Katie's startle reflexes are up

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.

First day of agility class

I re-enrolled Katie in agility class, and today was the first session.  She may not be ready for it yet.  She didn't want to stand up in class and do Touch, but would do it from a reclining position.  And she did Say Hello, so there was some progress there.  I am thinking about renting the place on Easter Sunday so that we can practice and get comfortable with being there without other people and dogs around.  And I will need to bring peanut butter balls.  Turns out that Katie prefers peanut butter to liver!

It's hard to read this girl sometimes.  She will be all bouncy and playful, but the minute I try and interact with her, she just lies down.  Like tonight, after not really doing much at class, she is full of high spirits at home, digging toys out of the toy box, pawing at me, throwing me play bows.  She definitely wants _something_!

First outside DS/CC session!

Well, you can tell Katie is doing much better, since I am writing less.  Somehow, "everything was good today" just gets a bit boring to keep putting down.  :)

But tonight, we actually did our first DS/CC outside on the front stoop.  This is a huge step for Katie, and she is feeling much more comfortable out there, as demonstrated by her absolutely refusing to come in when I thought she had had a good session!  I wound up going as far as the front feet on the walk, but didn't want to push it too far.

And she is learning how to work a new style of Kong.  Generally I give her frozen Kongs, so that she can spend a long time licking them.  I've been giving her single dog treats rattling around loose in them, so that she has to figure out a way to get them out.  It's more difficult, but she is getting the hang of it.

Bright and clever Katie

It's so good to see my "old" Katie coming back!  She's willing to be outside in the yard without me, doing her tricks for dinner, playing with toys, Kongs, me and the cats.  I'm looking forward to seeing how she does on the greyhound walk on Saturday (weather permitting), and have rolled the dice and signed us up for Intro to Agility, that I had to drop when I realized that she couldn't handle it without the drugs.  We will see how this goes!

Oh, and we did some DS/CC OUTSIDE today!  Not too long, because the entire idea is to make it a positive experience, and not by going out the front door, but it's a start.

Week 4

Katie's really making progress!  After my post-Solvang concerns, she has settled back into being more like her old self.  She's walking to the door after meals for potty breaks, back to eating eagerly (and playing with her treat toys, AND even showing some inclination to train... we worked on crossing paws today!)  She's being more social, coming in where I am and doing play bows, keeping me company while I am on the computer or watching tv.  And she is trying to play with the cat.  *sigh*  But she is getting to a point where I can start the DS/CC in earnest again.  Hopefully I will be able to take it outside!

Continued progress

I'm leaning towards what I am seeing in Katie being side-effects of the medicine.  The two most common are lack of appetite and lethargy/depression, and that seems to be exactly what I am seeing.  She perked up a bit at breakfast this morning, pretty much my normal girl.  Of course, I also was feeding her in her safe spot, so that may have contributed to it.  And she seemed pretty happy at dinner time today, which would be after today's dose took effect, so I could be wrong, and this could just be "one of those things".  We'll see what the vet says, just to rule out any physical causes, and discuss possibly tweaking the dosage with the behaviorist if there are no physical causes, and then I may just relax a bit, remind myself that this is a journey, and take it day by day.  Today we even felt like playing some hide and seek in the yard, yesterday we did mad zoomies.  Katie is such a joy to watch when she is playing!

And even more fun:  we played with our favorite treat toy, our new bunny stuffie, and ran zoomies out in the yard.  She is being way more energetic, so I think whatever it was may have resolved.

Notes for vet

Katie is "off" in her eating.  I have video, but wanted to jot this note down for the appointment on Saturday.  Didn't give her the Prozac this morning, and she did seem a bit more interested in the food.  Still stopped eating abruptly, which was followed by 2-3 swallows where she thrust her head out so that the neck was straight, with a bit of toss of the nose upwards, and the adams apple (or dog equivalent of) was very apparent, which was accompanied with a bit of a gulping sound.  After that she ate a few kibbles that she had dropped.

But other than that, she is doing well.  We actually went out in the yard and played chase (I run a few steps, and she goes crazy around the yard).  She is stealing clothes (you'd think that by now I would figure out "keep them out of the dog's reach", but no).  In general, she is seeming much happier.