Finally seeming to get back to baseline

Her appetite has picked up to the point that she was eagerly eating dinner out of my hand, until I asked her to so a spin, which shut her down entirely.  Note to self:  do not raise the criteria until she is successfully doing what I am currently asking her to do!  And she was playful, even down to the point where she charged out the door for her potty break instead of having to be lured out with cookies.  A few more days and I can probably be back to where I was before Solvang.

Yay! The routine is coming back!

Finally think that the worst of the Solvang fall-out is passing.  She has been off her food, which I think is at least partly from getting lots and lots of liver Kong-stuffing at Solvang to help keep her happy about the situation.  Now I think she is holding out a bit hoping for more good stuff and not just kibble.  But this morning she eventually decided to go eat breakfast, and then walked right over to the door out and went out to potty with no problems.  Did some happy prancing while out there too, not the anxious pacing she;d been displaying.  So either the drugs are kicking in, or the stress hormones are dissipating, or some combo of the two.  I'm just happy that we seem to be coming out of the rough patch.

She's continued to do well today.  Going in and out without fuss, actually playing with her new toy (and my shoes, and a shirt I left out...)  Still turning her nose up at kibble, but eager to work for good stuff (cheese, dried yams, etc).  She's also spending more time with me rather than in her safe spot.  Yay!

Recovering from Solvang still

Katie spent most of today hunkered down on her bed in her safe spot.  I'd been planning on taking her to the meet-and-greet today, but keeping in mind that stress hormones can stay in the body for many days, I decided to keep her at home and just let her decompress.  She was reluctant to eat breakfast and dinner (and I added warm water to both to make them more appetizing), she was reluctant to go out to potty, she would come into the computer room for treats and take them back to the bed.  I figured that more stress, however minor, was probably not a good idea.  It seems to have worked.  She finally joined me in the computer room, and went out pretty easily for her last potty break of the day.  Even did some zoomies out in the yard, so she's feeling better.  We'll see how the next few days go.

Back from Solvang

I decided to take Katie to Solvang for the annual greyhound gathering.  I debated this for a long time.  She is just starting the loading dose of the new drug, and hasn't been outside the house in the last month, so it would be a pretty intense shift for her.  On the other hand, she would be surrounded by greyhounds, and she does get a lot of confidence from other greys.  So at the end of the day, I decided to give it a try and monitor her behavior and manage as required.  She did "ok".  I debated getting her a red bandana (used to designate dogs that need space), but decided against that, since she does have a habit of throwing herself into the middle of a group of dogs, and I figured owners would freak if they say a red-bandana dog come charging up to theirs.  She did generally acclimate to the lectures and shopping hall, but I also gave her a lot of down time in our room while I did stuff on my own.  Surprisingly, she did not like being out in the Secret Garden with the other dogs that much.  I was hoping that she would actually play, but they did need to be muzzled, which I generally don't do with her, and it was outside, so maybe I shouldn't be as surprised.  Of course, in perfect Katie-fashion, she decided that she needed to go potty at 1:15 AM, and then to go explore the Garden.  Yep, she's perfectly willing to go sniff around and poke her head in bushes and stuff if it's the middle of the night!  And she didn't want to go back upstairs to the room, either.  Had to take her up the "other" set of stairs.  I think that she would have been perfectly happy to go for a walk, but I found it a bit cold and dark for that!  She's spent most of the afternoon sleeping, and of course the wind is blowing tonight, but she did go out in it for her last potty break.  (Trust me, the wind out here is enough to make a reasonable dog or person a little jumpy!)

I can't say that I am seeing huge changes in her behavior with the drug, but it does seem to be taking the edge off.  She's more relaxed, but not so much that you can really put a finger on it.

We did pick up some pretty new collars.  I'll post if I can get some good pictures.

Oh, and she handled the stairs like a trooper! Up and down them with no problems at all (except for the time that she really wanted to go explore instead!)

Day 3

Katie is doing good today, especially since I did not get home for lunch.

I've read through all the intro and history in CU (Control Unleashed), and gotten to the first set of exercises.  It's an interesting approach to training.  "Just be present" with your dog is a lot harder than you would think (essentially, meditate and focus entirely on your dog).  Did some more DS/CC with the leash.  She's getting to be pretty happy with it going on, and I am trying to make taking it off a non-event.  Seems to be working so far.

Day 2 - off to a rocky start

This morning did not start off so well.  Katie was definitely nervous, actually freezing up when asked to go down the hall and out for a potty break.  I hadn't seen her that bad in months!  It was like when I first got her... had to actually pick her up to get her off her bed.  But I gave her Xanax, and at lunch she was much better.  Gave her a second dose then, just in case.  She did well the rest of the day.  Did some leash desensitization:  put leash on, give cheese, take leash off, repeat.  After a bit of that, I went into the computer room, and she actually came in and asked to have the leash put on!  Generally, she runs off to her bed in the back (very happy and excited, not scared) and had me put the leash on there.  It will be a good thing if I can get her to come to me and let me leash her where I am instead!

I also got my copy of Control Unleashed.  It's a book intended to create a "focused and confident dog" (hey, it says so on the cover!), and is intended more towards reactive dogs, but a lot of the shy-k9 group really like it.  And I am always looking for new games to play with Katie, so we will see what we can get out of it.

Day 1 of the new drug

Ok, I'm technically cheating by a day, but I wanted to be sure to give it to Katie on a day when I was home to see any potential side effects.  No huge changes, not that I expect to really see any for several weeks, but she does seem a bit under the weather.  The two main side effects seen are loss of appetite and lethargy, so I will keep an eye out to see if this is just coincidence, something that resolves with time, or if we need to tweak the dosage.  But for now she seems to be fine.  It's going to be interesting waiting to see signs of my happy, confident dog reappear.