Lots of dogs... ZERO outbursts!!!

Well Rhiya and I went to petco for a bit... But there weren't many dogs going in and out of the store. So, we headed back up to the Portneuf wellness complex again and parked in a different location. We saw about 10-12 dogs... All of which she noticed and seemed alert about, but NONE OF WHICH she made a peep over! She didn't huff with her breath, low growl in her throat, bark, or any other noise!  :-) I'm one proud mama!! We're gonna keep working from within our vehicle for the remainder of this week. Then we'll find somewhere to test her outside of the vehicle to get a feel for the distance needed to keep her under threshold when noticing a dog when we're outside of our car. I love my girl so much!!! 

T. R. I. double "Guh" Errr

TRIGGER WATCHING:

Rhiya and I went up to the new Portneuf Wellness Complex area. It's a big outdoor park with walking paths, a fishing pond, an amphitheater, picnic tables, and much more. I made sure I had a FULL treat bag before we left the house because I had a feeling we would see a good amount of dogs. I felt good about it though so we scoped it out, parked the car and watched for doggies.

We first saw a little pug. Rhiya's ears perked up the minute the pug came into view, and started rapidly feeding her treats and saying good girl. She didn't react at all, and the second the dog left her sight, I stopped the treats. (This is to hopefully help her associate the sight of other dogs with yummy treats, which are good things.)

Next we saw a golden retriever who walked RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR CAR on the sidewalk. Eeeeeek! But I stayed calm and started the continuous flow of treats to her as she watched the pup pass... WITH ZERO REACTIVITY! Wow I was blown away, but I know Rhiya is a SMART girl so I was thrilled to see her progress. 

Next came a little Yorkie walking with her "Paw-rents". Rhiya noticed it right away again, and so the treats started flowing once again. Still no reaction other than the alert noticing of the dog. Again I was overjoyed to see her make some progress.

Next came a husky-shepherd cross, who seemed pretty enthusiastic to be out walking. Rhiya noticed the dog from afar, and I begin treating her and saying good girl. But as the dog got closer to our car, Rhiya was huffing with her breath and as the dog got right in front of our car she did a low throat growl. I gave her a "no no. Watch me!" command, in which she IMMEDIATELY looked at me and stopped making her noises. I said good girl and treated her lots. Then she continued to watch the husky-shepherd as he/she walked away, and Rhiya didn't make any more noises.

We saw several other small dogs and we repeated the process, having success each time with no reaction. I'm so proud of my girl! Small progress is better than no progress. I think our issues may arise when we try to transition from inside the car to outside the car. I think we may try that at the end of this week, or beginning of next week. It's all about consistency and baby steps along the way. 

Rhiya has been on the increased dosage of 60mg of fluoxetine for 18 days now. I notice her being able to relax more often at home now, but she is in NO WAY loopy/drowsy or "zonked" out on the meds... So that's good. The meds are not a fix all, and I would never want to just drug my dog to fix the problem. Our hopes are that the anti anxiety meds will help her reduce her nervousness enough so that she learn and benefit from the training along the way. I feel we are moving in the right direction! :-) thanks for following us on this journey. Check back for more updates! 

Back At It!

Well tonight Rhiya and I set out to find a another place to go "trigger watching". On our way we saw a minature pincher running loose in the road. She reacted before I could even do anything about it. :-/ but we kept going in hopes we could end on a good note.

We ended up at Bartz field where we parked the car across the street so dogs wouldn't walk right next to her side of the vehicle. We were there for 30 seconds when A black lab walked right by the passenger side of the car ... And Rhiya didn't bark or anything!!!! The second she noticed the dog, I treated her and kept treating her until the dog was out of view. I was so proud. 

Next we saw about 3-4 big dogs in the distance, and she noticed them and would look away. I tried to treat her while she was looking at them in hopes of her associating the treats with the dogs. She didn't bark at all. Then we saw two little dogs (maybe chihuahuas) and she seemed to get a bit more alert when she saw them... So I started feeding her The treats while she was looking at them, and talking softly to her saying "Good girl!"  A lot. She didn't bark or anything. We were there about 20 min and then I ran out of treats so we ended on a good note and headed for home!

I'm so proud of my girl! It's a long process but we'll get there. The goal is to at least get her to not feel so nervous and threatened about other dogs we may see. She doesn't ever have to be the dog that loves going to the dog park, but she does need to know how to act polite if we come a crosse a dog on our walks! Tomorrow we'll go looking for a 3rd spot to trigger watch. We need to find 3-4 spots and randomly rotate them and the time of day we visit them so that she doesn't associate the place with the treats, just the dogs that we see with the treats. Well that's all for tonight. Check back later for more updates now that things have started to settle down at our house again. 

BUSY BUSY BUSY

SOOOO SORRY for the lack of post over the last 2 weeks. In addition to Rhiya, Samantha, and Dallas, I've also been taking care of my parents 3 dogs since October 1st, while my parents are on vacation. The first week of October we went to Petco parking lot one additional time. It was kind of late and we only saw 2 little dogs. Rhiya didn't react and I treated her when she noticed the dogs. I see little improvements in lots of areas of her behavior, so I'm very hopeful that we're on the right track. In contrast though, while we were driving,. she saw a dog in a yard on the street we live on, and she completely freaked out in the car. So I'm not sure what that was about, but I guess i'll file it in the "things to analyze later" corner of my brain. This is a long process, and a complicated road we are traveling on, but I know if we keep at it with training and the help of the anti anxiety medications, Rhiya can only improve.

On October 8th, Rhiya went to the vet and had her yearly vaccines done along with follow up conversations on how the Fluoxetine was doing for her.  Dr Hemenway and I decided to try increasing the dose from 40 mg once a day to 60 mg once a day. She had been on the 40 mg dose for exactly one month on October 8th, and this is usually enough time for the medication at any specific dose to reach its full saturation levels in the dog's system, meaning its unlikely you'll see any more effects than what you're already seeing. Today makes 8 days that she has been on the 60 mg dose, and she seems about the same as when it was just the 40 mg dose. I think we might see some more slightly noticeable changes within the next week or two though. The one little concern we have is her weight. On September 8th she weighed 81 lbs... on October 8th she weighed 73 lbs. One of the side effects of Fluoxetine is decreased appetite. Rhiya is still eating, but sometimes she'll skip a meal, so we are going to just keep an eye on her weight and go from there.

The last 2 weeks have been busy with six dogs, 3 photo shoots (I dabble in photography on the side), Dallas's 2nd Birthday on October 10th, and watching my 2 year old nephew for my sister while my parents are on vacation. Because of this we haven't been as diligent with training, but the parents' dogs go home on Monday and we can re-focus. I feel guilty that I've not managed to get it all done every day... there should be no excuse, but I cant seem to find a way to add extra hours to my days/weeks. Rhiya has enjoyed having Preston, the boxer, at our house though. They run and play in the back yard like maniacs, including Dallas as well. Its been really fun to watch. Here's Dallas's and Rhiya's Birthday Photos:

Rhiya (left) 3rd birthday on 8/5/15, Dallas (right) 2nd birthday on 10/10/15

Doggy Group Photo, and Ben and Jaxsen.

The one correction I am going to make is to change up the location and time of day that we go out to look for triggers (sightings of other dogs) for Rhiya. I've read and re-read the CARE protocol and still it managed to get caught in my train of thought that we would just start out visiting the Petco parking lot routinely... but this wrong because then Rhiya might learn to associate just the place with positive outcomes (the treats) instead of associating the dogs themselves with positiveness (treats).  So we will fix that before it hinders her learning, and we will visit numerous places randomly so she will hopefully associate the dogs with positive rewards. Thanks for reading and following, and i'll do better at posts.

Rendezvous in the Petco Parking Lot!

We ventured out to the petco parking lot tonight. Our goal was to see if Rhiya could sit in the car, relatively relaxed, and maybe see a dog ... And not react.... We were testing out the distance that we needed to keep from her triggers, in order to keep her under her reaction threshold. 

IT WAS A SUCCESS!!!!!! 

Saw a guy walking a medium sized dog about 50 ft from our car. She noticed it, looked back at me and I said "good girl!!!!" And teated her!!! She did this a few more times with the same dog. And I repeated my Praise and treating. When she wasn't seeing the dog, and she was just looking around, we would practice the "watch me" command. She would be looking at something, and I would say "watch me" and she would look back to me, and I would say "good girl!" And treat her! 

We only stayed about 15 minutes because it was her first exposure to her trigger of dogs since she's been on the fluoxetine... And I have always been told to always, ALWAYS, try to end on a positive note. So we left after 15 minutes and came home :-) 

IM A PROUD MAMA!!!!

This will be our new nightly routine, and we'll maybe go twice on weekend days. We will slowly work up to us being outside of the vehicle and watching dogs from a distance. I know times won't always be this positive, but a good experience is still one to treasure! She's worth all of the effort to help her feel more relaxed in her short little life, and I really do have good feelings that were on the right track. We visit the vet for vaccines and a follow up on her behavior on October 8th. We will keep updating with results of our nightly petco parking lot visits. 

Respite... Threshold... Relaxation

As  mentioned in the previous post, Rhiya has now been on her medication, one 40 mg capsule of Fluoxetine per day, for 3 weeks. In this time we have NOT gone on any walks in hopes of reducing her exposure to any triggers, which is supposed to help reduce her Cortisol levels. Cortisol is the hormone caused from excess stress, and in dogs it plays a key factor in stimulating a dogs "fight or flight" response. (CARE for Reactive Dogs website). We have only been out in our own yard for potty breaks and play sessions. I wasn't sure how long our break from walks/triggers would end up being, but in seeing some noticeable changes in her behavior over the last week especially i feel now is a good time to move onto the next step after the "respite" phase. After this period of isolation from exposures that make her react, we must pin point her triggers and ideal locations to start DS/CC training (Desensitization/ Counter Conditioning). Sooooo......

Rhiya's Triggers:

1. large dogs
2. medium dogs
3. small dogs
4. basically ANY dogs...
5. any other furry moving object
6. ... and some people (randomly)

Possible Locations:

1. In our car, in the Petco parking lot
2. around the outside of the Dog Park
3. Stuart Park
4. other walking paths/parks on/around the Portneuf Greenway (http://www.seidaho.org/2013brochures/Portneuf%20map%20outside_proof.pdf)
5. Portneuf Wellness Complex area.

The key for us will be to determine the point at which Rhiya can visually see any of her triggers... but NOT react.... We might need a few football fields for this. HA!  I think we might try the petco parking lot tonight... we'll see. Wish us luck! She's a SMART dog, and she's worth all the effort it takes to help her enjoy life a bit more without being so nervous.

3 weeks and counting...

... Okay so maybe the last 2 weeks I've only done 1 post per week... I'm so sorry, we've had busy life schedules, and I was pretty sick this past weekend. Anyways, I've started to notice some decent changes in Rhiya's behavior, and I wanted to be sure to note them here so we could share with anyone who is following us on this journey. Over the past week, slight changes in Rhiya's behavior have become more apparent... to me at least. And it was further confirmed by my parents who have had the joy of watching their Grand-Dogs yesterday and today, and when we visited them on Saturday as well. Rhiya goes nuts for Grandma, and i mean she LOVES her grandma!! So on Saturday when i took them up there, and Rhiya didn't fully bombard my mom with love, hugs, and kisses, we were all a bit shocked... but in a good way. Grandma did get her doggy kisses, but didn't have to deal with an 80 ld shepherd crawling on her like a jungle gym toy.

Same thing happened when i dropped Rhiya and Dallas off yesterday morning and today to stay with my parents for the days while i was at work (Ben is taking care of his niece and nephew this week so he isn't home during the days like normal) The thing that really touched me was how my dad, we'll call him "grandpa", reacted to Rhiya. He has always been put off a bit when Rhiya would try to jump all over him to show her love for him, which is understandable. So when she just whined and licked his arms while wiggling her butt, he was optimistic that we were headed on the right track as well. It was cute to see him give her more love, praise, and attention when she didn't try to maul him ha ha!

Another note worthy moment happened this morning before we left our house to head to the "grandparents' "... Rhiya didn't eat breakfast or dinner yesterday, and i was trying to get her to eat her breakfast this morning before we left. So i got down on the floor with her and was petting her and talking to her lovingly. She usually gets all excited to be loved, and before when i would stop petting her she would get up and climb all over me for more love. BUT this morning she just continued to lay there and be content.... She never did eat breakfast, so we packed it up with her bowl and headed out to the grandparents' house. if she doesn't eat by tomorrow i will call the vet. one of the side effects of Fluoxetine is reduced appetite, so hopefully she will eat at my parents' today, and then we'll play ball when I get off work and she should eat after a good ball session.

I think we're on the right track. over this next week we are SLOWLY going to venture out and see if we can pin point a distance in which she remains under threshold when seeing another dog. If that doesn't make sense i'll try to explain it more in the next post... which hopefully wont be a full week from now ha ha. Or you can read up on the CARE protocol by clicking the link on the right hand side of this page.

Two Weeks Today.

Rhiya has been on 40 mg of Fluoxetine 1/day for 2 weeks now. First i wan to say sorry for the lack of posting this past week, its been a busy one with work and family, and other life stresses. We have managed to practice obedience, the doggy hide and seek game, and targeting 5 out of the 7 past nights. she seems to like the hide and seek game. it works by me putting her in a sit/stay and walking slightly out of sight and saying "Rhiya come find me". she comes running. She gets so excited that she sometimes doesn't sit and stay like shes supposed to... so we put her back in her spot and make her follow through. she is getting the hang of things though. We need to get back to practicing learning our "door manners" routine though. Its a good thing for ALL our dogs to learn. when Same (or lab) had her knee surgery in may, we got out of the habit a bit.... So we will pick that up soon too. Anyone is welcome to stop by randomly and help us practice. Just remember to wait patiently until i can get the dogs to sit and stay in their designates spots... this might also include me opening the door and shutting it in your face because Rhiya has a really hard time keeping her butt in her spot. hahaha.

Anyways... back to Rhiya and how she is doing with the meds. the last day or two i have noticed her panting a lot less and she seems to be pacing a little less as well. We still haven't attempted walks yet because we are trying to to follow the CARE protocol that calls for a reprieve of her triggers that cause her to react. then after the reprieve time, we will slowly test her threshold which will be the distance at which a dog is seen by her with out her reacting. I'm thinking its gonna be from one end of the block to the other. hahaha. but she may prove me wrong.

the MAJOR thing i wanted to note was that tonight i was feeding all the dogs like i normally do. Dallas finishes first, Sam usually finishes second, and Rhiya third. usually after Sam finishes, Sam will head back to the bedroom to get comfy on the big king bed... and Rhiya will normally "herd" her very rushed-like back to the bedroom. Well tonight i saw Sam get up from eating her food and start to head back to the bedroom. Rhiya got up as well, but as soon as i said, "Rhiya, Eh! Eh! No!... Come!" she immediately turned to me and came and sat down. YAYAYAYAYAYAYA! i was such a proud mom!!! yes i know we still have a long... Long... LOOONG road ahead of us, but shes worth it and i know she's smart enough to learn proper manners.

Yesterday Marked 1 Week...

Well Rhiya has been on her crazy pills for 1 week. She doesn't seem too different, but then there are times that she doesn't react in the yard to noises, and I wonder if these are small changes starting to develope. Only time will tell, and we still may need to adjust/increase the dosage as well. This is all a "try and see what happens" kind of thing. 

Monday night she did seem a little calmer and we played ball on the kitchen floor while she was laying down.

As for training, we didn't practice things last night because I fell asleep really early. She seems as focused as she's always been when we are working on obedience training, targeting (just my Hands still) and other things. She hasn't quite got the hang of touching an object I point to with her nose. I'm gonna try putting colored tape on my hand and then transfer it to an object and see if she can associate the connection based on the sight cue of the tape.

Well that's kind of all there is to update. I'll try the tape for targeting tonight or tomorrow, and hopefully get a pic or video of progress to include in the next update (which will probably be Friday). 

...Wishful thinking???

So I'm probably way over analyzing Rhiya's behavior, but there are a few times throughout the evening when she seems like she's able to relax a bit more. She doesn't hurriedly follow Sam through the house as fast as she did prior to Tuesday... But she still does follow her. Ben and I think she is trying to heard Sam and control where she wants Sam to go throughout the house. And that isn't a horrible thing if we knew Rhiya would never escalate.

Like I said in the first post (9/8/2015), we have had a few incidents where Rhiya took after Sam. They seem to be kinda random: if Sam gets excited Rhiya thinks she needs to control the situation... And not in a friendly way; and one or two of them seemed to possibly stem from jealousy if I or my mother showed Sam attention. So it's all a work in progress and I know we've got a long road ahead of us, but Rhiya is worth it.... And it's worth it so that Sam can feel safe and live safely within what is now her home as well. 

Rhiya had her 3rd dose of 40 mg of fluoxetine today. I give it to her between 5:30 and 6:00 pm EVERY day. The pharmacist said it has a pretty long half life so they won't feel a lot of the effects of going without it if it's given a bit late, but I want to keep it as structured as I can so it's best for Rhiya. 

We will work on the same basic training items this evening as we did last night.  I will also ask Ben if he notices any difference in Rhiyas behavior during the day while I'm at work. He hasn't mentioned much though, which also leads me to think I'm just looking extra hard for possible minor improvements haha. And then tomorrow and thought the weekend we will try to begin working on transitioning her targeting from touching her nose to my hand, to her touching her nose to an object I point to. I'll probably post an update on Saturday or Sunday. 

Hers a picture of the dogs (left to right: Dallas - 2, Rhiya - 3, Sam - 7) helping me stuff their kongs for this Sunday when we watch football and celebrate the first Sunday of NFL regular season football :-) 

The first 24...

So I didn't notice much, if any, real change with rhiya after the first 40mg dosage of fluoxetine... But that's to be expected since it can take a few weeks for the levels to build up and stabilize within her system to have an impact on her anxiety.

Some things I noted ... just because (but are probably coincidental) are:

1) Rhiya hasn't charged the fence at every little noise she hears when we go outside to potty or play. 

2) Rhiya didn't seem to pace or pant quite as much... (But again, this could be coincidental, or wishful thinking.)

Last night we worked on just running through some of her basic commands since the CARE protocol* starts out simple with these things and learning how to keep her under threshold. And it's also best to wait to get further into the exposure steps of the CARE protocol until the medication has had time to build up in Rhiya's system. So, for now, we are refreshing our basic training within the comfort of our own home and yard and working up to these things. 

Within the next couple days we are planning to start working on transitioning her targeting training/skills to targeting items I point to. This will then aid in me teaching her to help me close doors like the dishwasher, dryer, fridge, and others so she can "help" out around the house.  I'll keep you all updated. Not sure if with will be daily or every 2-3 days, but there will definitely be multiple posts each week so we can keep on track. :-) 

*a link to the CARE site can be found on the right ha f side of the page 

A new beginning on a never ending journey... Day 1

I just gave Rhiya her first dose of doggy Prozac... Aka fluoxetine as its generically known haha. I'm both nervous and optimistic... And possibly on the verge of watery eyes. Not many understand how much this dog means to me. She came into my life when I needed her most... Which was a blessing for me, but might be one of the reasons she is the way she is. I acknowledge that I was an emotional wreck when I brought her home, but she brought the happiness back into my life after losing my first dog, Reina, who I had for 9.5 joyous years. 

Since I was so overly attached to Rhiya, I think this had an impact on her being overly attached to me. From the day I brought her home (September 12th, 2012) we were inseparable... Unless the yucky "C" word came into play... I'm talking about COLLEGE, lol. When I had to go to class she would stay with my mom and her 3 dogs (Preston the boxer, Sophie the pug, and J.J. the Maltese)

Rhiya was a pretty normal puppy until she hit 9-10 months. I made sure she got all of her vaccines on time, and she was fixed before she ever went into heat so as to reduce the possible risk of mammary cancer. We went shopping at petco, played at the dog park, paid bills at lowes and Home Depot (sadly there's no cute puppy discount), and even completed our first obedience class together. It was towards the end of that first obedience class though that I stated to notice her begin to react toward other dogs (spring/early summer of 2013). We continued training with our local humane society over the next year though, and we even welcomed a new puppy into our family as well (Dallas, also a German shepherd, joined us on December 8th, 2013). Rhiya seemed to accept little dogs or puppies that were brought into our home and introduced to her on "her own turf", so I felt confident bringing Dallas's home. They have been pretty good friends ever since. 

In the summer of 2014, Rhiya had an incident with one of the trainers dogs (no skin was broken, just fur went flying), and we were asked to have a medical exam and blood work done with our vet. We followed through with this and determined she had no thyroid, or other, issues, and everything came back normal. I decided to give Rhiya a break from the group training though, because I didn't know if it was helping or hindering her at this point.  

I started looking for a behaviorist that may help me with one on one training, and I found one with great references. She was helpful... But after 3 visits I didn't hear back from her. So I continued on with trying to work with Rhiya on my own, and also seeking some help from my dog training friend Gail White. We have seen minor improvements on walks over the last year, but she never has seemed to fully relax and calm down. She is always on alert. 

Also in the summer of 2014 I started dating, my now fiancé, Ben, and he has a 7 year old chocolate lab fixed female. When Ben and I knew our relationship was probably going to get serious, we started trying to get Rhiya to accept Sam (Ben's lab). After one incident, I decided to buy Rhiya a Baskerville muzzle. I had to find a safe way to help Rhiya learn to try to socialize without putting other dogs or her in danger. WOW! Once the muzzle was on her she acted like a different dog. She didn't want to bother with the other dogs... She wasn't really friendly, but she didn't, and still doesn't, try to lunge after them either when the muzzle is on. 

When it came to exposing Rhiya to Sam's presence, Ben would bring Sam over to our house, Rhiya would have her muzzle on, and we would all hang out for a few hours (giving Rhiya breaks to get water and such as well). I will admit that I have an e-collar... I will admit that it was used... And I will also admit that I don't feel good about that. I didn't know what else to do, and I wasn't prepared to give up on Rhiya. I'm telling you all this because I wanted to be honest and put it all out there so we can share where we've been, what we've tried, and what things we've learned along the way. I've never liked the idea of shocking a dog, and I will forever have to ask for forgiveness for that. 

But smehow, miraculously, we were able to get Rhiya to accept Sam into our home. They aren't buddy buddies, and there have been a couple more incidents, but 99% of the time they are fine. It's the 1% that worries me though, because I want Sam to be safe in what is now her home as well, and I want Rhiya to feel comfortable with Sam sharing our home.

This is when I decided to check into medication to aid in positive reinforcement training. Rhiya is a smart dog, but if she can't relax enough to learn from the training, then I don't know how far we will get. I put off checking into medication for the last year to year and a half.  But for Sam's safety, and the hopeful profession of relaxed walks for Rhiya in the future, I decided it was time and consulted with my vet about it. Dr Hemmenway with Alpine Animal Hospital did some research and had phone consultations with other vets outside our area, since there aren't many local vets with experience in behavioral aiding medications. We decided on fluoxetine... So this is where our new, continued, journey begins. The medication isn't a fix all, so I will be following the CARE protocol steps in helping to positively reinforce desirable behavior and counter condition the current undesirable reactions. Thank you to the Facebook group 'Reactive Dogs' for helping me find the CARE site! 

Well I guess that's the majority of our backstory. This brings you all up to speed as to what we've been through and what we're planning to try in the many months (or years) ahead of us. I decided to keep a blog of our journey for reference on how far we may progress in the future, to be able to analyze what we work on, to keep me accountable for daily training sessions with Rhiya, and to help give Dr. Hemmenway a point of reference for future dogs who may need help as well. 

Thank you to everyone who has always supported me in continuing to try to help Rhiya be the best dog she can be. Thank you to everyone who I have met in the doggy Facebook groups who offer support and advice when you don't even know me. And if you're still reading this extremely LONG first post, thank you for that as well haha.  And mostly thank you to Rhiya who has taught me SO much, and after all the ups and downs we've been through you still manage to drown me in doggy kisses each and every day. I love you with all my heart baby girl, and I promise to continue positive training as we move forward on this next phase in our journey. I will never give up on you!