Yet Another Mild Sa Topic.

[Roo]

Tessa was great for the first month. No SA, totally fine when left, and preferred to be in her crate most of the time (door open).

 

Now she's not a fan of crate time, which is fine as I was hoping to phase it out after a while anyway.

 

But now that she's decided she likes me (yay!) she's started stressing super hard when I leave (boo!). No destruction or accidents yet, but lots of really hard panting and frustrated blanket rearranging and her pillows are always wet (slobber from licking or panting, not pee).

 

I've been leaving and returning since I got her a month ago, and it's only become a problem in the past few days (now that she likes me ).

 

I'm lucky that I work from home, so I don't have to leave for long periods of time every day and can work on alone training (in the plan starting tomorrow). I'm going to set up the ex-pen in the living room and see if she does better with a little freedom (and a muzzle) and a view of the front door (her crate is in the basement now, which is where the TV is and where I spend most of my time, and where she preferred to hide for her first few weeks!).

 

I was giving her l-theanine for a while till I ran out, so I started giving her melatonin a couple days ago and she's gotten much worse. I'm going to toss the melatonin and get more l-theanine tomorrow. I'd been giving her 100mg - what's the highest l-theanine dose I can give her? I just want her to stop stressing long enough to be able to absorb the alone training!

 

I'm also going to get something DAP for her. I'm thinking a diffuser would be best as she has a tendency to scratch enthusiastically (trying to figure out the cause of this at the moment). Should I go brand name with Adaptil or is off-brand just as good?

 

Also, I was going to try Benadryl (for the itching - if it ends up being allergies I'll switch her food as that's the likely culprit, but I don't want to stress her system unless I have to!) - can I give l-theanine and Benadryl at the same time, or should it be one or the other?

[locket]

Are you keeping her in an area only? In my (somewhat limited!) experience, some dogs once they taste the freedom, prefer to have that freedom when left alone.

Also, try to keep a regular schedule, let say you have to go out for about an hour everyday, make it so you go at 2, right after her walk or something like that maybe for a couple of days that might help her understand the schedule.

Also zomg she likes you!!!!!

Edited November 4, 2017 by locket

[Roo]

Are you keeping her in an area only? In my (somewhat limited!) experience, some dogs once they taste the freedom, prefer to have that freedom when left alone.

 

Also, try to keep a regular schedule, let say you have to go out for about an hour everyday, make it so you go at 2, right after her walk or something like that maybe for a couple of days that might help her understand the schedule.

 

Also zomg she likes you!!!!!

 

That's kind of what I was thinking. I'd been keeping her in the finished basement in her crate - I set up two crates (one near the front door and one in the basement) and let her pick which she preferred, and she picked the basement. For a while, I couldn't get her out of the crate. She'd run in every time we were in there and refuse to come out. Now she refuses to go in unless I'm holding a bowl of food I assume now that she's started to enjoy her freedom, she doesn't want to go back to confinement! I'll give the ex-pen a try this week. I was hoping to keep crating her for a while, until I trust her more (she's smart and sneaky!), but I suppose that's what the muzzle is for.

 

A regular schedule is a bit difficult (important work things will pop up randomly, usually as I'm just about to leave the house), but I do try to stay as close to regular as possible. She gets a 2 mile walk first thing in the morning and another 1 mile (or so) walk in the afternoon. She could probably handle even more (she turns 6 on Monday - she should have less energy by now! ) but I only have so much time and energy! I do vary our walks a bit to switch it up. The morning walks are always around my neighborhood and the neighborhood across the street, but I switch up our route. The afternoon walks are split between a couple local parks, a trail through the woods, and my parents' neighborhood. We walked to the pet store and back once and it was a great walk, but it's a really long one so I can't do it till it's cold.

 

And yes! She likes me!! She nearly crawled into my lap yesterday while I was petting her. I hope, given some time, she'll end up being a snuggler. I've never had a snuggler.

Edited November 4, 2017 by Roo

[Roo]

Ordered a DAP diffuser. It gets here Tuesday.

 

L-theanine does nothing. Melatonin does nothing. I come home to her crate bedding drenched in spit from excessive panic panting. I don't think she's barking or howling - I hovered outside the door for a while and listened and didn't hear anything, and my neighbors have said they don't hear anything either.

 

I'm taking her to the vet tomorrow. Her ear is pretty red and obviously itching - she scratched till she bruised it today. Is it too much to hope that some of this anxiety is because there's something medical going on with her? She was totally fine for over a month with me - I'd often come home to her roaching in her crate, even after she decided she liked me and liked being out of her crate (just last Thursday that she was upside down). Now I come home to find her panting like she ran a race. She chews at a couple nipples that seem a bit red - the rest have shrunk down (she's a broodie) but the last two are still reddish. She also needs repeat bloodwork - she was really sick in July and they want to recheck her.

 

I'm really hoping that something medical is causing, or at least contributing, to her stressing.

[SanTanSnuggles]

Do you just have one? They are like the potato chips, you just can't have one. They do soooo much better if they have a partner, at least mine do. I have one who is on his third partner as the first passed with osteosarcoma and the other with GME. He has a friend who just turned three and he will be ten in February. As soon as Surprise lost a partner, I got him a new one so he did not have to grieve a long time. My Surprise teaches her and she keeps him exercised. They are like a song together, they run, bark and play together just fine. Here is hoping you will get another grey for your baby to play with and it will give you some rest too. My two dig big holes in my yard together, bury bones and love walks together in the woods. It is no harder to take care of two than it is to just have one. Just sharing what is working for us.

[Roo]

Do you just have one? They are like the potato chips, you just can't have one. They do soooo much better if they have a partner, at least mine do. I have one who is on his third partner as the first passed with osteosarcoma and the other with GME. He has a friend who just turned three and he will be ten in February. As soon as Surprise lost a partner, I got him a new one so he did not have to grieve a long time. My Surprise teaches her and she keeps him exercised. They are like a song together, they run, bark and play together just fine. Here is hoping you will get another grey for your baby to play with and it will give you some rest too. My two dig big holes in my yard together, bury bones and love walks together in the woods. It is no harder to take care of two than it is to just have one. Just sharing what is working for us.

I can't afford more than one.

[locket]

Good luck with the x-pen, did you try it? How did it go? I know with Jack it was access to living AND kitchen (when front door is) or nothing. I could close off the basement, all the rooms, but he had to have the living and kitchen. One or the other didn't work haha. Give her time, it also took Jack about a week to get the "freedom" thing. He would pace and still howl a bit, but when he was ready to be free, it was much quicker out of the crate than in. Before that, he was dangerous inside or out, it was horrible for the both of us!

[Roo]

Good luck with the x-pen, did you try it? How did it go? I know with Jack it was access to living AND kitchen (when front door is) or nothing. I could close off the basement, all the rooms, but he had to have the living and kitchen. One or the other didn't work haha. Give her time, it also took Jack about a week to get the "freedom" thing. He would pace and still howl a bit, but when he was ready to be free, it was much quicker out of the crate than in. Before that, he was dangerous inside or out, it was horrible for the both of us!

 

I haven't tried it yet - I've only had longer errands and I don't want to leave her free for too long at first! I'm going to give it a try later today when I can make short trips. Till then, I'm going to try leaving through the basement door (near her crate) so she can see me leave and come back to see if that makes any difference.

 

We have a vet appointment later for her ear. It was really red and itchy last night.

[Roo]

I can't afford more than one.

 

I want to elaborate. I could afford the month-to-month care for a second dog, and I could likely handle the routine yearly care (especially once my own medical bills die down a bit), but it's the surprise vet bills that worry me. The only solution I can think of would be if there was a permanent foster situation, which is unlikely, but something I will consider asking about if nothing else works for her. There's one kennel resident at the moment who may fit the bill, but he comes with some behavior issues I'd have to work on (I'm willing and able, and he's never gotten snarky with me, but that does mean that he wouldn't be a "plug and play" addition and will require some work from the get-go).

 

What I find so strange is that 1. she was fine for a month with me coming and going but has all of a sudden decided that she can't be without me, and 2. she's been okay at night. She sleeps in the basement in her crate (her choice from the beginning, not mine). She runs right in for her bedtime snack. She keeps quiet most of the night (there's some whining in the morning but nothing too bad). It's just me leaving (the house or the room) during the day that sends her into a panic.

[Roo]

I left through the basement door and came back through the basement door (was gone about an hour and a half) and she wasn't drenched with panic panting slobber! Small victories.

[locket]

You go girls!

[Roo]

Even leaving through the basement door means she's stressing after about half an hour. The vet gave us some xanax for the days where I have to be gone more than half an hour, and I tried it one day and it seemed to help. The DAP arrived and has been plugged in for almost two days. The packaging says it can take 7 days to see a difference, so now I'm just waiting to see if that helps. She's not as opposed to her crate anymore (she'll go in mostly willingly, even if she's not thrilled with being in there) so I'm sticking with that for now. She only gets food and water while in the crate (which is kind of a hassle having to move the water bowl around constantly, but it's giving her a more positive view of the crate so I'll go with it). I'm testing everything as individually as possible to see what helps and what doesn't (otherwise I'll end up using five or six things and not knowing what's working ).

 

I finally found some way to start training her, though! I've tried capturing other behaviors (minus the clicker, because that's still a scary noise no matter how many treats I dole out as I'm clicking ) but haven't had much luck because when she's not sure what I'm doing, she runs away (and me being excited over her sitting was too weird for her and she took off). So the other day I was playing with her and she decided she wasn't into it, ran to her bed, and laid down. We did this a few times and she repeated the "run to bed and lay down" each time, so we're working on "Go to your place" as our first trick. Right now, it's mostly just me running into the room and pointing to her bed and she very excitedly flops down and gets treats. I'm adding in the words in slowly. But I feel like once I can unlock that "mommy saying words/doing weird things and me reacting a certain way gets me treats" connection, we can really start to have some fun. This dog is smart. Almost too smart

 

She's also made a couple friends in the neighborhood, which seems to be helping her come out of her shell while outside. She'll now approach neighbors when we see them (especially if they have dogs and therefore smell like dogs) and wag at them, rather than running away. Her BFF is Pumpkin the pittie. Pumpkin adores Tessa. Tessa's pretty sure Pumpkin is an annoying little sister, but she's also more than happy to hide behind her when something scary (like the UPS guy) comes by. Pumpkin barks and Tessa's like "Yes, please protect me, thank you."

Edited November 10, 2017 by Roo

[LaFlaca]

Tessa is lovely! Keep up the good work.

[Roo]

In case anyone's still interested...

 

The DAP has been plugged in for two weeks and late last week I noticed that I was able to leave and come back to a slightly less anxious dog. As long as I stick to our established routine (we take a 1.5 mile walk, wait an hour, I feed her then leave the house) I can come home to a dog who isn't a panting anxious mess. I had to leave unexpectedly in the afternoon a couple days ago and when I got home she was panting, but not heavily and her crate hadn't been rearranged (for her, a sure sign of "Where is mom!?" anxiety is all her bedding being smashed up against one side of the crate and her laying on the other side ). The DAP is definitely helping. I'm going to order a DAP collar as well (since now we've just got the plug-in) and see if having it on her increases its effectiveness.

 

I've stuck with crating because she will pace anxiously when left out. She might dislike going into the crate, but I think she still needs the security, at least for now.

 

I had to break our routine this morning for a doctor's appointment, so I took her to my parents' house so that I didn't ruin all our progress. She's stayed with them for a couple hours before while I ran errands and she wasn't really willing to settle unless she was closed in a room with my mom, but this time she was passed out in the middle of the living room when I went to pick her up Progress!

[locket]

That's great! Personally, I did not notice any differences in between the collar and diffuser. Be careful not to get the collar wet (rain!!!!) as it will lose its effect

You are doing great Routine really is key

[LaFlaca]

Congrats on the progress! I have a newish girl with SA. Did you also do any alone training or just the DAP? Using a diffuser worries me because I have cockatiels in the same room where Lola is confined when left alone. She escapes her crate and pretty much tore it up so that's not an option.

 

Does anyone know if DAP diffusers are harmful to pet birds?

[locket]

Congrats on the progress! I have a newish girl with SA. Did you also do any alone training or just the DAP? Using a diffuser worries me because I have cockatiels in the same room where Lola is confined when left alone. She escapes her crate and pretty much tore it up so that's not an option.

 

Does anyone know if DAP diffusers are harmful to pet birds?

Check on their website. http://dapdiffuser.com/faq.html

 

You might want to use the collar then

[LaFlaca]

Check on their website. http://dapdiffuser.com/faq.html

 

You might want to use the collar then

Thanks, locket. I think the diffuser will be okay with my 'tiels. Per the website, if the birds tolerate unscented candles, they should be fine.