Day 7 of weaning.

Had to go buy a pill cutter for the next week's dosing.  Katie is doing as well as can be expected.  She is mostly ok in the house.  Does startle at neighbor-noises that she had been ignoring, and she is much more hesitant at going outside.  I am still doing some DS/CC inside, although not as much today.  It was a pretty hectic morning, having sliced my finger pretty badly last night making dinner.  I am pretty much resigned to keeping her inside for the next 5-6 weeks, as we wait for the new drug to build up.  I can say right now that the Xanax does not have as much effect as the amitriptillyne did, and it seems to give her the munchies!

Oh, and she seems to have developed a hoarding streak in the last few days.  Likes to get clothes from the bedroom and drag them somewhere else, at which point she just leaves them there.  Haven't seen that before, except with shoes.

Day 6 of weaning

And my first real indication of how much the drugs had been helping.  Today was pretty normal.  Took Katie to the meet and greet, where she did pretty ok, not quite as outgoing as normal, but not too bad.  Got her nails done with no problems.  But at class, that was a different matter.  Last week, she walked up the stairs to almost the top (stopped when some one came and looked at her), and was hesitant on the weave poles, but did the other exercises with minimal fuss.  This week, she would not go up the stairs, and would not leave her corner to go work in class.  Since I can only assume that things are going to get worse as the weaning and wash-out progress, I am going to pull her from class.  I want her to LIKE agility, not be terrified during it!

So, it's going to be a lot of managing the environment, doing what I can for DS/CC (keeping in mind that her stress levels are going to be higher with the drugs out of her system), and hope that the SSRI kicks in relatively fast once I start loading it.  It's going to be interesting to keep an eye on Katie and her signals during this time.  And I think that this blog is going to be invaluable for recording the changes!

Day 5 of weaning.

I am definitely seeing some regression as the drug level lowers.  She is much more anxious when she is outside these days.  Doesn't help that the Santa Anas are blowing, and that the world is actually a bit spooky around here when that happens.  Gusts up to 50 mph make my huge oak tree sway!

Since this might be read by people other than me, perhaps some background is in order.  Katie is a noise-phobic ex-racing greyhound.  A very pretty little girl, who started off very shy, does not like new situations, and really doesn't like the sound of kids playing.  I am working on rehabbing her, so that her quality of life is better, and hopefully she will be better able to handle being out in the world.  I'd had her on amitriptilyne (generic Elavil) with Xanax for known stressful situations.  I am now in the process of switching her to fluoxinene (not quite sure of the spelling... generic Prozac), which is a specific seritonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), which basically keeps the happy chemicals in the brain around longer.  That is used as a tool, while I perform behavioral modification.  Desensitization (DS) is exposing the dog to the fear trigger at a level where the dog notices but does not react to the trigger, known as being "under threshold".  Counter-conditioning is associating the trigger with something good (in Katie's case, canned cheese stuff), so that you change the emotions associated with the trigger.  So, in practice, with kids, I start with just the sounds of the kids, at a level that Katie can tolerate without showing signs of stress, and give her something super good (kongs with frozen cheez whiz) so that the sound of kids stops being a predictor of scary things, and becomes a predictor of good things.  Since you can only feel one thing at a time, the idea is that the brain eventually automatically starts feeling good when Katie hears kids.  Now, this is not fast, because you have to start off at a very low level, and then slowly increase the strength of the trigger, while still staying under threshold.  So with the kids, I will slowly increase the noise level.  For being outside, it's starting inside the front door (stress levels were too high outside), then outside the front door, then a few feet away, until I get out of the yard.  Then start over at the front door for longer periods of time.  Today, I wouldn't even think of trying this outside, because the winds were strong enough to keep Katie on edge, especially with the lower drug level in her system.  But that's what DS/CC is, when I mention it in the blog.

The other thing is to teach Katie skills that she can do, since a dog that feels in control in a situation tends to be a calmer and more confident dog.  Yes, the scary thing may be over there, but my owner has things in control and wants me to do X, so I will do that and not think so much about the scary thing.  To that end, I am working on teaching Katie "watch me", and she already knows Touch, so I am working on Target (a variation of touch where the goal is to touch a specific item, not my hand) for agility class.  She's picked that one up super fast!  Watch me seems to be going well... it's a bit hard for me to see what exactly Katie is looking at, but I think we have the general idea down.  I need to start working on duration and fading the lure with that one.

Today's report:  It's been pretty calm.  Did some DS/CC by the front door.  Took Katie to the vet for a bordatella update and to pick up more heart worm meds.  Did a lot of CC there.  She was actually being pretty comfortable in the waiting room... wandered around a bit, sniffed some stuff while she was there.  The CC does seem to have made a difference in her opinion of vets.  She was skittish going to the car, and from the car to the vet, so I left her in the car when I stopped to pick up some more dog food.  Only gave her one Xanax this evening, and she hasn't shown the hyper behavior.  Happy to be with and rest quietly, and quite willing to work for her dinner, but not the extreme playfulness.  I am going to continue with testing what dose is appropriate.

Tomorrow is the meet and greet, and I am debating about whether I will take Katie.  She needs her nails trimmed, but she also has class that evening.  On the other hand, there will be greyhounds there, and Katie does love her peeps, as evidenced by coming out of her shell with the whippet last night.  It's something I will probably decide tomorrow right before the meet.

Day 4 of weaning.

Katie had a restless night, possibly due to the "planned power outage" which I forgot all about, until the power went out.  And then this morning was a rush, but I did manage to get a little work in at lunch.  This evening was Bark After Dark, a "controlled, off-leash playgroup" for dogs.  It was Katie's first time, and she did not do at all well at first.  Entirely shut-down, didn't want to do anything but get out of there.  So I put her in the car for the class, and then let her hang out with the instructors' dogs afterwards (a whippet, lab, and golden).  What a difference!  She was actually playful:  open mouth grin, tail in the happy U, running around with the other dogs.  And she would go explore, along the fence (which she made me be between her and it during the class), behind storage buildings, out in the parking lot...   She did stop by the car frequently, but it seemed to be more out of reassurance and finally tiredness than fear.  The instructors seem to think it was simply because of the different energy level of their dogs as opposed to class, and the fact that one was a whippet probably helped.  All things to keep in mind for the future.

Day 3 of weaning.

Yesterday was subdued, as is this morning.  I am going to up the Xanax to two pills this evening, especially since I intend to take her on the walk.  We will see how she is.

Didn't come home at lunch.

Katie was back in the bedroom this evening when I got home, around 5:40.  Gave her the higher dose of Xanax, preparing for the walk.  However, she was being resistant to the idea (rolling on side to give me her belly, didn't want to get off the bed, etc.)  So I revised my plan to just getting her to walk to the door on leash, so that I could turn her out before I went to the class.  After all, it's so that I get in shape, not really for Katie.  3.16 miles today, and the path went past where some kids were practicing soccer, so it's probably a good thing that Katie wasn't there.

Got back around 7:40, and Katie was an absolute wild thing!  Racing up and down the hallway, circling me, etc.  Grabbed some toys and let her out in the yard, where she promptly ignored the toys and did zoomies for quite some time.  Even with kids out playing basketball, which is normally enough to make her want to go inside.  She is currently panting like a bellows on her bed in the computer room.  I am going to have to let her cool down and recover some before I even think of feeding her.  Variables to consider:
A.  Didn't come home at lunch.  Katie will frequently do zoomies on the days that this happens.  Not sure if it's because of built-up energy, stress from the disrupted routine, just good spirits because I am finally home.  But it's something to consider.
B.  Increased Xanax dose.  The timing is right, just about 2 hours after giving it.  But I wasn't here earlier, so I do not know exactly what she was doing during that time.  There are some paper shreds around, so she may have been being active while I was out.
C.  The fact that I came home, and went out again.  Disrupted routine twice in one day, may have made her more anxious and thus full of energy when I got back?
D.  A combination of the above.

It will be interesting to see what the next few days show.  Right now she has somewhat recovered from the panting and chewing on a stuffy.

9 pm, and she seems to have calmed down some.  She had been throwing play bows at Rana, and barking at her, but I managed to distract her onto a toy, which works until she notices the cat again.  But she is being toy-oriented, so I gave her her dinner in the Tug-a-Jug, which kept her occupied while I ate.  She was almost frantic (frenetic?  hard to say exactly) in her activity levels.