Here we are again, another 4th of July. This year was different from past years only in that Penny was not alone in her anxiety caused by the darn fireworks. Unfortunately, Twist seems to have developed a real distaste for them too. 
He has actually been worse than Penny this year, I assume only because her hearing isn’t quite what it used to be, so she isn’t suffering as much these days. Twist on the other hand…my poor boy. This is the most mellow fellow you’d ever like to meet. Nothing phases him. Well, almost nothing.
I don’t have a thundershirt for any of the dogs, though I am beginning to wonder if I need to invest in one. I did what a could using a couple of bandage/wraps that I used on my knee and wrapped him up nice and snug. I don’t know for sure how much it’s helping, but he’s not panting and pacing right now, so maybe it’s helping a little.
Thank goodness for the anniversary party we went to the other night, they didn’t set off fireworks to celebrate, they just had traditional anniversary gifts instead.
Well, so much for not panting and pacing, another round of fireworks just started up. Lovely.
So, I just want to let everyone know that you will probably start seeing occasional links in my posts that don’t really have anything to do with anything. Hopefully it won’t be too annoying and you can just keep reading without it bothering you!
The reason for the change is that a friend of mine has talked me into using the blog to generate some extra income. In light of my husband’s layoff from work, I’m game to try just about anything, (at least for a while), that will allow me to stay home with the dogs and the kennel. Anyway, I just wanted to let the few of you that do stop by on a fairly regular basis what in the world I’m doing. LOL
GOODBYE 2009…FULL SPEED AHEAD TO 2010!
Another year has come and gone. It was a year packed with lots of memories. Some I’ll cherish forever, and some I wish I could forget. LOL Looking back though, I can honestly say that I’ve learned something from all the experiences, both good and the not so good.
A couple of people have asked about how Rogue is doing since we let her go for an evaluation to our friends at Sheltie Rescue of Utah. So, here’s a brief update of what I know.
As of yesterday, she was beginning to settle in to the point that she was beginning to play with another one of the Shelties in the house. That’s good news! She’s being just a little tricky about trying to eat her treat without getting the pill inside, but they are experts at making sure that the dogs are getting their meds, so I’m sure that’s a temporary problem. They tell me that she is being a really good girl, and that she has been easy to have at the house. 
I guess she’s like a shadow following Barbara around. (I kind of expected that). So, that’s about all I can update you on at this point. I know that she’s in very capable and caring hands!
After hearing from the vet about Rogue’s meds this time around, I find myself frazzled. It’s been 5 months since we started medicating Rogue, and even though I tend to be a pessimist…I think I set my hopes too high. I really thought that we’d be seeing some very noticeable progress by now, and so yesterday in frustration I called our friends at Sheltie Rescue for some advice. I know that they won’t sugarcoat things for me, if I ask for an honest opinion and I also know that they have a ton more experience dealing with anxious dogs than I have. So, here is what we talked about.
Of course, when I’m more rational, and my own nerves and emotions are less raw I had already considered that we may just not have found the correct medication for Rogue. We talked briefly about that. We also talked about the fact that sometimes the changes that these meds bring about are small enough that on a day to day basis I may not be noticing them, but that they may be accumulating more than I think. Also very possible.
I have some concerns about whether our home environment is adding to Rogue’s anxieties, so we talked about that. We talked about whether she might thrive in a home with more stable routine. Having the boarding kennel here means that some days I’m in and out of the house dealing with clients quite a bit, and that seems to stress her out.
Then another possibility was presented. I have to say that I was pretty unsure about it at first, but the idea is growing on me. They mentioned letting Rogue come stay with them for a time to give us a break from the situation and to give them some time to evaluate Rogue. After talking this possibility over with my husband, we both agree that this may be just what all of us need. A little break.
So, once they get back from the Sheltie Nationals in a couple of weeks, Rogue may get to for a short stay at the SRU house. That is, unless there is some radical development with this latest dosage change in her meds. In the meantime I want to express my gratitude for both Barbara and Jim giving of their time, (of which they have none to spare), and their continuing offer of support and help for Rogue and for us.
The only update that I have right now is a more of a medication update than anything else. We still don’t seem to have found just what she needs, so we got an email from Dr. Overall yesterday saying that we can try giving her 20 mg. of Amitriptyline in the mornings now, and then keep the evening dosage at 10 mg. We can try this for 10 days and if we don’t see any improvement than we may need to try something else. So, today will be our first day with the new dosage.
I have a little ranting to do…and a little raving too. Bear with me. LOL I got ahold of Dr. Overall and she agreed that it would be appropriate to add amitriptyline to Rogue’s daily meds at this point since we haven’t seen progress with the fluoxitine alone. I spoke with the vet here in Salt Lake today shared her recommendations, and he agreed to call in the prescription.
Here is my rave. The vet in Salt Lake asked me if I’d considered working with a trainer to help Rogue. I’m grateful that I have a vet who obviously realizes that Rogue’s issues need to be addressed by not only medication, but also through training. I wholeheartedly agree that behavior modification is vital. I would never think that medication alone is the answer. I feel very privileged that we found Dr. Overall through Leslie McDevitt and that she has given us protocols of behavioral modification to work through in addition to her recommendations for medication.
However, here’s my rant. I think I literally bristled a little when he made that comment. Long before I decided to go down this avenue of seeking anti-anxiety medication for Rogue, I had been working with her to modify her behavior. I thought that I’d explained what we’ve done with Rogue prior to coming to him. In fact, I think that anyone who knows Rogue…knows the amount of time and effort we’ve put into training. Granted, in hindsight not all the training that we did was helpful. In fact I think some backfired, but I did what I hoped would help. Bleh, I don’t know, it just struck me like he thought that I hadn’t tried any training before. Whatever, that’s my rant for the day!
So…here’s the latest. We’ll start her out adding 10 mg. of Amitriptyline once a day for 10 days and then go to 10 mg. twice daily. I’ll keep everyone posted if we see any changes. Keep hoping for the best…
We don’t seem to making any headway with our work to lessen Rogue’s anxiety or reactivity, even though we’ve adjusted her meds. To recap: 7 weeks of fluoxitine at 1mg dosage which was an error (fortunately on the safe side). Then we changed it to 10mg of fluoxitine daily for two weeks, which made her more aggressive towards the other dogs, and now we are closing in on 5 more weeks at 5 mg. daily. We’ll re-evaluate again at the first of March.
Frustration and impatience. Those two words would describe how I’ve felt about this process with Rogue lately. Well, and then guilt. Probably those three would sum it up. They usually come in that order too. I’ve been reading and re-reading the consult and protocols that we got from Dr. Overall, and this phrase always gets me, “these are the dogs who show you the type of person you can – but never expected – to become.”
When I first read that statement I thought, “yep, living with Rogue will reveal good qualities about us that we didn’t know we had.” How egotistical! LOL What I overlooked was that it was going to reveal many more negative qualities about myself than positive ones as her stress and anxiety wears on me. As we work through this process, I’m beginning to think that it’s more about being willing to see the flaws in your character and being willing to work to overcome them, to become a better person. Just my thoughts for today….
Today is one of those days that you just wish you could have a do-over! I just hate it when a week gets off to a bad start, it’s hard to recover.
First we just got word that one of our friends had to say goodbye to their 14 year old Malinois this morning. He was just one of those dogs that was bigger than life. Even though he was 14, you just kind of expected that he was always going to be around. He had one of those personalities that you just can’t put into words! It would all just be an understatement when it came to him. His passing is just an incredible loss to everyone who had the privilege to know him.
Then I got a call from my husband that they are cutting everyone’s hours back at work. I’m still keeping in mind how fortunate we are to still be employed, but it’s scary…
I’ve known for the last month that our trip to North Carolina with Zoe to compete in the AKC Nationals was not looking good. My husband came home the first part of January from work and told me that it was so slow that they were considering lay-offs. Being the perpetual optimist that he is, he wasn’t ready to cancel the trip. He wanted to wait till Feb. to see if things had picked up, as there was still a small possibility of things working out. So, I put off posting about this till we made a final decision. As the month wore on, the lay-offs became a reality for some of the employees, including a very good friend of ours. It wasn’t till last week that my husband finally said: “It doesn’t look very good for our trip to Nationals…” then he finished by saying: “but, it’s only Wednesday!” LOL
February is now here and we’ve made the decision to cancel the trip. It seems that for the moment his job is still “secure”, although I don’t think any jobs are secure these days. The problem is that with the lay-offs they need all the remaining employees to be able to step up “if” more work comes in, and so taking a two week vacation is just not possible right now.
I’d be lying to say that I’m not incredibly disappointed! I kind of felt like this was a once in a lifetime shot to compete with one of my dogs at a National level…but life goes on.