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Hey everyone!
I wanted to share an update regarding Barkley. My sister and I took him to see a Vet Behaviorist today. We, mostly I, want piece of mind that we try everything we can to help him. He is on his meds and additional meds to help with the car ride. After 6 months of working with him, he now gets in the car, however, I am unable to close the door completely without him trembling, scanning and lip licking. I can close it about 4 inches. Although not a great fit size wise (his puppy crate and now his travel crate), he is ready and willing to get into this crate to be transported safely and calmly. He did really well on the ride to and from. We practice “crate” randomly with it!
Our muzzle training has been stalled for the last 3 weeks due to some reasons, adolescent brain is my best guess. Muzzling him was not looking good for the vet. After an hour of chatting and feeding him chicken to acclimate him to this environment, my attempts failed, however he chose to place his nose in the muzzle for his mom (my sister). As the vet began her physical exam, managing only to listen to his heart, he growled. The exam ended. Her understanding and compassion was exceptional. The real challenge was now to get the muzzle off! He growled at my sister and I once each at our subtle attempts to reach toward him. He would not take any treats.
We have talked abut classical conditioning and how CC could help with emotions and other behaviors. As he went into his crate I was able to remove the muzzle without any signs of stress or escalations. He immediately began eating chicken, too! His crate is one of his safe spots and where he feels “good”. Phew!
Her diagnosis is what we already suspected and knew; adolescence, general anxiety, general fear/phobia, noise sensitivity (although he has no issues with fireworks and thunder-it is more common everyday noises), Pica, territorial aggression, possession aggression (I am hearing more of this term instead of Resource Guarding) and I recall 1-2 other conditions that I am not familiar with nor remember at this time. We are waiting for the official paperwork to be sent. They said 2-3 days. She is changing his meds in an attempt to allow his brain to “open up” and receive information in a more relaxed state, which will hopefully even out his emotional roller coaster.
She said something that really stood out- “Anxiety loves predictability” I told her I was stealing that line, as it makes so much sense hearing it in that simple, clear way.
We are also going to make a small change or two to his routine, to be more predictable for him during our arrivals. Not sure how this will play out yet but gives me something to think bout!
Here are some pictures of his transport and once we returned. He seems to enjoy his “grass time” so we immediately set him free on his long line to roll around and start to decompress. Then he will get his frozen peanut butter Goughnuts “sandwich”.
He did walk into the crate on his own during his chill time after returning! I am thrilled that at least there is seemingly no side effects from this trip. Now, the muzzle may be a different story, but that will be another day. The next 2 days or so are his!
