Scared of Everything

Right now Leonard, our new dog, is lying on the floor at my feet.  At this moment (unlike when I took this picture a few minutes ago) he is asleep, lying on his side, and using my left foot as a pillow.  He finally started eating a normal amount of dog food about four days ago.  Before that, it was just a few bites at a time, and not very much over the course of the day.  I think he was too scared to eat.  But now he's eating, and that's good.

But it was still nearly impossible to walk him during the daytime, when there were more people out and about and lawn mowers and chain saws being used and air conditioners running.  He would get scared, and pull so hard first in one direction and then in another that we were afraid he would hurt himself.  We were still using the red Atlanta Lab Rescue choke collar that had been on him when we got him two weeks ago.  I took him on longer walks early in the morning and in the evening when it was quieter but still a jogger or a dog walker or a bus going by or loud music from a passing car could send him into a panic.  I had never noticed, until trying to walk Leonard, that we obviously are under a flight path for the airport.  Planes fly overhead every minute or two, and I had not ever noticed it, but the sound scared the dog and made him want to run away.  Everything scared him, including children, bags of yard clippings, squirrels in trees overhead, and our neighbors and their leashed dogs.  

So yesterday morning I showed up at Intown Animal Hospital without an appointment.  I got there a few minutes before the time they were scheduled to open because I wanted to increase the chance that we could be seen and hopefully get there before too many other dogs showed up.  He wouldn't get on the scale; I had to pick him up and set him on it.  Thankfully he didn't growl at anyone or at any of the dogs that were there.  Dr. Fiorillo was able to see us, and she prescribed him something to help him calm down.  She was easing into the recommendation that our dog needed something for anxiety, and I interrrupted her.  I'm a doctor, I told her, and I think he needs doggie Valium.  She didn't prescribe Valium but she did prescribe fluoxetine (that's generic for Prozac).  She told us not to use the pinch collar we'd gotten last weekend (we'd already decided that would probably make things worse) and recommended a harness or a head collar.  She recommended that we get some help from a dog trainer, and gave us a phone number for one she says is good.  And she said it was just going to take a while.

As soon as I got Leonard home from his doctor visit, I got his prescription filled at Kroger and gave him his first dose of fluoxetine.  Then I took the pinch collar back to Pet Supplies Plus and exchanged it for a PetSafe Easy Walk Harness.  They didn't have a medium-large so I bought the medium, but when I got home and measured Leonard was afraid it would be too small.  So I took it back and exchanged it for the large which probably is too big even at the smallest setting.  But even not fitting quite right, it's like he's a different dog.  He doesn't pull, and even though he sometimes growls at joggers or other dogs, he often doesn't and sometimes doesn't even pay much attention.  He doesn't panic and try to take off, and he calms down more quickly.  Walking him is now mostly uneventful, although I do still have to tell him that the airplane overhead is not going to hurt him and we can just keep going.  I've ordered the medium-large from Amazon (the pet store recommended I order it on line, because it was hard for them to get the in-between sizes).  But until it comes, I think he'll do okay with this one.

I think the pressure on the choke collar must have scared him, and then when he was startled by anything else it just made it worse.  Without the extra fear from the collar, he's doing much better - I really do think it's that and not one dose of generic Prozac that has made him so much calmer.

So if you see us walking and I take him across the street to avoid a too-close encounter, don't take it personally, and if he growls at you or your dog, don't take that personally either.  It's one thing at a time, and I think now he's no longer afraid of his collar.  Hopefully joggers, other dogs, bags of yard waste, lawnmowers, air conditioners, and planes flying overhead will follow.