Tibby's Recheck

As you can see - Tibby was AMAZING at her recheck!  She did really, really well.  I was so happy.  6 months ago she was hiding underneath my chair, shaking, refusing treats, panting, pacing and wanting to sit in my lap.  Now she is working her mat, taking treats from strangers, listening to 'invisible' dogs (outside the door) and invisible people, greeting new people that come into the room and generally acting like the dog she was always meant to be.  

It makes me cry a little, because I knew she was in there and, until I took her for help, I didn't know how to get her out.  I'm so happy to see Tibby being happy.  :)

She was really just perfect.  For the last 6 months I have rarely taken her out of the house, so I wasn't sure how our visit to the UofM vet clinic would go.  I took her for a walk before we went in for our visit.  There is a little quad/park area.  

Tibby: 25mg trazadone and thundershirt - ready for a walk.  The first thing we see is a big white and black spotted dog.  Oookay - her biggest trigger, another dog.  Tibby looks at the dog and keeps walking.  Strange men working on the road?  Doesn't care.  People walking around and sitting on benches?  Doesn't care.  The only thing that worried her a little bit was a woman jiggling a big bunch of keys.  Tibby was a little worried about that.  

Then I got Dhali from the car and took them for a walk together around the park.  My plan was to take them separately, but I ran out of time and Dhali didn't get to have a separate walk without Tibby.

We went inside and saw lots more people and dogs.  Tibby was a little overexcited, but so was Dhali.....  But she calmed right down and took treats nicely.  We went into the exam room and waited for a while.  Dhali threw up....

We practiced with the mat.

Then the Dr's assistant came in with 2 med students.  She went over some history and how things were going.  Dhali pooped on the floor..... 

Then we sat for a long time with the med students and waited for the Dr.  It probably wasn't that long, but I didn't know what to say to the students.  They couldn't believe that Tibby had been different before.  It is hard to imagine if you haven't seen it.  While we were waiting Dhali entertained us with his tugging and fetching skills.  He was not shy at all.  He kept trying to get a toy out of my bag, so I finally gave him one and he was so happy.  He ran around shaking it and laid down on the mat to play with it.  Then he wanted to play tug and fetch.  He was very cute.  Dhali is definitely a stress up kind of dog vs. Tibby's stress down.  

Then the Dr. came in and we went over some more things.  She said Tibby is doing so well that we can turn over care to our normal vet.  I'm not sure how that will work exactly, but I guess I will find that out.  

Then we tried to fit Tibby for a different muzzle, but she didn't really fit into any of them.  Tibby was such a good girl trying on all the muzzles.  She put her head right into each of them - she made me look like a good trainer!  LOL!  When I really haven't been doing that much work with her.  I have just been letting Tibby be Tibby.  She's pretty smart :)

She was even offering to do her sit up trick to Dr. Duxbury for treats!

Dhali thought Tibby was getting way too many treats and way too much attention :P 

It was a very long day and both dogs are very tired.  Both sleeping since we got home.

Except for Dhali pooping on the floor, it was a perfect day!

Tibby Pre

I thought you all might like to see why I took Tibby to the behaviorist veterinarian on Tuesday.  And why we started her on medication.  A lot of people have told me that Tibby is just acting like a dog and I'm expecting too much from a dog.

 The first 2 are the video I made for our appointment - had to split it into 2 for youtube.

The other 2 are videos I made for myself of all the times I could find when Tibby was stressed in a training situation.  There are actually many, many more examples, but the videos were getting super long. 

I hope that these videos will be Tibby's Pre treatment videos and we'll be able to look back at these and see how much progress she has made :)

At 1:12 when she is reacting - she is reacting to seeing herself in a mirror. That is sort of what she does when she sees another dog on a walk. Only multiple that reaction by 10. She screams, lunges, whines, snaps, jumps, paws at the air. It's scary to be on the other end of the leash, because I know she's not in her mind when she's reacting and I'm a little bit afraid she might turn around and bite me.

 

 More staring at 'scary' things. She gets stuck and stares for long periods of time. The very beginning of the video is Tibby being scared of a mitten that fell onto her bully stick. Dhali was playing with the mitten and dropped it.


 

I'm Not Crazy

The appt. was wonderful.  So, so, so, so glad that I took her.  Dr. Duxbury said that Tibby is a classic case of canine anxiety.

It was a lot to take in and a long appt. - 3 hours, but I am very, very hopeful that this will help Tibby to feel better.

So remember my GPS that has been trying to kill me?  Today I turned it on and nothing - black screen, no GPS.  Ooookay.  Luckily I was able to find the U of M with an old fashioned map!

Tibby gave them a very good demonstration of her behavior.  We moved to a larger room in the large animal hospital and there were some dogs barking in the building that made Tibby very nervous - pacing, panting, hiding underneath chairs, shaking, whining and climbing into my lap.

  Tibby wouldn't take treats (too stressed), so we used Dhali as the practice dog for the exercises- u-turn, mat work, hand target, sniff walks (eventually).  Tibby is also starting Fluoxetine (Prozac).  Also, Trazodone for vet visits and when I take Dhali somewhere and have to leave Tibby alone.

  I'm not sure if it's because she is exhausted from the appt. or if it's the first dose working already, but she has been very calm and relaxed this evening.  She does not want to play with Dhali at all and she told him to stop jumping on her  they just had a fun game of chase in the backyard, but other than that she's really relaxed.   She isn't pacing, she's sleeping and she let me pet her and snuggle her without grumbling at me.

Dhali was of course super cute at the appt.  They said that he was very smart - which he is!   He thought the appt. was both awesome - treats!  and boring - yawn, going to sleep here in the middle of the room.  

I got a whole bunch of hand outs to read and a book, Feisty Fido, and a basket muzzle.

I wish I had taken her months and months ago.  Feeling very hopeful!