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More Detailed Update on Pan


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They always do better than you think they will. I'm like, seven times zones away from home right now and I know my dogs are doing fine without me.

 

Have a great trip.

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They always do better than you think they will. I'm like, seven times zones away from home right now and I know my dogs are doing fine without me.

 

Have a great trip.

 

Thanks! It was a wonderful trip... We got back late Monday night and she did do really well. Much better than I thought she would. I was really nervous. The whole trip. And completely ridden with guilt.

 

Anybody in southeast Texas or flying out of Houston, whose family for whatever reasons can't care for their dog(s) while they are out of town (like me), I highly recommend The Pawza. I'm hoping not to have to ever board again, but if I do (for seven days or less, I'm just NOT going to leave her for more than that, I can't take it!!), I'm definitely boarding her there. I was really impressed. It was expensive, $30 a night, but Pan had an indoor/outdoor doggie door room that was pretty big and had a view of a porch with a fountain and beyond that cattle and a big yard... And Anne the owner is an ex-vet tech who is SUPER good with dogs, even reactive dogs, she totally ignored Pan when she went into a barking fit when I introduced them, and she even asked as I was leaving if I'd mind if she could take Pan for walks if Pan would let her - after the barking fit - although Pan was too scared to get on a leash for her in the end it turns out. But she put chicken broth in Pan's food to get her to eat... And she gave her this luxurious dog bed because she felt bad for her... And in general Pan was better than I thought she'd be. Anne said Pan was extremely obedient and there were no incidents with food and she used the restroom outside and went in and out on command and all that. And Pan even made friends with her golden retriever, an ex-therapy dog who - as I stated in another thread - should be nominated for sainthood in my opinion, because Anne said he went up to her room and sat calmly wagging his tail while Pan barked at him, simply waiting for her to stop, until she gave up and saw he was not a threat and went into a playbow and enjoyed his company from then on (through the glass).

 

Now that we are back home, I'm definitely seeing progress, but it's small stuff... The best thing is after thirteen days of NO human contact (Anne just couldn't get near her, she'd bark at her), Pan seems to enjoy being pet again. She is far less likely to exhibit signs of stress when we pet her and actually seeks out physical affection, "smiling" and wagging her tail as she gets pet (only a few seconds at a time still because we don't want to push it but still). Also she is barking less and when she does bark it's not a prolonged crazed seizure like barking fit, it's just a few short reports, like announcements. She sounds like a regular dog. Anne said that's all she was doing at The Pawza too (except if Anne tried to put a leash on her--which she only did because Pan was so good otherwise and would see her walk by with a leash and wag her tail and whine). And of course it stinks that she couldnt be walked, but we expected that, so I just think it's positive that even around all those other dogs (which she could hear but not see the way the place was set up) she didn't flip out and do the crazy barking (maybe we'd successfully desensitized her to that before she left, what with the ignoring the neighborhood bark hour ourselves and with my sisters corgi). And of course she hasn't bitten in goodness knows how long but we have excellent management in place, and we are all being very polite so she's modeling it back. And the cats... she's being VERY sweet to the cats. Coming over to lick them while I'm petting them as if to help me! :rolleyes: Anyway right now I'm in the second week of Dr. Haug's behavior modification program, which means I'm on day three of Dr. Overall's relaxation protocol and I'm working on desensitizing her to the long-wear greyhound muzzle. There have been a few snags, she still has an impulse control problem, but in general Dr. Haug is being great about responding to emails and giving me feedback and I feel like we are making very slow but steady progress. It's slow, but satisfying to notice small things like even when she throws her little temper tantrums, now, her heart isn't in it, it's all kind of hesitant, like she realizes there's no point anymore but she hasn't quite learned the behavior to substitute... But on our walks she doesn't bark or growl anymore at people or dogs... or at least she hasn't in two days. And she's still only on the 10mg fluoxetine, so a lot of this is all about the behavior mod.

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