Thinking of you
Penny Black Jennys niece

Offline Patp

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Re: Today's the day...
« Reply #3 on: April 27, 2017, 08:03:32 AM »
How did it go?



Offline makenna

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Re: Today's the day...
« Reply #4 on: April 27, 2017, 02:38:10 PM »
Thanks for all the support!

He actually did pretty well. Car rides for him are not fun, but he handled it in stride. He didn't even bark at either of the toll booth individuals!

He had a minor meltdown when the vet first came in (they had us in this big training area), but once we moved to a smaller room he just laid down and was so, so good. The vet said his reactivity is quite severe, which I already knew, but I was incredibly proud of his behavior.

His medications have been entirely changed. Previously he was on flouxetine and trazodone, now he's on Paxil and clonidine. No idea if it will be "better" but maybe it's a start. We're also going to be working on more obedience and hitting harder with some behavior mod.

Offline hoover

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Re: Today's the day...
« Reply #5 on: April 30, 2017, 01:21:49 PM »
You obviously care about your dog a great deal - hope the new meds and behaviour advice make a difference for him. We have had reactivity issues with Ollie too, but possibly not as severe as you are experiencing, and have him on a low dose of 5HTP  which is a precursor to serotonin and may help reduce reactivity in dogs according to some studies.  (I would not advise anyone to give their dogs this without extensive research and consultation with vets, however, as in large amounts this can be toxic to dogs.)

We have tried a number of things to held reduce his reactivity and recently the most helpful thing we have found is that when dogs are bounding up to him and we know that can't be averted we actually go out of our way to positively welcome them by saying things likes 'O, who is this Ollie?  What a beautiful dog.. O aren't you gorgeous!' etc - these welcoming actions and statements show Ollie that we are not afraid of the dog so perhaps he thinks he doesn't need to be either.  That and he might think it would displease us if he showed aggression to a dog that we wanted to meet and so he refrains from reacting.  It possibly also softens the other dog's behaviour and body language and helps reduce tension all round.

We started off just doing this in completely unavoidable dog encounters but it seems to have worked so well that we now do it more generally as well instead of doing our usual change of direction or distraction techniques when we see dogs and it seems to be going ok.

We had previously trained him to 'be gentle' when we wanted him to behave around puppies etc, but that command seemed to change meaning to Ollie and to him it seemed to say 'you have got something to be worried about here' and lost its effectiveness.


Offline Gazrob

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Re: Today's the day...
« Reply #6 on: July 21, 2017, 06:16:31 PM »
What I have found is if I keep my dog at heel on lead walking and acting confidently when other dogs are around he's pretty calm and generally ignores the other dogs I just ignore them and walk straight past them I don't stop walking.  If I make a fuss and get nervous if I see other dogs around he picks up on it and he becomes nervous and reactive. Basically try and act like its no big deal. Hope this helps.

Offline Gazrob

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Re: Today's the day...
« Reply #7 on: July 21, 2017, 06:19:58 PM »
Keep the lead loose. He picks up when I'm nervous. If I act confident he relaxes more knowing that I'm the leader and I'm protecting him. If I'm nervous he thinks I can't protect him and he becomes more nervous and reactive.