Stella's New Friends

The farm walk had some bonuses yesterday! Stella met Opie and Aunt Bee, the pigs on a new farm being built in George the Border Terrier's neighborhood. Stella and Douce were nose to nose with those pigs, who were making very piggy noises. I had to hold the dogs' leashes tight to keep them from sticking their faces through the electrified fence. The pigs, for their part, seemed incredibly uninterested in the Shih Tzus. Stella, on the other hand, seemed to find the pigs much more interesting than the 8 week old, completely adorable Sheltie puppy brought to agility class last week. The humans gush over him, but Stella thinks he's a complete snooze.

I called Tufts today to notify them that nothing has happened since Stella started on Buspar. Absolutely nothing. Yesterday, I saw Stella out watching the neighbors use a backpack leaf blower to blast every blade of cut grass from their lawn to kingdom come. You would think that would send a dog with noise phobias racing for cover. Nope. She was at her post, calmly monitorning the situation. This is, remember, the same dog who still runs from the toaster popping as if the whole house were exploding.

Grandma is Coming Home!!

Well, it's been about two weeks since Stella has been on the Buspar, and I've seen no effects, positive or negative. My mom is coming home to Maine on Tuesday, and that's one of the best drugs in the pharmacy for Stella. She LOVES her Grandma. I'm really hoping that having Grandma here will help Stella get through the mornings better. Even though I'm not teaching now, and won't be feeding the dogs and leaving, Stella is struggling with breakfast. She may or may not eat, but always runs from the food bowl like I sprinkled her kibble with phobia powder. Lately she's been heading for her safe spot in the living room, because that's where I've been checking email.

Yesterday, she decided it might be safer to crawl under the couch to get near me, rather than to come out of her hiding spot and sit on the rug. Unfortunately, I have "apartment sized" (dinky) furniture, and she got stuck. Okay, when your 7 inch Shih Tzu gets stuck under your furniture, you know it's time to upgrade. I heard heard scrambling under there like a squirrel in the wall, and I looked under the three inch space between the floor and the bottom of the couch to see EYEBALLS. Her top knot was mashed down, and her chin was on the floor and all I could see was her big buggy eyes. I called her to come out and she wiggled. I extracted her gently, and she decided the rug was not so bad afterall.

Stella is still enjoying her agility classes. She is afraid of the teeter, and not performing the A frame like she did last summer. I wish I had this equipment in my yard so that I could let her practice at lower heights, and build her confidence up. But, my yard is in the dinky category too. Here she is last night at Tree Frog. I love her fast run at the end! She wants it! She's entered in Novice Jumpers in Cumberland the third week of the month. I pray and cross my fingers that she won't be stressed about the trial and poop in the ring. I'm prepared for that, but having your poop in the ring gives you a pretty low feeling. I know, because Stella and I have been there . . .

Insomnia??

Stella has been on buspar and generic clomipramine for three days--since Wednesday. The generic clomipramine comes in 25 mg capsules, so she's getting a bit more of that than she used to. There's so much powder in the capsules! I feel like I must be giving her 5 times as much medication as she got in the tiny Clomicalm pills, but I checked the capsule image online, and it is the 25 mg dose that she has. I think I'll try leaving some powder on the plate instead of mixing it all into the pill pocket.

On Thursday morning, she woke me up early. I think she had to pee after all the water she drank in agility class! For the last two nights, she has jumped out of bed in the middle of the night. Thursday, I got up and brought her back to bed. Last night, I left her alone until about 4, when I woke up missing her. I found her sleeping under the bed in the guest room. Maybe I should leave her where she is, but I like to have everyone in the bed. She stayed with me the rest of the morning. I'm not sure that there is any connection here to the change in drugs. It has been warm and a bit breezy for the past two nights, so the windows have been open and the curtains have been blowing. Maybe that keeps her awake.

She's still stressed in the morning, and skipping her breakfast. Her baby fat is gone and she looks very trim. Dr. Dodman says that the clomipramine can cause a loss of appetite. Her anxiety seems worse in the morning, though, and I think that's also why she is not eating.

Medication Adjustment

After a conversation with Dr. Dodman this morning, we are going to add a little bit of buspirone to Stella's drug therapy to see if that will help with the noise phobia. It was good to get a "big picture" sense of the treatment options. Apparently, and unfortunately, there are not many good pharmacological choices that target phobias, in humans or dogs. The plan is to treat the global anxiety, and hope that in that process, we see a decrease in Stella's reactivity to noise.

The risk of switching from Clomicalm to a new "background drug" is that we would lose the improvement in separation anxiety we have seen with the Clomicalm, so combination therapy seems the best way to go at this point. Dr. Dodman, Dr. Ogata and I will check in again in two weeks.

I did discuss the possibility of using xanax to relax Stella enough for desensitization and counter conditioning, which I had read about on some shy dog sites. But I had also read that xanax can cause memory loss, which would obviously negate any learning that took place during training. Dr. Dodman said that dosing to avoid memory loss was very tricky, and that xanax was therefore not used for training, but for episodes of panic.

I realize that med trials can take a very long time and may not ever result in 100% success, but I am relieved to be trying something different, as Stella's behavior seems to be worsening. So, Stella's medication changes are the following:

• Discontinue huperzine

• clomipramine 25 mg/day (up from 20 because the generic, which is MUCH less expensive, comes in 25 mg capsules vs. 20 mg. tablets)

• buspirine 2.5 mg/day

We also reviewed the possibility that Stella is having some type of focal seizure disorder, which is apparently more common in bracycephalic dogs. Neurological testing is available. The issues are that the tests are expensive, and not always conclusive. If her EEG showed evidence of seizure, we would know that was the problem. A negative test, however, doesn't rule out the possibility of seizures. So treatment "as if" she had a seizure disorder would be the way to pursue that possibility in the future.

More Clomicalm??

I talked to the doctors at Tufts yesterday, and they want me to try increasing her Clomicalm. I have very mixed feelings about this, and do not really understand the logic behind this decision. One the one hand, the Clomicalm has proven effective for the separation anxiety. Although Stella does not come upstairs on her own like she used to when it is time for me to leave, and she still exhibits some anxiety--her tail is down and she hides in her crate--she is able to take a food treat, and she is no longer pacing, vocalizing, panting and clawing at the gate. I am happy with her progress in this area, and I think that we could both live with this if it never improves.

On the other hand, Stella is getting worse in the noise phobia department, and her mornings seem really horrible. Even when I am not making any preparations to leave, Stella often seems particularly stressed in the morning, and the noise phobia is worse throughout the day. These are the behaviors that I think are new or worse:

• Dislike of getting out of bed in the morning.
  
• Reluctance or inability to eat in the morning.
• Hiding in the yard in the morning; when I bring her inside, she tucks tail and runs upstairs to hide there, often under or by the bed.
• Hiding in the living room under the coffee table, unless she is being held.
  
• Increased sensitivity to noises such as a cell phone or laptop being shut, pages of a book turning, tea kettle activity.
• Fear of objects that might be dropped or make noise--remotes, phones, books.
• Brand new-- fear of clippers, generalized immediately to wanting off the grooming table..

Why, I wonder, can this dog sit calmly in the yard while Lisa runs the weed whacker not ten feet away? Why can she watch the city workers tear up the street in front of the house with curiosity, but startle when I turn the page of a book? It's not the size of the noise, I think, it's the suddenness.

Those questions are interesting, but my questions about her treatment are nagging, and as persistent as her decline in behavior.

• If she is becoming more sensitized to noise, and her other fearful behaviors are getting worse, and in fact never seem to have improved on Clomicalm, why are we pursuing treatment with the Clomicalm alone?

• Is there a larger treatment plan that includes the Clomicalm, or are we hoping to see improvement with this drug? If so, why would we expect improvement in noise phobias?

• Is the improvement with separation anxiety predictive of improvement with noise phobia on Clomicalm? If so, why have we not seen improvement in this area already?

Agility Builds Confidence

Wednesday was full of highs and lows for Stella. Her grooming anxiety is detailed below, but we've been so busy that I haven't been able to report on her agility class. I took a different dog to class with me than I had on the grooming table in the morning. She turned from a shrinking violet (at least she was trying to impersonate one in the garden) to a happy and brave soul! She did a 19 obstacle sequence that seemed like it had lots of yardage for a little girl, and she was focused throughout. She even did the dreaded teeter. I was very proud of her. I've attached the video from the afternoon, where she is practicing agility. No comment on my clothes, please. Clearly, I need to get my track pants out of storage for the spring. Stella looks great though.

Circular Thinking--Behavior, Neurology and the "Ambipawed" Dog

Well, here's a new anxiety for Stella's list--grooming anxiety. She is usually an absolute angel on the grooming table--endlessly patient, and easy to work on. Last night she had a bath and blow dry. She always enjoys her blow dry. I scissored her ears and face, and she was as calm as could be.

Today, I put her on the table and turned on the clippers, and she shrank into a tiny ball. I have never, ever seen her do this, and I have been grooming her since she was a puppy. I had to do a really quick job with the clippers, as I had already made a path through an inch of fur on the middle of her back. Her cut is not even, and I didn't get to scissor her legs, but I had to let her off the table after she defecated. She ran into the garden and hid. Even a half an hour later, she was miserable when I put her top knot up, and usually she is just fine with that process. I'm at my wit's end. Everyday life seems to get harder and harder for her. Last night, she startled when I turned the page of a book.

I have been giving some thought to the possibility that she has seizures, and I really cannot decide if what I am seeing in her are behavioral responses to fear (freezing, retreat), or are focal seizures. The autonomic responses would be similar (trembling, increased heart rate)?? It seems very hard to sort out. What I'm not seeing is behavior that seems suddenly different. Stella can be playing one minute and fearful the next, but I can usually detect a noise stimulus. She can sometimes recover in the presence of a reward (food), which would suggest that her problem is primarily behavioral. The whole question starts to feel very circular to me though--how does one separate behavior from neurology?

For example, if, as some research suggest, the dog's paw preference ("pawdedness"??) is correlated with their susceptibility to phobias, aren't we talking about neurology? My very random trials with Stella and Douce suggest that she may have less of a paw preference than he does (she is "ambipawed"?). If true, this would correlate with her noise phobia. But I haven't done the recommended hours of trials.

Oh, just someone help me find a way to make this little Shih Tzu feel better!

Running With Poop Bags

School is out for summer, and I have decided it is time to address the problem of not being able to keep up with my dog Douce on the agility course. If, in the process, I learn to put down my pocketbook and run with my arms, all the better. Although my dad was a track coach for many years, I never could learn to like running. Now, it seems, I will have to.

I am starting with a super easy walk/jog program. Today, I took the dogs with me, so that if I had to stop, I could blame it on Stella, who is the only creature I know that gets tired exercising faster than I do. Also, I figured that potty breaks for the pups would give me a good excuse to dilly dally. How pitiful am I, using my poor Shih Tzu for an excuse to look less out of shape than I am??

So, I did a walk 5 minutes jog 1 minute program. It's the second week of the program, but I will probably do it for, like, three weeks before I move up. Any running program I do has to be super painless for me, or I will quit. Today was a perfect start. It was supposed to be a 30 minute "workout," but as Stella was actually getting tired, I had to cut back to 20 minutes. Love that dog! At the end, I had jogged for a total of 3 minutes, and it was quite apparent to me why I cannot keep up with Douce. He walked/ran ahead of me the whole time and I don't think he ever broke into a real pant. The third minute, I could feel my shins begin to hurt. 3 minutes and I feel it?? No wonder I hurt all over after a two day trial. I probably run a total of 8 or 9 minutes on a weekend like that.

The dogs were great company for me today. Personally, though, I don't want to continue running with them. First, Shih Tzu overheat so easily, and although you can watch for signs of over exertion, if they are on leash and you are thinking about your own workout, I think it would be harder to tell how the dog is doing. Second, it is awkward running with leashes and poop bags in hand. Why do I never see any joggers with dogs slinging poop bags?? It makes me suspicious. And third, it's not really that fun for me, so why would it be fun for the dogs? They don't get to sniff, bound, chase, eat gross stuff--all of the dogs' favorite things. They get good exercise on their farm walks!

Stella is still having a tough time in the mornings. Maybe, if I do my walk/jogs in the morning, it will do her good too. She could get over the worry that I will leave, because I will, but I'll be right back. I don't know. She has been freezing up in the house, no matter the time of day. I will notice her standing still, not moving towards anything to do, not able to lie down comfortably. She will circle the room, trying different spots, but resume the standing and staring, unless I put her into the bed, where she does seem to relax. I think she's been on the huperzine for two weeks, so tomorrow I will call Dr. Ogata at Tufts.

Back at Treefrog Farm!

Wednesday was our first outdoor agility class night at Treefrog Farm, so Stella is back in the game. It was so muddy! The Shih Tzus decided that they are not mudders. In the really sloggy parts of the course, they just stopped in their tracks and looked at me like "Really? Jump into that? Umm, you just go ahead without me." I have to confess that I didn't want to run in the mud either. I was running pretty darn slow, and didn't avoid the puddles anyway. My sneakers are still drying out.

Stella had a good time. She wagged her tail at all of her agility friends and ate lots of treats, and I think she did a fine job running her first little course since last summer. You will see that she pops out of the tunnel over and over. It was still a bit crunched up from being stored, and she likes her equipment just so--neatly laid out with no bumps in her path. It's so nice to see her having fun. She shut down as soon as we came home. I keep telling her that as much as she loves the outdooors, she's just not ever going to make a good yard dog. We are still toughing out the huperzine trial, but I want to call Tufts again soon.

Okay, This Is for My Students

So, I've mentioned the blog to a few of you, and you have heard about my secret life in dog agility. These are some videos of me running with Douce. You will notice that I am actually wearing running shoes and some type of athletic pants. It was a shock to me to discover that I had to run with my dog in agility, but he loves it so much. I would do anything for him--even wear running shoes.

You will also notice that I am not extremely good at this sport. For example, I run slow, and um, I run like a girl. Shocking. My dog is way faster than I am. Wherever he goes wrong on the course, it's because I confused him. I also get lost on course, especially when I have to try to remember more than one "map" of obstacles at a time. We qualified in both of these runs--just barely in the first one! The timer went off just as we finished the last jump there. In the second run, it looks like I almost pull Douce off of the last jump--I'm too slow to keep up with him. Last summer, we ran for three months without qualifying in one single run. That means we made a mistake that disqualified us every time. I tried to find something good about every run we did, which is easier to do when you have a great partner like Douce. Occasionally, I even find things that I do well.

I do think it's good for teachers to do something that is challenging for them, and to watch people for whom it seems really easy. Maybe teachers forget that learning is hard when they are only in front of the classroom, and never in the middle of it. In agility, there are some very athletic teams out there--the human handlers can run and remember where they are going and where their super fast dogs are, all at one time! Doing agility reminds me that learning is fun, but also difficult. Success is not just about talent, but about perseverance, practice, repetition, and working with instructors that can help you figure out how to tackle problems. My dog has talent, and my instructors are great. I persevere.

Stella also has a great time doing agility, although her phobias have kept her from competing. For Stella, competition is not the goal. She loves practice, and it makes her feel good about herself! Her classes start soon, so I hope to have some videos of her posted within the next few weeks.

I had a farm in Cape Elizabeth . . .

for a weekend. The dogs and I went over to look after the minis and the horses for two days while their mom and dad were away for a quick vacation. Yesterday was beautiful! It was short-sleeves and sunscreen weather. The Shih Tzus played ball in the yard and went for a farm walk by themselves. Stella is so out of shape!! She's pretty pudgy, for her, and couldn't even make it around the farm without getting all out of breath. I had to carry her part way. SOMEONE is feeding her too much . . .

Roscoe the Min Pin was very needy and monopolized all of my lap time. It was great. I love that dog, and he never hugs me when his mom is around! Douce and Stella were a bit put out by this, but they made up for it at bed time when Mr. Roscoe had to sleep on the floor. Stella spent some time upstairs, but maybe a little more time downstairs with everyone else than she does at home. I don't see much difference in her behavior during this first week that she's been back on huperzine. She had a rough time on her farm walk this afternoon. There were lots of gun shots from the target range and she had her tail down and was worried the whole time. The sight of George perked her up momentarily, but the noise overcame her and she really tried to run home without us. I would really like to try a medication that worked better for her noise phobia.

Of course, once she got back the the house, she did not want to leave. She hid from me and I had to carry her out of and put her in the car. I feel so guilty for not being able to buy her her own farm!

It is so nice to watch the gold finches come back and the daffodils come up. Today I finally saw the mayflowers blooming on the edge of the woods, and the fiddlehead ferns are coming up.

Stella's Spring Weekend

As I write, Stella is resting in her "club house" under the end table after a long afternoon with the six pack. The weather has been beautiful again today. And what an eventful farm walk! George ran away in pursuit of some ground hog holes that he had discovered days ago. We all chased him through the thickets for about twenty minutes until he decided to slow down to play with some new dogs he met, and we "caught him." Hiking through the brush was a real workout for Stella, and she had to be carried over the hill and to the stream for a drink. The farm was busy this afternoon. We saw wild turkey, a fox, Pepper the grouchy senior lab, and Precious the horse, in addition to the new friends George made.

After our farm walk, we practiced some speed circles in agility. It was Stella's first time on the contact equipment this summer, and she did a nice job with her A frame and dog walk. I think that she is exhausted!! I know I am.

Although she's had good times at the farm, Stella hasn't had such an easy weekend at home. She has not wanted to get out of bed in the morning, and she does not play and wrestle in the blankets like she used to. She seems very noise sensitive. She has also been doing lots of staring of into space, always with her back to us. She will often not respond to her name when she is in this mode. This is the kind of behavior that makes Dr. Dodman and Dr. Ogata think that she might have some kind of seizure disorder. The video below provide a pretty typical example. Hopefully, the huperzine will have an effect.

The Plan--Huperzine, Farm Walks and Agility Class

Stella has made some improvements over the course of the week. On Tuesday, she was not able to urinate in the yard in the morning, even when I put her on leash, which seems to make her more confident. She was happy to see her dog walker, Carrie, but she seemed reluctant to go on her walk for the first two blocks. As she got farther along though, she seemed to pick up and act like herself. Tuesday night, she ate dinner in her usual spot for the first time!

On Wednesday, I took a gamble and discontinued Xanax, and she was able to go to bed comfortable. Thursday morning she seemed much more like herself, and went potty and had breakfast without stress. She did not exhibit separation anxiety when I went to work, and the dog walker reported that she seemed normal in the afternoon. This morning, Lisa is here, and we are all in the living room. Stella is in her "safe place" under the end table.

After extensive consultation with Tufts, Dr. Dodman and Dr. Ogata suggested putting Stella back on the huperzine to see if we get improvement. It will be hard to tell, I think, whether the huperzine is working, as Stella had already begun to improve this week without the addition of huperzine. And, the melt down she had last week occurred unaccountably after nearly a month of very improved behavior.

The weather is going to be beautiful today and tomorrow and I am hoping that we get to take some nice farm walks for her. Agility classes at Tree Frog Farm start the first week in May, and she always seems to enjoy that. She feels pretty good about herself when she does agility. I want to keep her in classes whether or not she ever competes, because she loves the work and play.

Recap

So this is what I'm thinking about the last week with Stella, and what I want the doctors at Tufts to know.

*Stella has been on clomipramine for three months. After six weeks, she seemed to make major progress with the separation anxiety, but no progress with noise phobias.

*In the last week, Stella has experienced almost complete regression with separation anxiety, and has developed extreme anxiety around meal times at home. (She was okay in Princeton this weekend).

*Stella has also not only reverted to "freezing" when she goes outside, but her tendency to seek out and hide in dark corners of the house has returned, and has even become more pronounced.

*Xanax seems to help Stella, but it is not a long-term solution. It does not prevent Stella from experiencing anxiety; it only helps to subdue it once it occurs. And, it is relatively short acting.

*Although it might be possible to supplement the clomipramine with buspar or another medication, my gut feeling is that clomimpramine is not the drug of choice for Stella. I think it might be time to switch her to an SRRI. As I have heard that Prozac can decrease play drive in dogs (and in people), I would might opt for Zoloft. Admitedly, I know little about whether Zoloft also causes decreased play drive in dogs, and how it compares to Prozac in studies of dogs with separation anxiety and phobias. I am hoping that Dr. Dodman will have some good suggestions for us soon.

Blue Monday

Today has been a bad day for Stella. Actually, it began last night, when her discomfort about going to bed at night seemed to escalate. She jumped out of bed once, and later, when we tried again, tensely settled down. She finally slept like a rock, and did not want to get out of bed in the morning. She could not eat breakfast, and got "stuck" outside. She freezes in one spot, can't seem to potty, and is very anxious when I bring her back in. There was more hiding in the bathroom closet. She was very upset when I took a shower, and stayed close by, moving from corner to corner in the bathroom. Later, she was able to sit on the couch and check email with me. When I returned from grocery shopping she was happy to see me, and she came downstairs and played with her toys outside. But I had to carry her in from the yard, and she immediately became too anxious to eat dinner. In this video, you can see that she finally eats when I move her bowl, but is circling uncertainly with her tail down, looking very stressed. I have given her another xanax, hoping she will be comfortable enough to go to bed without too much anxiety. Well, as I type, she's in the mood to play with her toys, so that's what I'm off to do!

Regression and Questions Week of April 13

Stella has had a very rough week. After her birthday weekend, I went back to work. Stella was unable to eat her breakfast in the kitchen on Tuesday. She went outside in the morning to potty, and when she came back in, she flew right by the breakfast dish with her tail down and tried to get up the stairs as fast as she could. I heard her trip and fall on the steps, and went running to find her in her "safe place" in the living room. I took her upstairs and fed her breakfast in bed. She seemed agitated when I left, and her separation anxiety seemed to be returning. Wednesday, when I stayed home in the morning, she seemed a bit better, but spent lots of time in her safe space, and she also began to hide in the bathroom behind the laundry basket and in the bathroom closet in the morning as I was getting dressed. Thursday we had a repeat of Tuesday, only she ate her breakfast outside. She continued to hide in the bathroom. The dog walker reports that she is fine on mid-day walks. She is also fine on morning walks, but seems to fall apart when we get home.

Last week, I did try playing Stella's dog music CD only once through during the morning week rather than having it repeat all day, and on got too rushed for food treats before leaving the house at the end of the week. These are events that she has been able to manage in previous weeks, though, and I feel that the clomipramine is no longer as effective as it was.

Stella's Birthday II

We continued the celebration of Stella's birthday party last night, combining it with a celebration of Roscoe and Colby's First and Second Place ribbons in Rally. The Min Pins rule! The dogs had plush toy party favors which didn't go over well. Actually they were cat toys, so they had no squeakers, and I guess they were pretty lame.

The dogs had special party treats--dried chicken feet, yum!! And fancy decorated dog cookies--not as good as chicken feet. The people had pizza and wine and cake. Well Roscoe had cake too! I was demonstrating to Lisa how to help him into your lap, and he scarfed down the half a piece on my plate as soon as he got his nose close to the table. I love that dog . . .

Stella's presents were a new spring time bandana, which is twisted in her picture. It's very cute--pink and green gingham with ribon rose accents. She always looks great in pink and green. She also got new toys and a life vest for summer boating, but it was a bit big, so Douce might inherit it. Douce was the only dog who would wear his party hat.

This was only my second dog birthday party (gasp!), and I think it went fine. The paw print balloons were a hit with the humans. And the Red Sox won, so it was a good night all around.

Stella's Birthday

Stella turns four on Monday! The first thing we did to celebrate was take her on a farm walk. Yesterday was beautiful. It was in the 50s and the skies were bright blues. She had a great run with Spur and Roscoe. She can't catch up with them, but she has her cheatin' ways and a big heart. She never gets discouraged. Click on the link and look at her go!

Stella's Farm Walk

Quilled!

In a study of porcupine quill injuries, veterinarians report that breeds overrepresented for quill injuries were the Rottweilers, Huskies, and German Shepherd mixes. Not Shih Tzus. Well, my Shih Tzus did not get the memo. Saturday night, in the middle of a dinner party, they decided a jaunt into the woods would be more fun than waiting for food to drop on the floor in the kitchen. They were not coming when called, so I cheated and pulled out the clicker. Douce showed up first with a face full of quills. Stella had to be coaxed; she came tip toeing out of the woods, still wearing her dinner party bow, with a few really long quills sticking out of her lip. WHAT?? Bows and quills??

Fifteen minutes later, Stella had a bloody lip but all five of her quills were removed. (There they are, in the picture). She recovered nicely, and was ready to keep partying. Douce was less fortunate. Another forty minutes later, he was exhausted and panicked after Bob, one of our brave dinner guests, removed 25 quills with a pair of pliers--and we hadn't gotten to his chin yet. We all surrendered and took Douce and Stella to the emergency vet, forty five minutes away, so Douce could be sedated for the rest of the process. FIVE HOURS after we arrived at the vet clinic, they finally removed another 10 quills from around and inside his mouth.

Douce, who no doubt started the hunt, definitely got the worst of it--Stella probably followed him into the woods without a clue. She must have made some contact with the porcupine though, as they do not "throw" their quills--the quills release when the dog skewers itself on them while attacking the slow moving rodent.

Douce is raring to get back in the woods, and Stella will be right behind him again. We will be working on fence plans too. And, I will be checking the dogs vigilantly for the next month to make sure I catch any quills that might be migrating through their bodies. Stella, I think, is safe, but Douce had quite the mouthful.

So spring has arrived in Maine! Next year I will know that when my yellow crocuses come up, the porcupines are on the move.

Going Back to Work

I went back to work today after spring break, and Stella was not a happy camper! Well, neither was I, but Stella is the important one here. I had to hunt her down in the "garden" this morning. The garden is all of the dead matter that I did not clear out in the fall. Nothing is coming up yet, so it was easy to spot Stella's pink bow peeking out from behind a clump of straws that will be the obedience flower in the summer. Poor little girl was curled up there, ignoring me while I called her. She also hides in the garden when it's nice out, but today was not about hanging out in the shade of the plants. She was making herself into a tight little ball of dog. I had to carry her upstairs. She was able to take some food after expressing a bit of misery.

Now, at night, she is isolating herself. She comes down to eat and play, but unless I am holding her or interacting with her, she dashes upstairs and curls up on her favorite dog bed. If I want to see her, I bring my homework upstairs and Stella and Douce and I pile up in the big bed. She will lie under my arm at the computer, helping to check email and overseeing her blog.

A Little Setback--Urinary Tract Infection

One setback that we have had is that Stella developed a urinary tract infection two weeks ago, and broke her house training. She hasn't had a UTI before. We don't have a clear explanation for the origin of the UTI. The Clomicalm can cause urinary retention, and if Stella is not able to empty her bladder when she goes outside, this might be the cause of the infection. She has also been on huperzine, which causes increased urinary output. So she is experiencing what might be called "urinary contradiction" . . . In any case, it's not clear whether the infection is coincidental or caused by the Clomicalm. And it's not clear what role the huperzine is playing here.

My own hypothesis is that the huperzine is playing a role here. She was still on the antibiotics when I increased her huperzine, and she started having accidents again. I took her off the huperzine, and the accidents stopped. Dr. Dodman's office would like me to put her back on the huperzine after the infection clears. I think, though, that it would be better to leave her off the huperzine for a month or so, to see if the infection recurs on the Clomicalm alone. Otherwise, I will not be able to separate any future accidents from the huperzine effect or the clomicalm effect.

Doing Much Better!

Stella has been on Clomicalm for over six weeks, and she is making great progress. I first started to notice small changes in her behavior after two weeks, but it took the full six weeks to see her return to "normal"--which for her, still includes noise phobias. However, her bed time phobia about the heater pinging is gone! She goes to bed with no problem at all. She went from having a bad night every night, to having a few good nights with some recurrence of bad nights, to going to bed looking a little nervous, to finally to asking to be put in the bed and sleeping soundly all night.

She has also made amazing progress with separation anxiety. From screaming, trying to escape, and refusing food treats, she has gone to a much calmer state, and even takes food treats when I leave. I won't say that she's excited when I get ready to go in the morning. She still watches me very vigilantly, but she is able to respond to her counter-conditioning program, which involves aromatherapy (lavendar and vanilla), dog music, a warm room with a light on, novel toys and a food treat. She also has a cozy crate for retreats, but I'm not sure how much she uses it. I'm planning on designing her a new one with bumper pads, a really soft bed (maybe in chenille), and a custom cover in a pretty design that will match the decor in my study. My grandmother is an avid sewer, and all she needs is fabric and dimensions. Nothing is too good for my girl.

And if Stella doesn't use it, Douce might! He likes all of the foufy wicker and floral dog beds. He was so jealous when I got one for Stella that I had to call the store and put another on hold for him, in blue instead of pink and green. And he was very happy when I brought it home.

Meanwhile, Back at the Farm

It's "Mud Season" in Maine. I had never heard of this "season" before moving to the Northeast. If you don't live here, this is what happens. The top of the soil starts to thaw, but the deeper layers of soil stay frozen. As the snow melts, the water can't absorb into the ground, so the surfaces of dirt roads, fields, and hiking trails turn into muddy, slushy mess. You could lose your shoes in the muck. Everyone is anxious for spring, but nothing is in bloom.

Stella, being low slung, gets the worst of the mud, but she never lets it stop her from getting out and running with the other dogs. One of her favorite things about mud season is the geese stopping in the fields on the way south. More specifically, she likes the poo they leave! Eew! The past few farm walks, I've had to leash her to prevent her from eating too much--she knows no limits. She comes back from her walks smelling like the barn with goose poo breath. I have to dunk her in a bucket before I can even put her in the car.

Here she is, in all her glory!

Nature vs. Nurture--the Genetics Diagnosis

Lots of people with shy dogs can attribute their dogs' behavior issues to abuse or fairly severe lack of socialization--for example, dog that have spent most of their young lives kenneled and have had very little human contact can develop "shyness." Even people that have lots of experience with dogs will comment that Stella must have been abused as a pup.

Knowing Stella's history, I can say with certainty that abuse is not the cause of her anxiety. She was raised by a very loving breeder in a litter of four. It was the only litter that the breeder had, and she doted on the parents and the pups. The pups were raised indoors. They were handled extensively and were used to the noises that accompany living with people. Stella was, in fact, the brave one in her litter! I can see this in her personality now. She chases terriers, swims with the big dogs, tears through the woods, and loves people. She has a strong personality! Many people that know Stella have never seen her shy behavior, because it's not the defining feature of her temperament. When they do see her shyness, the comment is always "she's like a different dog."

While Dr. Dodman described Stella's behavior as "atypical" in that she is not always fearful and can exhibit confidence, he did not think that anything about my training would have caused her fear. He feels that if anything, the training may have helped her manage her fear. And when I gave Stella's early history to Dr. Dodman, he said that she was raised in ideal conditions. He was interested in the fact that she exhibited noise shyness within a few weeks of coming to Maine. I had always wondered whether the switch from a suburban to a city environment might have accounted to her fear, because neither Stella's parents nor her siblings seem noise shy.

Dr. Dodman explained that it could be very complicated to identify the cause of noise phobia, but that she seemed predisposed to develop it, and that noise phobias often progressed to separation anxiety, or "globalized anxiety disorder," which is how he characterizes Stella's condition.

Globalized anxiety disorder means that Stella has fear of inanimate objects (the toaster, the fireplace), animate objects (toddlers), and situations (indoor training environments, mom leaving). She covers all of the bases! There is a good link to the development of phobias in the Shih Tzu on the American Shih Tzu Club web site. The only section that I do not like, and I will discuss this later, is the passage that discusses "reinforcing fear." After much research into the subject, I find myself in agreement with those who argue that if a dog is exhibiting a degree of anxiety that prevents her from taking food and/or responding to simple, familiar commands (such as "sit"), she will not respond to reassurance for better or worse. With that caveat, please visit the link in the bar to the left!

Dr. Dodman's Assessment: Genetics

Our appointment at Dr. Dodman's was interesting. He does not handle or "test" the dogs, but he did observe Stella's tendency to sit "back to" most of the people in the room. She's infamous for doing this when she rides along to agility trials. All the other dogs are looking out of their crates, and Stella has her back to us, studying the tent wall?? She also has bouts of lip licking or "air licking," which she also did at Dr. Dodman's.

Tufts takes an extensive history. I included a list of noises that used to bother Stella, that I worked on with counter-conditioning, and the noises that bother her now:

Noises that scare/bother Stella:

The toaster
Logs popping in the fire place
Creaks in the baseboard heater/the house
Water drops crackling under the tea kettle
The remote, phone, etc. falling on the floor
Dishes clattering
Gunshots
Fireworks
Thunderstorms (not as a puppy)
The teeter banging
Articles and dumbbells being thrown in obedience class
Raised voices/strong verbal corrections
Baby gates falling (they are mounted now)
Dog tags jingling on her collar
Dog tags banging against her dish—cannot eat
Grocery carts

Things that scare Stella:
Indoor training facilities with lots of dogs in smaller spaces
Baby gates and ring gates
The wicket for measuring dogs
Toddlers
People walking behind her, sometimes
People falling
Fire in the fireplace, in general now


Things that used to bother Stella:
Walking in the neighborhood
The air brakes on a bus
All young children
Wheel chairs
The change of footing from the ground to the inside of a tunnel/agility
The chute/agility
The wobble board/agility


Dr. Dodman noted that the list was top heavy; the number of things that scare Stella is large compared to the number of fears she has overcome. He thinks that there is a genetic and/or neurological factor in Stella's behavior, as she had a pretty ideal upbringing as a puppy. Apparently, it is not unusual for noise phobias to progress as a dog ages, but he also speculates that she may have a partial seizure disorder. He added a Chinese herb, huperzine, that is being tested in Alzheimer's patients, to the clomipramine. He has seen some success in treating seizures with huperzine. We follow up with the Doctors at Tufts every week, and so far have made no changes to her medications. It's a waiting game, as it can take months to see the full effects of the clomipramine.

Dr. Dodman saw lots of videos of Stella having hard times. I wanted him to see her "other side," and played a short video of Stella at the beach in February. We all agreed that it was nice to see happy times, so here she is! Stella is the one in the red coat, barking her head off!

The Six Pack

Meanwhile

It's hard to find the time to write all the background chapters for Stella's blog. I work full-time as an English Professor, and the grading really eats into any free time I might find. When I get a window of opportunity--or make one even though I should be working--I usually spend it on "dog stuff": cooking for dogs, shopping for dogs, training dogs, and my favorite, exercising my dogs.

A really good outing for my dogs used to be a leash walk through Munjoy Hill and down to the Eastern Prom beach for some off leash time. The Eastern Prom beach is a small spit of sand, even at low tide, and it's very heavily used. Lots of people take their puppies and dogs of all sizes to run and play together, so it's hard to find quiet, uncrowded time when little dogs can have some freedom uninterrupted by big goofy dogs invading their space. You really have to keep an eye on your small ones. I pick mine up without hesitation if I feel they are overwhelmed.

But, that's all behind us now that Roscoe and Colby (the Min Pins), Spur (the Papillon mix) and George (the Border Terrier) are in the picture! These are Stella's small dog friends, and we love to go for walks on George's farm, hikes in the woods, and in the winter, runs on the beaches that allow dogs off-leash. Stella and Douce are completely spoiled now, and think that the Eastern Prom, their old favorite place to go, is completely lame.

Today we carved out some time for a beach walk. It was a bit windy, but not too bad a day at 33 degrees. The sky was bright blue and the water darker and green where the waves break. The salt marshes are still frozen over, but the path down to the beach was muddy. Why this grosses Stella out when she is about to get a coat full of wet sand is beyond me, but I carry her over the yucky parts. Stella gets the best exercise chasing George and Spur, and she's in heaven. She races at her top speed, which means she still has to take short cuts to keep up with the boys, and she vocalizes, and not very politely bites George on the butt whenever she catches up with him. We are all hoping that George will put an end to this bad behavior with a firm correction, but he is ever the gentleman.

Exercise is important for all of us, but for Stella and I, who are both prone to anxiety, it's huge. There's nothing like the "Prozac effect" of a bracing walk on the beach or an hour exploring what's new on the farm. Stella is at her happiest when the "six pack," as my mother refers to the small dog pack, is together.She does nicely as a lap dog, but maybe she has the heart of a farm dog.

The Prescription

Stella and I went to see our vet on February 8, after a terrible night with the noises from the baseboard heater. I had been able to calm her down at bedtime on previous nights by holding her lightly across the chest and covering her with a blanket until she relaxed. This night, however, she never relaxed, and it felt like she was trying to crawl into my skin. She lay with her feet against my chest and her face on my face; her respiration was increased and I could feel her heart beating too fast. After 40 minutes, she heard a particularly sharp noise from the heater and jumped from the bed, which is not something that she usually does, and not something she should do--it's too far down for her. I finally let her pace, and eventually, after I fell asleep, she must have gotten tired enough to fall asleep in one of her dog beds.

I had been videotaping her in preparation for our visit with Dr. Dodman, and took the camera in to show our vet. Stella, paradoxically, is very happy to go see the vet, so he hasn't had a chance to see her in a different state. The videos struck him as revealing a "Jekyl and Hyde" personality--outgoing, happy Stella and agonized, terrified Stella. He decided to get her started on meds, which we predicted Dr. Dodman would suggest, and prescribed clomipramine at 20 mg per day (she weighs ten pounds) and xanax prn.

Posted are the videos I showed to our vet.

The Meltdown

The whole family had a difficult summer and fall. My father, who was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma last year, went for a 3 month checkup in July 2007 and they found lesions on his brain. I drove the dogs from Maine to Cape May New Jersey, to help my mother and family care for him as he underwent radiation and a trial drug therapy. He died August 23. We were devastated, and the dogs looked after us well. I took family medical leave to stay with my mother, and we were in Cape May with her two cats until October. The dogs like Cape May, and they love my mother, and the cats became part of their "pack." When we moved back to Maine and I returned to work, they adjusted pretty well to their life at home, but they loved loved loved it when "Grandma" and the cats came to live with us for 6 weeks. Having someone who loved them stay home and keep them company?? Having cats to curl up with and play with? What could be better.

We all weathered our first Christmas without my father and a long drive to Florida, where my mother lives for the winter. The dogs love her condo, especially the lanai. The pack had expanded to include my girlfriend, whom they adore. She had spent the end of December with us in the ice storm, gone with us to Cape May for Christmas, and had met us in Florida for two weeks. We all survived the plane ride home from Florida. And then, when the semester began in mid-January and life returned to "normal"--no grandma in the guest room, no girlfriend at home, no cats in the dog beds, and mom back at work--Stella had a meltdown.

She developed separation anxiety, which she had never exhibited before, and her noise phobias snowballed. New household sounds, such as the baseboard heaters pinging, sent her into full-blown panic. She paced, panted, and trembled. She vocalized when I left the house. She developed anxiety about coming to bed at night, when the heater noises seemed unbearable and sent her flying for cover downstairs. She chose a safe place in the living room, under a table at the far end of the couch, and began to spend hours there. Sleeping at night with a panicked dog was becoming difficult, and leaving Stella in the morning was heart-wrenching. I had to make an appointment with my vet, even though we were scheduled to see Dr. Dodman at Tufts 10 days later. We needed help NOW.

Stella's Story Part 2: The Fearful Dog

Stella's noise phobias were evident from the time she came home, but I took her to puppy classes hoping they would help her conquer her fears. She did fine in her first class, where the dogs were tethered to the wall to keep them spaced well apart from each other, and where they were interacting primarily with their owners. She was a quick study, and I had high hopes for her next class.

When we moved up, dogs were working at various levels of obedience training. One of my friends, who was teaching a retrieve for her Rottie, tossed his very large wooden dumbbell across the room, and it landed with a huge thud. At that moment, Stella decided that she was finished with class. Miserable and afraid, she ran for her crate. I tried to work with her in quieter corners of the room, but she shut down, refused food, and exhibited her most unpleasant (for humans) expression of fear, nervous defecation. With her anxiety seeming to increase rather than decrease, I abandoned the project. I was not willing to subject her to repeated fearful experiences without any signs that she might recover enough to learn, and she was really too afraid to learn.

We waited out the long winter months, and Stella's first spring in Maine came around. In April was time for Douce to train outdoors in agility. We train at a beautiful farm in North Yarmouth, and I brought Stella along for the scenery. There was a pair of secretive bitterns nesting in the pond and the tadpoles were still small. Stella walked the grassy areas of the drive and explored the tall grasses left from winter, but when it was time for instruction, she stayed in her crate where she seemed comfortable.

After 6 weeks of classes, Stella was positively moaning about being confined to her crate, when all the fun was happening out in the agility ring. A classmate accused her of making "baby noises"--she does have quite a vocal range. So she emerged from her crate like a nestling, and seemed to adore agility training. I enrolled her in foundations class, and she worked very nicely at her own pace. While she was leery of many obstacles at first, in the past two summers, she has mastered the Buja board, the big tunnels with their scary change of footing, the chute with its scary enclosure of fabric, a full height A frame. She was even conquering the teeter by this past June. Victory! Until winter came . . .

The indoor training space we moved to is large and echoing. Stella felt pressured by the closer proximity of dogs, and she really hated the sound of the metal teeter banging. When it was her turn to practice, she couldn't even take a jump, and ran for the safety of her crate. I have let her seek the comfort of her crate, but she has never asked to come out and practice they way she did outdoors. It’s been a disappointment, because I think that agility training is a great confidence builder for her.

The Story of Stella Part 1: Coming Home

This is the story of Stella, a delightful and funny Shih Tzu who suffers from noise phobia and anxiety. In two days, she is going to visit Dr. Dodman, one of the premier Certified Animal Behaviorists in the country, who works at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts. I am really looking forward to that consultation, and learning more about what I can do to help Stella cope with situations that cause her stress.

Stella is almost four years old. I met her online as a tiny pup, and fell in love with her. She came from a caring and reputable breeder, and I know that she had a wonderful life in the fourteen weeks before she came from Minnesota to live with me in Maine. The first thing I noticed about Stella was how trusting and confident she can be. Her breeder and I met in the airport, signed paperwork, hugged each other, and then I took Stella to catch a connecting flight home to Portland, Maine. When that flight was canceled, I had a chance to get to know my new charge in a hotel room somewhere near the Minneapolis airport. She was happy to be carried in her Sherpa bag and walked on leash, and she took over of the hotel room immediately! She marched on the furniture, tried to eat my pizza, and stretched out next to me to watch TV. She was so excited about the king bed that she couldn't settle down, and I finally had to put her in the bathroom so we could both get some rest. When we flew home the next day, she did really well on the plane, cuddling up by my neck and letting herself be greeted by flight attendants and passengers.

This was also the day she got her name. Stella is named after Brenda Buja's American Staffordshire Terrier, an "off breed" for agility who did amazingly well in the sport. Stella the Stafforshire was a dog that I had a soft spot for as soon as I met her at an agility class with Douce. I remarked on the charm of Stella's name, and Brenda said that it was a great call name and generously invited me to use it someday. In retrospect, I may have sealed my fate at that moment. Stella was shy! But she worked so well for Brenda in agility. So I was set on Stella as the call name for my new pup, but didn't have an ACK name. A Chinese family on the plane with us was so taken with the puppy, and I told them the story of how the Shih Tzu was a favorite of the Dowager Empress. They suggested that she should have a royal name, after the empress, containing the word star, for Stella, so she came home "Xin Xin Gonzu," or "Princess Star." I may I created a monster at the moment, because my girl has two personalities: shy baby, and princess of the world.

On Stella's first day home, she met Douce, her "big brother," who seemed very disappointed--well disgusted-- that she was not a guinea pig, as he had met one he really liked a few weeks earlier. Stella was a bit leery of him, but took immediately to the cat, Zami. I think that Zami, a black and white creature like Stella, and Stella's siter and her father, looked familiar to her. Unfortunately, Zami, at 17 year of age, wanted nothing to do with puppies, and promptly rebuffed Stella's invitations to play. Douce also pointedly ignored Stella for a week. On the seventh day, he invited her to dig with him in his dog bed. A sibling relationship was born. She chewed on his ears and dog tags, he pulled the bows out of her hair, and all seemed right in the household.

The first time I noticed Stella's shyness was when, during her first week with me, I took her to a coffee shop and sat at a table outside. The traffic clearly bothered her, and when a bus pulled up and she heard the air breaks, she cowered under my cast iron patio chair and defecated. At the time, I attributed her response to a lack of familiarity with a city environment, but noise phobia and nervous defecation would turn out to be an ongoing problem for us . . .