I'm going to be setting a follow-up appointment with the behaviorist. I think we need to tweak the dosage a bit. She doesn't seem to have the spark that she did on the Elavil, and she is showing stress signs that are unusual. For example, when I did the first agility class the first time, Katie was perfectly happy to go out in the room and do the Touches and Targets and Get Readys. That was the day before I started weaning her off the Elavil. By the second class, a week later, she wouldn't leave her place. Totally shut down, which is why I pulled her from the class. Sunday, which would have been the start of the 7t week on the Prozac, when we were in class, she was somewhere between the two. Wouldn't leave her place, but would do Touch at it, lying down. Did some very nice Say Hellos (sitting and shaking). And was willing to relax at her place, with her back against the wall. Not stressed... her muscles were loose, no tension in the face, no panting, alert interest in some of the other dogs, especially the Irish wolfhound, and she was perfectly willing to eat her peanut butter bone. Some potential differences between the two situations is that the first class was smaller (7 dogs total, instead of 10), and I had spent some time doing DS/CC at the class building prior to the class session (taking Katie there off-hours, and just hanging out with her and treats and doing the tricks that she knows, so that the place was more familiar to her and less stress). The last experience she had before this session was when she was totally shut down. I am going to see if I can try the off-hour thing again to see if that makes a difference. And I had peanut butter balls the first class, and liver for this session, and it turns out that Katie much prefers peanut butter over liver. Go figure!
At home, she doesn't come out to meet me like she used to. She is generally in her safe place, sometimes in the other bed, and about 20% of the time she will come out to the hallway. She is perfectly happy to see me when I go to her, and sniffs me all up and down the arms (which is a somewhat new behavior for her... she would sniff before, but not as intensely, and this generally winds up with her sniffing up the arm, back down, and then licking my palms). Lets me pet her, and sometimes chatters, but not as much as when she was on the Xanax. That had been happening at least once a day on the Xanax, now it's maybe 4 times a week. She does quiver her jaw, which she would do before chattering, but doesn't seem to quite get to the chatter stage.
And she is startling pretty badly to sudden sounds, but recovers almost immediately. But the startle seems out of proportion to the sound. When I had her out on a walk, and someone dropped a water bottle right in front of her, she jumped but then kept on walking without any overt signs of stress. I figured that was a pretty reasonable response. I jumped at the noise, figure it's ok if she does. But tonight, I offered her a handful of food, and she was more interested in sniffing the arm and hand, so I threw the food on her bed a foot away. The sound of the food hitting the bed caused the same kind of jump, after which she went over and ate the food. And this was only about 8 pieces of kibble hitting a dog bed, so just a little pattering sound.
At the same time, she is being responsive to doing tricks for dinner. And she seems to be pretty comfortable out in the yard. If I don't hover over her, and just putter around out there doing "outside stuff", she is a relaxed dog sniffing around and looking/listening to things. On leash for DS/CC, she is being responsive, especially if there are no human noises. Then she will go up to the gate to do it. With the weather being nicer, the kids are staying out playing later, so it is making it more stressful for her. On those days, we tend to be only maybe a foot or two off the front porch stoop. She will do Touch, with the occasional stop and listen if she hears the kids out in the street, but will then turn to me and go back to the game after a second or two. Possibly shorter time, since I am bad at guestimating. I'd say that she seems alert, but not necessarily stressed. I try to keep those episodes short... 3-5 touches, so that she gets good treats and learns to associate that with the kids and being outside, and then we go back inside.
I am not sure if we need to up the dose (the startling to food being thrown on a bed and unwillingness to leave her safe place makes me think her anxiety level may still be higher than we would like), or if we need to decrease it, since one of the side effects is lethargy, which may be why she is staying on her bed, being relaxed but unwilling to work in class, and just generally seeming to not have quite the same zest as before. I am also down to the quarter-pill stage of weaning her off the Xanax, which may also be contributing to some of this.
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