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.