Reducing the stress of travel/trialling

[juliepoudrier]

Hi follks,

I have asked a couple of my friends this question and thought maybe I could reach a larger audience here.

 

One of my dogs seems to have developed a stress reaction to travelling, basically diarrhea and general anxiety (no specific symptoms to describe--it's one of those situations where I know my dog and know she's just not herself). I have noticed this maybe over the past six months (maybe not that long, but it takes me a while to put two and two together and of course we don't trial as heavily in winter).

 

I should also note that she seems to be stressed when working too, to the point of not doing well on even the basic stuff she normally does well (she's a P/N dog). I have backed off on the training and have pulled her from the next few trials, but she will still travel with me even though she's not running.

 

Any ideas on helping her to cope when travelling to trials? I thought maybe Rescue Remedy, but maybe some of you have other/better ideas?

 

Thanks.

 

Julie

[PennyT]

Here is what I did with a dog that drooled when crated in the car. First I drove to the end of the driveway, then came back and worked sheep. I did that for several days. Then I would drive about half a mile. After a few weeks, I worked him up to a mile or so with minimal drooling before turning around and going back to work sheep. Then we worked up to about 2.5 miles before turning around to go back and work sheep, then about 3 and so on. It took, I believe, about 6 weeks to cure him. Now he travels without a problem.

 

With general anxiety, my guess is that you could do the same thing. Sheep at the end of short drives work wonders.

 

Penny

[Deb]

Penny,

 

Works like a charm for ME, too! When I have had my fill of work-related travel stress (25,000 miles in six weeks last fall for example), I found that much shorter trips WITH my dogs WITH sheep at the end of the trip did wonders for my stress levels and overall outlook on life!

 

Deb

Iron Pheasant Farm

[juliepoudrier]

Penny and Deb,

The problem with this dog is that she used to travel just fine. She doesn't get sick while travelling (I mean she doesn't end up with diarrhea in her crate or anything like that), but once we geet where we're going, next thing you know she's got the runs.

 

This dog is five and a half and I've had her since she was 18 months. In that time we have done a lot of travelling without any problems. I can't say exactly when the problem began since gradual changes just don't get noticed right away--at least not for me--but it seems that I started to notice this pattern over the past few months.

 

She used to be really gung-ho on sheep too, but as I said, she seems overly stressed when working lately as well (which is why I don't think taking her to sheep after a short trip will be the answer in this case).

 

When travelling to trials I either camp or stay at hotels that allow dogs, so she can go into the room with me. Besides the obvious GI upset, she becomes very clingy as well. She is in good heath and sees a vet regularly.

 

It's tempting to say that all this started after my trip to the finals when she got lost in a state park and spent the night there (you may have heard about that), but I might just be projecting backward on that one, so I don't want to attribute the problem just to that.

 

As I said, because of signs of anxiety while working, I have backed way off and have gone back to simple fun stuff on sheep.

 

Short of a doggy psychic (just kidding Bill!), do y'all have any ideas as to what may be going on here and how I can help her?

 

J.

[diane allen]

Julie, sounds just like my Sophie ("borderline collie" admittedly). She used to love to travel, because usually it meant going for a hike at the end; but these were almost always less than one hour drives and several hours of walking. We started agility trials - and again, no problems for a year or two. When she was about three or four, she just decided (OK, I need the psychic here I guess....) that she didn't like it anymore - either traveling or agility.

 

I tried everything I could find - Rescue Remedy may have had a mild calming effect, but I couldn't see it. Tried several other herbal "calmers." Tried putting her up front with me, vs. in the back of the truck (w/shell); tried putting her in a crate in the back (which for safety reasons is where she goes now, even for short trips!). She never relaxed for a minute, never laid down, never ever closed her eyes. AND she'd get nasty diarrhea when we got where we were going and/or before and after. Ugh.

 

The only thing I've done that seemed to help - and this may not be an option for you - is to switch diets. I wouldn't have said Sophie had any particular food allergy - I was feeding Nutro, then Solid Gold, then Innova [the best I could find around here]. But we switched to a raw diet and voila! She rarely (never say never) has diarrhea anymore! I can't say that she's particularly calm while traveling, but seems much better once we arrive. And I let her retire from agility. (I might have been able to "motivate" her more, but decided it wasn't worth it for either of us!)

 

I've also given two of my dogs Melatonin for several days before a big trip. Again, I can't really tell that it helps, at least it doesn't help a lot; but maybe their brains are a bit more relaxed.

 

Just one opinion. Hope you can figure something out!

 

diane

[PennyT]

The dog I am referring to that drooling was never a drooler as a young pup. He developed the problem after a surgery that required many trips to the vet.

 

Go for the doggy psychic option.

 

Penny

[Denise Wall]

Could be Giardia. Try some Flagyl.

 

Denise

[SoloRiver]

This is Willow you're talking about, right? If I remember correctly, she had some Solo-like issues but milder; however, sometimes these things can come back and start biting you in the ass when you don't expect it.

 

It's highly possible that being lost for an entire night scrambled her brain a bit. Solo once had a similar experience (described below) and it was explained to me thusly: if a dog is put into a high state of arousal/anxiety, it takes them a while to come back down from it, depending on the dog. For example, let's have a normal dog and Solo and then make a train go by. The normal dog might look concerned and then forget about the train once it's gone. Solo sits there and trembles and keeps trembling for several minutes after the train is gone. (Wish I could draw a graph here.) During this time there are changes in brain chemistry, and the dog is also learning from the experience. That's why it's so important to prevent the experience from happening and try to reprogram the dog with a new association, like Penny describes.

 

If a dog is put into a state of anxiety or arousal for more than a couple of hours, it seems to go into long-term memory and continue to affect the dog in seemingly unrelated ways for a certain period of time. This happened to Solo once. I manned a rescue booth and had Solo with me (terrible idea, but I had been under the impression that there would be shade to park my car under so Solo could stay in the car, and there wasn't). The person who was supposed to relieve me was a few hours late so we were trapped there for a long time. Solo felt cornered and totally freaked out by all the people coming by and leaning over the table and staring at him -- by the time we left he was curled into a tiny ball in the back of his crate with his eyes glazed open, panting. In hindsight I should have just left the moment I realized Solo would have to sit behind the table with me, but I didn't know it would be so bad and thought he would be OK.

 

Solo was weird[er than normal] for weeks after that. In many ways he was back to the way he was when I first got him -- jumpy, didn't want to eat, had a hard time sleeping, highly noise sensitive and scared of every single person we passed on the sidewalk, whereas the week before he would just ignore everyone we passed unless they focused on him. The next week I took him to a herding lesson and that was the only time he has ever not worked the sheep since I've had him -- instead, he got this glazed look and paced back and forth just outside the pressure like a tiger in a cage or a feral animal -- and my trainer looked at me and said, "What on earth did you do to this dog?"

 

So, what I did basically was, I went back to square one for about a month and a half and treated Solo as if I'd just gotten him. I didn't take him anywhere, I didn't make him do anything that stressed him out and we did a lot of easy fun stuff like playing ball and jogging. Eventually he got over it but I spent a lot of time sheltering him in the meantime.

 

What I would do, if this is what's going on with you, is protect Willow as much as you can, don't expose her to ANYTHING that brings on the anxiety reactions (as much as you can avoid doing so). Stick with stuff that puts no pressure on her (we went back to baby stuff on sheep with Solo too when this happened to him) and try to concentrate on things that relax her and make her happy. Rescue Remedy may help but I have never had luck with it. If she's really bad and since you are willing to try Rescue Remedy, meds may help in the short term but I wouldn't want to suggest anything more specific since I lack that expertise. I would try to avoid traveling with her and basically just protect her -- I don't mean wrap her in cotton wool (after all, Solo got better even though he lives in the middle of a city and the amount of sheltering I could do was limited by that) but just exclude her from stressful situations as much as you can. She should come out of it eventually but it will take longer the more often she is stressed in the meantime.

 

I know absolutely nothing about PTSD, but I wonder if this sort of reaction has similarities to post-traumatic stress disorder. I wouldn't be surprised.

[toney]

I can only offer a suggestion based on my experiences with show horses from my past, but it might help. Anyway, I had an old show horse that had been a real warrior- lots of miles on the road, but eventually, he just didn't like it anymore- started pacing the stalls, not eating well, loose stools, etc. At the time, I also had a young horse that was starting, so I loaded both the old warrior and the youngster up and took them from show to show- but I didn't actually show the old guy. I tied him to the trailer, left him stalled by the baby, did everything except ride him and show him for about the whole summer. Toward the end of that time, the old warrior started to perk up and show a change of attitude- he got all the perks of showing without any of the stress. It changed his attitude. What I'm getting at is maybe this dog would benefit from going to trials with your other dogs, following the same routine, but just not actually trialing or maybe even working sheep at home for a while. The complete break might settle this animal's issues. The routine of going to trials and all that would be the same, but the stress would be off at critical moments. Just a shot in the dark.

[juliepoudrier]

Thanks y'all for the advice.

 

Melanie, yes, it's Willow. She was certainly acting rather freaked out when she found me the next morning, but I thought she was over that (I didn't think it would still affect her several months after the fact). Guess I could've been wrong. I would definitely say her work has gone downhill since then. And she still very occasionally favors her left foreleg, which she apparently injured somehow in her night in the forest since (the morning I found her she wasn't using it at all).

 

Toney, you and Melanie hit on what I was thinking and so I'll probably just keep taking her with me and maybe just give her a complete lay off from work (I've been working her lightly doing easy stuff but have pulled her from the upcoming trials I had entered). I'm also going to try a diet change and see if that makes a difference. It will sure beat giving her metronidazole whenever we're traveling.

 

Thanks everyone.

 

J.

[PennyT]

Terry made several of those drives with my former drooler. She watched for spit and told me when to turn around and head for home. In fact, she may have come up with the short drives suggestion. I can't remember. In any case, her program sounds good to me, especially coupled with taking the dog off sheep for several months.

 

And we think we're nuts? Imagine carting an extra horse around from show to show to change his attitude. No wonder all the trouble we go to with working dogs comes so naturally to Terry.

 

Penny

[PennyT]

I forgot something. I wasn't kidding about the doggy psychic. If the psychic is wrong or vague, you can amuse your friends. "He's always ready for a treat." "He was weaned too early." If the psychic is right, you can amaze your friends. "He has half a tennis ball and two sheep skulls in his stomach and doesn't feel good."

 

In either case, you'll keep your mind occupied and not worry so much about what your dog is or is not doing right now that might have an effect on your expectations.

 

Penny

[juliepoudrier]

Hey Penny,

If I'm gonna use a psychic, I think I bettter use one on myself! It's funny you should mention that, though, because I have a friend who has someone with German shepherds who comes to her place to "train" on sheep and this lady is all gung-ho for the psychic she takes her dogs to. I guess she finds out all sorts of interesting things about them (like they enjoy going to my friend's place to work the sheep)....

 

I just tried an alternative med/holistic vet for the first time this summer because of a frustrating problem with another of my dogs. I was actually quite impressed with her. I've always been somewhat skeptical about certain aspects of alternative medicine, but this vet even did acupuncture on the dog and the difference in him was amazing.

 

Maybe the next time I pass a palm reader I'll go in, and if I'm satisfied with the results, then I'll take the dog to a psychic!

 

J.