A Little Extra Help -- November 23, 2008

As you may have been reading, Bing’s behavior seemed to have been progressing nicely. He has been on Prozac since the end of February, and initially we saw some nice improvement. But after Cyan was born, he wasn’t getting all the work put into him that I was used to giving him, and that he was accustomed to getting. We did have lots of visitors in the first weeks of Cyan’s life, but it was mostly people he knew. We’d manage the initial greetings with sits and treats, and remind people not to pet him. He is perfectly happy to coexist with people, so long as no one touches him.

The hard part to this setup is that not everyone can follow rules. As a result, one of my family members was bitten by Bing (yes, it did break skin). He had been sitting under the dining room table and the family member just couldn’t resist petting him (since he’s so cute) despite having been warned for three years not to touch him. Sigh.

Rather than panic, I contacted Dr. Karen Overall and asked her opinion of what should be done. I recognized that I had a liability on my hands in the form of Bing. She took all of the information into account and decided that euthanasia was, at this time, unnecessary, but that, of course, management is critical. We added Elavil to his Prozac. Dr. Overall told me not to be surprised if we saw a huge change in him as a result. In addition to this new medication, Bing would be crated when anyone came to the house, and if he was going to be walked in a populated area, I would have him on his bright orange Gentle Leader. For once, I was hopeful that people would perceive it as being a muzzle and keep their distance.

You may recall that Bing isn’t so fond of the crate. He never once took himself to a crate that I can recall, other than the one in the car (but while he goes into it on his own, he’s in a very anxious state). Two days after starting Elavil, he put himself into the crate that we had set up in Pete’s office. Nowadays, Pete often goes downstairs in the morning to find Bing in the crate, curled up on the plush bed inside. When he is crated for company, he sits quietly and waits to be let out. He watches everything that’s going on, and will take treats while in there. He won’t lay down, so he’s not totally comfortable. Having said that, I have a crate in the pole barn, and he runs into it when he is anxious about something that might be going on in a class when I’m using him for a demo dog. Of course, I praise him and click and treat him for making such a decision on his own!

So he has made some significant improvements there. Self-crating is a huge step for him. He seems to have learned that it’s a good place to be, and it’s a great place to go when you’re worried.

Another great effect of the medication is that his focus in the Rally ring has improved greatly. Whereas he used to get scores in the 190's, he now routinely scores in the mid- to upper-200's…and he often gets perfect 210's! Granted, this is not what I was looking for when I made the decision to put him on medication, but it IS a nice bonus. I look forward to doing agility with him again next year…I think he’s ready.

More on hands and cars in another blog.

Bing Blog 42