Well, shoot. (Medication Update for Napi)

The last time I updated about Napi's progress, I had just had my primary vet consult with the local vet behaviorist. Based on that conversation, we increased his fluoxetine (Prozac) from 10mg to 12.5mg. That was about a month ago, and initially, the dose increase showed some promise. Napi was still barking at things/sounds around the house, but it seemed like maybe it was less intense. On top of that, I was able to interrupt barking fits by calling his name - and he would respond!

But now it's become clear that despite these positive signs, this is NOT the med for my sweet boy. Frankly, he is not very sweet these days. He has gotten more possessive of me; he's growling, snapping, and even biting the other dogs AND my husband if they get too close to me. He's more irritable and tips from excitement to aggression very quickly while playing. He's starting dog fights. It's not good.

So, it's back to the drawing board. We will need to wean off the fluoxetine and then switch to either parotexine (Paxil) or amitriptyline (Elavil). Maisy takes Paxil, so I am biased towards that. The amitriptyline is a TCA - a different class of drug entirely - so it could be a good one to try. I will chat with Dr. Jessy this week and find out what to try next.

One Year on Meds: Recheck with the Veterinary Behaviorist

So Maisy's been on meds for a bit over a year now. The difference between the way she was then and the way she is now is nothing short of miraculous to me. Of course, it's not a miracle at all, it's simply the fact that the biochemistry in her brain is not correct, and the addition of paroxetine makes it so. Whatever. The point is, medication has made such a huge impact on our lives that I am absolutely awestruck when I think about it- like when we have an appointment with our veterinary behaviorist, Dr. Duxbury.

Our appointment this time around was actually pretty short and sweet. We didn't discuss behavior logs (although I took them, and I'll share them here today), and we only watched one video. We talked about what daily life is like now- uneventful, really, but that's a good thing in this case. We also talked about some of the challenges we still face- children, mostly, as well as our disastrous (if you're a chicken, anyway) Thanksgiving. But really we just admired how well Maisy is doing.

Here's a link to the behavior logs/charts from a year ago. At baseline, before medication, she was averaging 3.58 incidents (defined as overreacting to unnoticeable or mild stimuli when at home) per day. About a third of these happened during the night, and frequently woke me up. It was not uncommon for these incidents to include prolonged scanning of the environment/general vigilance, up to and including leaving the room to investigate. After six weeks on medication, this was down to 1.33 incidents per day.

Although this was a great improvement, we decided to increase Maisy's medication slightly. I took another set of behavior logs (link here), and after eight weeks at the new dose, we were down to 1 incident a day, on average.

Things have improved since then, and honestly, it's not even worth making a chart. I kept logs for seven days. Over the course of six of these days, I saw a grand total of three incidents, which makes for an average of 0.5 incidents per day. It involved stuff like “Maisy was lying in my lap while we were watching Star Trek. She heard a car go by with loud bass. She lifted her head and growled.” No vigilance, low intensity, and just all around typical dog behavior.

That seventh day, though? Was awful. She had four incidents that day, mostly because my husband was wrong about everything and forced me to yell at him. Okay, not really, but for some reason we were just really crabby with each other that day, and I was amazed by the impact it had on Maisy. Including the seventh day, her logs shoot up to an average of 1 incident a day. Marital bliss is good for more than just the people involved, I guess.

I also took logs after we got home from Thanksgiving. Every year, we spend five days at my parents' house in South Dakota. It's a significant disruption to her routine, there are tons of cats and dogs and horses and chickens, and it's just hard on her. I also took logs last year after we got home, which means I can compare how she recovered both times:

Her stress recovery period actually took longer than I expected, although it's still an improvement over last year.

The coolest thing about all this doesn't come from the numbers, but rather from her general behavior. The video below was taken back in October. I had left work early to do some much needed yard work. It was a very windy day (that white thing you'll see bouncing around is a styrofoam cooler lid), and across the street you can just barely make out approximately 50 elementary school-aged children playing during recess. And through it all, she did this:



Maisy's behavior was not in any way cued or encouraged by me. She chose to lie down. As Dr. Duxbury noted, Maisy's acting like a normal dog. Who knew she had it in her?

Miraculous or not, both Dr. Duxbury and I are quite pleased with Maisy's progress. In fact, the sum total of Dr. Duxbury's advice to me was to continue to be alert to both the environment and Maisy's body language, and to remove her from situations where she might be triggered, but before she reacts. I think I can do that.

Be Careful What You Wish For

As the owner of a high-energy dog, I have often longed wistfully for something a bit quieter. I have specifically envied my friend Elizabeth, who has a greyhound. For those of you who foolishly believe that as ex-racing dogs, greyhounds must be impossible to live with, let me reassure you: they take retirement very seriously. If a surface is horizontal, a greyound will lie on it. Which, of course, makes Elizabeth's greyhound Beckett seem perfect to me and my fellow crazy-dog-owning friends.

That said, this weekend, when we tried out clonidine as our new short-acting "event" drug, I realized that I sort of prefer a crazy dog over a more mild-mannered one.

Ahhh, that's much better.

Maisy has had some mixed responses to medication. Paroxetine has been a wonder-drug for her, but her experience with trazodone was awful. So, I was nervous when I gave her half of a 0.1 mg tab of clonidine last Saturday. I shouldn't have been- I didn't really see much of a difference in her demeanor.

Still, it was a pretty low-key day to go with a pretty low dose, so the next day we tried a full one. We also happened to be going to a BBQ with dog-friends, and they all commented that Maisy seemed more subdued than usual. She wasn't lethargic, they said, just a bit slower.

I should have been thrilled. I've been saying for years that I want a quieter dog, but to be honest, it wasn't quite as awesome as I'd hoped. I missed Maisy's flitting about, her obnoxious begging, and her quirky antics. While the paroxetine seems to filter out the "static," the clonidine just turns the volume down entirely.

When I shared that with Dr. Duxbury, she replied that she understood completely. While she felt the response was favorable, she recommended only using it for high-anxiety situations. I can use it up to twice a day, but if I need to use it for several days in a row, it's best to taper it off. For example, at the end of the month, Maisy will be staying at a boarding kennel for four days. Once I return, I will give her half doses twice a day for two to three days, and then once a day for a few more days after that. I foresee a very boring week...

While the medication will be helpful for situations like boarding or emergency vet visits, I know I won't be using it regularly, nor for things like trials. I just don't like the quiet Maisy. I'd much rather have my enthusiastic, outgoing, crazy dog. So, be careful what you wish for, guys- you might find that you've been wrong!

Recheck with the Veterinary Behaviorist: Plans for the Future

After all my blathering on, I still haven't gotten to the crux of the appointment: where do we go from here? So today I'm going to share what Dr. Duxbury and I agreed to do next.

Medication
Not ones to mess with a good thing, we are not changing Maisy's paroxetine. She will remain on a daily 10mg dose for the forseeable future. I don't know when/if we'll ever take her off it, but for now, it remains effective and awesome.

However, given how traumatic her recent vet visits were, and considering that Maisy will be staying at a boarding kennel for the first time in her life next month, we decided that we do want have a little something for special occasions.

We did try trazodone at her ultrasound, and I was unimpressed with it then. Still, that day was weird- she was already stressed from her appointment the day before, and the city was doing ripping out the sidewalk in front of our house that day. Plus, Dr. Duxbury really prefers trazodone over the alternatives (it's typically less addicting and seems to have fewer side effects, including paradoxical effects), so we agreed to give it another try, this time on a day when nothing was going on.

Training
Based on the feedback Dr. Duxbury received from our reactive dog class trainer, we discussed the possibility of trying more conventional training classes. (I'm thinking I'll try an advanced rally class, but I might try an advanced obedience class, too- depends on what works best in our schedule, really.)

We're going to take it slow, though.

Maisy and I will remain in our current reactive dog class, but only attend every other week. Dr. Duxbury said we could start taking regular classes immediately, but I think I'm going to take it a bit slower instead. My plan is to go to the club where I plan to take classes every other week and set up Maisy's crate and do the same stuff as we do at reactive dog class: mostly chill in the crate, but have her come out to heel, work on a perch, etc., near the other dogs. I'll probably spend two to three months doing the every-other-week thing before actually signing up and attending a class.

The purpose of doing reactive dog class every other week is to give us a barometer of how Maisy is doing. If Maisy gets reactive in the regular class, but not in reactive dog class, we'll know that she's not ready for the regular class yet. If she gets worked up in the regular class and the reactive dog class, we know there's an issue, but that it's probably not related to the class schedule.

Beyond classes, though, we have two additional assignments: first, I am to condition Maisy to wear a muzzle. This was mostly my idea, but Dr. Duxbury did fit Maisy for a muzzle because I couldn't figure out what size she needed. (As it turns out, she's between sizes.)

 
Second, I am to condition Maisy to love being picked up. She doesn't care for this right now, but if she finds being picked up pleasant, it will make it easier to move her through crowded doorways and spaces without increasing her stress level. It's meant to be a management strategy, to prevent stress, as opposed to something I do in response to stress.

Trialing
Because Maisy did so well just hanging out at the last trial, Dr. Duxbury said we could enter the next one! However, we both agreed that the best course of action is to play it by ear. I'll go, hang out, and if Maisy's doing well, do a day-of-show entry. And then, depending on how she's doing as we enter the ring, I am to seriously consider purposely NQing, and either do just one to two signs, or have a “cookie run” instead of trying to actively compete. Either way, we've been given permission to enter the ring, and I'm happy about that!


Both Dr. Duxbury and I are thrilled with how Maisy's doing. We'll return in three to six months to reassess things again, and I am very excited to see where she's at then.

Recheck with the Veterinary Behaviorist: Behavior Logs

It seems hard to believe that Maisy has been on medication for eight months now. Sometimes it feels like just yesterday that we started this journey, and at others, it feels like it was a lifetime ago. On Monday, we had Maisy's six-month recheck with her veterinary behaviorist, and once again, I must take this opportunity to highly recommend Dr. Duxbury at the University of Minnesota Behavior Department. As always, I absolutely adored working with her. She's full of great insight and is absolutely masterful at reading body language. She has tons of experience, which leaves me feeling very comfortable with her recommendations. And it doesn't hurt that I really like her.

Anyway, I have so much that I want to share about Maisy's progress, about Dr. Duxbury's reactions, and about what the future holds that this will probably take multiple posts. Today's entry will take a look at the behavior logs I kept in the past couple of weeks. (Click here to see past behavior logs.)

Usually, I keep a week or two of logs to get an idea of how Maisy is doing. Her pre-medication baseline was 3-4 anxiety episodes per day, so I was pretty excited to see how she was doing. This set of behavior logs were different, though. You see, right before I planned to start keeping the logs, Maisy ended up in the doggie ER. She then had two back-to-back appointments with a specialist, which she found incredibly stressful. I kept logs anyway knowing that they wouldn't be an accurate representation of how she's doing in general, but feeling like it was my duty. Then I remembered that I have logs from the last time she had a stressful event (five days at my parents' house at Thanksgiving), so I laid them out side by side (click the image to enlarge it):

As you can see, I have data from the day of the stressful event (in both cases, I started keeping logs in the late afternoon), as well as for the subsequent week. The initial response is the same: 3 instances of anxiety vocalizations or startles on the day of the stressful event. And, I'd say that her recovery time is about the same for both sets of data- three full days after the stressful event, although I'd definitely say there was residual stress for a couple days beyond that both times. 

I have to admit, I was a bit disappointed by this. One of my goals was really for Maisy to bounce back quicker after a stressful event, and that has not happened. In fact, now I'm not sure it can happen; I don't know that it's possible to hurry stress hormones out of the body.

However, I am thrilled by how much better she's doing in handling the stress. I mean, check out that graph! The red lines are so much lower than the blue lines! Before, over the full seven-day period, she had an average of 2.86 instances of anxiety per day. Now, that's just 1.14. Before, over the three-day primary recovery period, she had an average of 4 instances per day, and now it's only 2 per day. More than that, the quality of those anxious outbursts has changed. The intensity and duration have gone way down.

So, even though these aren't exactly conventional behavior logs, they are incredibly interesting, and I'm quite happy with Maisy's progress. I absolutely love what Paxil has done for Maisy's quality of life. Of course, now the question is... did Dr. Duxbury agree that the Paxil has been helpful? Was she as impressed by the results of our logs? I'll let you know in my next post...

Medication Update: 5 months

It’s been five months since Maisy first started taking paroxetine (Paxil), and three months since we increased the dose. So how is she doing? Absolutely fabulous. I took behavior logs for two days this week… if you can call it that. I didn’t actually write anything down! She might have vocalized a slight wuff at one point, but I wasn’t sure- it was so quiet that I couldn’t tell if she was sighing or wuffing. This isn’t to say that she doesn’t have any outbursts at all anymore- she does- but they are far less frequent, and they don’t have the same anxious, overly-vigilant quality any more.

In addition to relaxing at home, she’s relaxing while out and about. You’ll remember, of course, that she was able to relax in class recently, and we’ve started working on going back to trials, too. There’s more work to be done there, but I’m feeling pretty confident about it since the behavior modification work I’ve done around dudes seems to be paying off.

I’m also happy to report that she’s finally earned working privileges in her Tuesday night reactive dog class. We started working on being calm in her crate during class awhile back, and the deal was that she would spend classes in her crate until she could go the full hour in a covered without vocalizing or snarking at the other dogs. For a long time, she had only one little outburst per class, usually towards the end. Honestly, I was beginning to wonder if she’d ever make it out of that crate! But this week she spent the whole class in her crate calmly. In fact, as we first arrived, she was really excited to say hi to the Scary Doberman (Maisy hates large, dark-colored dogs with prick ears). This is huge progress for her.

Overall, I'm really glad that I chose to put Maisy on medication. I get the occasional email from readers asking about our experiences. Am I glad I did it? Do I regret it at all? And perhaps the most common concern: did her personality change? This last question makes so much sense to me- after all, I loved Maisy just as she was before I put her on medication. I didn’t want her drugged, I just wanted her normal.

If the medication has changed her personality, it’s only because it has allowed her personality to shine through even stronger. She is so much more relaxed, confident and outgoing. I really feel like the anxiety was altering her personality by preventing its full expression. Indeed, the medication is allowing her to grow into her true self. She’s the same dog, but better, and I am so grateful for it. My only regret is that I didn't do it sooner.

Medication Update: 8 weeks at 10mg

Maisy has now been on the increased dose of paroxetine for 8 weeks, which means that it should be at its full effectiveness. At our recheck appointment with the veterinary behaviorist, Dr. Duxbury commented that the level of improvement Maisy had shown would probably be enough for most people. I, being greedy, wanted more, which is why we increased the medication. I am glad we did, because I’m thrilled with the additional improvement I’ve seen in Maisy.

As you may remember, before beginning the medication, Maisy was averaging 3.58 incidents per day in which she would startle, bark, or growl at mild or undetectable stimuli. About a third of these would happen overnight, waking us both up. These behaviors were pretty intense: approximately 1 in 4 lasted longer than a minute, and she would scan the environment and/or or leave the room to look for the trigger roughly 1 in every 3 times.

After seven weeks on the 8mg dosage, she was averaging 2 incidents per day, and thankfully, the number at night had reduced dramatically, happening roughly 1 time out of 10. Similarly, the duration of her behaviors shortened, and she wasn’t showing any vigilance. You can see the logs for the first two months of medication here.

Now? Well, at 8 weeks on the new dose, she’s averaging 1 incident per day, although it’s honestly hard to label some of them as incidents. For example, on Sunday, she simply looked up and softly “wuffed.” I wrote it down to be consistent, but that sort of thing doesn’t concern me in the least. The average duration of her behaviors is 5.7 seconds, which shows that her vigilance has greatly reduced, and that she recovers quickly. And the absolute best thing? She isn’t waking me up at night anymore.

Here’s the chart for the last two months (click to embiggen):


As you can see, it’s been up and down. She actually did the best at four weeks, with a rough spot at six weeks. I saw a similar trend the first time around, and I’m beginning to wonder if this is just a normal reaction to SSRIs. At any rate, it's clear that the increased dose has had positive behavioral effects.

These effects have carried over to Maisy’s behavior outside our house, as well. Recently, I took Maisy to a pet store on a Saturday afternoon, and it was fairly busy inside. There were rude dogs, men in funny hats and unpredictable children, and yet she handled herself well. In the 45 minutes that we were there, she only had one outburst, a very quick bark at a large golden on a flexi, literally dragging a child wearing clompy boots down the aisle towards us. I can hardly blame her for her reaction! I think the best thing about the visit, though, was that I wasn’t actively managing her. I wasn’t requesting behaviors or shoving treats in her mouth, which is a huge change from how it used to be.

Needless to say, I’m thrilled. After consulting with Dr. Duxbury, we agreed to keep Maisy on this dose. Going forward, I’ll take behavior logs once a month, and then return for a follow-up appointment in June.

Even more exciting… Dr. Duxbury said I could work towards getting Maisy ready for trials again! I've been given orders to take things very slow, so I will be very purposeful about the level of stimulation I expose her to. I am working on a training plan to follow so that I don’t accidentally push Maisy too hard, and I’ll share it with you all soon. If there’s anyone with experience with this, I’d love to hear what you did.

For now, I just want to say that I’m so grateful for the knowledge and experience that Dr. Duxbury has shared with me, the support I’ve gotten from you all, and best of all, my newly relaxed dog. It’s been a crazy journey, but it’s been worth it!

Medication Update: 6 weeks at 10mg

Maisy has now been on the increased dose of paroxetine for 6 weeks. After the awesome logs two weeks ago, the behavior logs this week didn’t look so good. I did three days of logs, and Maisy had a total of 10 incidents where she seemed to overreact to small or undetectable stimuli, for an average of 3.3 per day. Just two weeks ago, she’d had only one incident in three days.

When I wrote Dr. Duxbury, Maisy’s veterinary behaviorist, after the first two days to let her know, I theorized that the disappointing results might have been due to the fact that I’d slacked off on my behavior modification work. Dr. Duxbury agreed that was a possibility, but also added that sometimes dogs get a bit quieter after starting a new med or dosage, and perhaps that's why the logs looked so good last time. She also said that dogs often cycle through “good” times and “bad” ones, which certainly seems possible. When I went back through the previous posts I’ve made on Maisy’s progress, I saw that the numbers do fluctuate from week to week.

Personally, I prefer my explanation, not because I don’t value Dr. Duxbury’s expertise (I do!), but because mine seems the easiest to control! I don't like it when I can't fix things, and my theory lends itself best to action. So, I decided to test my theory. After I took those two days of logs, I spent the next 24 hours diligently tossing treats as part of our counter-conditioning plan. Then I took another day’s worth of data. The end result didn't exactly prove me right, but it suggested that my theory has merit.

The first two days of logs showed an average of four incidents per day. The last one showed an average of two. The duration of each behavior also dropped, from an average of 9.6 seconds to 3.0 seconds. And, while she both left the room and displayed signs of vigilance 25% of the time during the first two days, she didn’t do either during the last day. Obviously, I can’t draw any firm conclusions from such a limited amount of data, but it’s enough to convince me: medication is more effective when combined with behavior modification.

Despite the worsening numbers, the overall trend remains positive. Maisy is sleeping well. She relaxes around the house and no longer needs constant interaction. She recovers quickly, and overall, the intensity of her reactions is way down. And hey- she’s no longer waking me up in the middle of the night! I am really, really happy that we chose to give her medication. It wasn't an easy decision, but it was clearly the right one.

Medication Update: 4 weeks at 10mg

I love Paxil.

That’s what I told Maisy’s veterinary behaviorist when I updated her on Maisy’s progress. Needless to say, the report was absolutely glowing. You guys, I love Paxil.

As a reminder, at baseline, Maisy was having an average of 3.58 incidents a day in which she barked, growled or startled at undetectable or minimal stimuli. It wasn’t uncommon for those incidents to last longer than a minute. She would trot around the house vigilantly, scanning the environment, looking for… something. After two weeks on paroxetine, that had reduced to 2.5 per day. At four weeks, it was 2.67. At six weeks, 1.33. At seven weeks, it was up again to 2. Then we increased Maisy’s dosage from 8mg to 10mg, and after two weeks, she was having an average of 2.5 incidents per day.

I took three days worth of behavior logs this week. Guess how many incidents she had. No, go on, guess. I’ll wait…Okay, are you ready?

She had one.

Not per day. One. Total. For three whole days. And the incident was pretty minor at that. I’m not entirely sure what happened, as I wasn’t in the same room with her, but I heard her bark twice. The barks were somewhere between an alert bark and a play bark, and when I went to check on her, she was sitting in the living room, wagging her tail, and looking through French door at her cat, Malcolm. Malcolm was next to the front door, and if I had to guess, he probably made some small noise that startled her. There was no vigilance. She didn’t leave the room, and the incident wasn’t long and drawn out. She just barked. And that was it. That’s all that happened in the last three days.

At Maisy’s re-check appointment a month ago, I told Dr. Duxbury that I was hoping to reduce the number of incidents from 2 to 3 per day down to 2 to 3 per week. I guess we made it.

I love Paxil.

But that’s not all the good news. For instance, Maisy continues to sleep. In fact, this weekend, I emailed my friends to ask how much their dogs sleep, because Maisy is now averaging 17 to 18 hours of sleep per day. (For the record, this was pretty much right on with what their dogs do.) Whereas she used to pace, harass the cats, or incessantly drop a tennis ball in my lab, now she tends to simply curl up next to me and snooze.

Along those same lines, the other day Maisy was doing just that, and when I got up and left the room, she didn’t follow me. This has never happened before. She has always followed me, even if I was just moving a few feet away. Not that I minded, of course, but I always felt bad that she would jump up as if startled just because I moved. I actually love that this time, she just sleepily watched me walk away.

Another first happened when my husband came home late (think 2 am) one night. Usually, this causes an explosion of barking and growling, but she didn’t make a peep that night. She woke up, and she was excited to see him, but she was quiet. (While I count this as a success, I have to admit, I never really minded that she was so loud when someone entered the house late at night.)

She’s doing great in class, too. In our shaping class on Sunday, there were two new dogs present, and Maisy was initially a bit stressed as a result. Then I realized that I had fallen back into my old habits of trying to shovel treats in her mouth as quickly as possible. When I realized what I was doing, I remembered Dr. Duxbury’s advice to take slow down when I’m working with her. Immediately, Maisy relaxed. Wow!

Tuesday night in reactive dog class, Stella, the bouvier that Maisy always reacts to, was back in class after an eight week hiatus. I wasn’t sure how it would go, but Maisy silently watched Stella from her crate, jumping up only once. Later on, she barked at Stella as she left, but she settled down pretty quickly. So, while she wasn’t perfect, she was pretty darn good!

In fact, she’s been so good that Dr. Duxbury wanted me to confirm that Maisy is still energetic and playful at appropriate times. And she is. She loves her walks, chases her ball enthusiastically, is eager to train with me, and still gets the nightly zoomies. Her personality hasn’t changed at all. She’s just more comfortable.

Have I mentioned that I love Paxil? Because I totally do.

Medication Update: 2 weeks at 10mg

Maisy sleeping at my parents' house.
I still can't get over it.

Maisy has been on her increased dose of paroxetine for two weeks now. At her re-check appointment, I was told to expect basically the same process as before: side effects possible in the first two weeks, with full effectiveness at six to eight weeks. Thankfully, on the former point, she’s been just fine- no side effects. On the latter, well, I come bearing behavior logs! (If you want to look at the last data set, it’s available here.)

First, and most importantly, the intensity and duration of Maisy’s anxiety-related behaviors around the house continues to decrease. I have three objective factors that I’ve used to measure this: First, did she leave the room? At baseline, she left the room 35% of the time. At both seven weeks and this week, she didn’t. Second, did she scan the environment during the behavior? At baseline, 30% of her behaviors included elements of vigilance. Again, at both seven weeks and this week, that had dropped to 0%. And third, did the behavior last longer than one minute? At baseline, 23% of the behaviors did. At seven weeks, 13% did. This week, none did. In fact, the average duration was just 9.3 seconds!

Subjectively, I’ve also felt that the intensity of her behaviors have reduced. In fact, I’ve started to have trouble defining the vocalization type. Her barks have been very soft, and almost “wuffy” in character. Interestingly frequency of each type of vocalization is more or less the same as it has been in the past: none were silent, 40% were a wuff only, 10% were a growl only, 30% were a bark only, and 20% included multiple vocalization types. However, this does represent a reduction in multiple vocalization types, which does support the idea that the intensity has reduced.

On average, she is having slightly more incidents per day now (2.5) than she did two weeks ago (2). Still, they have reduced from the baseline (3.58). Also, during her first two weeks on medication, she had a few oddities like this, so I’m not too worried. Given the incredible reduction in intensity, as well as the low duration of behavior, I’m very pleased with the current results.

I’m also very excited because only one behavior (10%) occurred during the middle of the night. In fact, there was one night where I was woken up by a large thump, and Maisy looked at me like I was crazy to be awake. At baseline, 35% of her outbursts happened at night. Needless to say, I’m sleeping much, much better these days.

That said, I have noticed a few interesting things. First, only one of the responses was what I’d label “reasonable,” and that happened when Brian came home fairly late at night. I’m really okay with her barking at people walking in the house after 10pm. However, the door does seem to serve as a source of anxiety: during half of all her behaviors, she looked at the door, I will have to start doing some desensitization around them.

Even more interestingly, food was involved a whopping 70% of the time. In half of all the behaviors logged this time, I was eating a snack, and Maisy was (politely) begging. Each time, a small noise caused her to vocalize, even though the exact same noise caused no reaction either prior to or after snack time. These instances did not appear to be resource guarding (she usually rushes at or snaps at the offending cat when it is). The remaining food-related anxiety behaviors happened while she was eating supper. In both of those, she was in a different room than I was, so it is possible those were resource guarding. Still, I don’t think they were based on the location of the cats at that time.

In terms of reactivity, I think she’s doing better overall. However, we have had a few incidents recently. The most troubling was The Dude Incident. After our recent snowstorm, Maisy and I were shoveling out our garage. Maisy was off leash, and we were playing the game in the alley. Occasionally she greeted a neighbor with enthusiasm, but when a man came walking down the alley, she lost her mind. Now, this, in and of itself, is not remarkable. In the past, a similar situation might have caused her to rush towards the scary thing/person, stop about five to ten feet away, and bark and growl. This time, she began circling the man, nipping at him (but never making contact) while growling and barking, somewhat like an overaroused herding dog might.

I’m not sure what to think. She’s never gotten close before, so why now? Has the medicine helped her feel brave enough to face her fears? And if so… is that a good thing? Frankly, I’ve been hoping that this is just a weird side-effect thing (she did something similar during her first two weeks on paroxetine, though she didn’t get as close), but realistically, I know it’s probably an issue. My trainer and I are working on setting up some training opportunities with men so that I can properly do the necessary desensitization and counter-conditioning. Needless to say, in the meantime she won’t be allowed off-leash.

The only other reactivity has been more understandable. In class on Sunday, she lunged at her greyhound friend, Beckett when he was wearing a coat, and at Beckett’s mom when she was carrying some jump standards. Both of those things are weird enough to cause her some anxiety. She did not, however, lunge at the two new dogs in class. In Tuesday night class, the only time she made a peep was when a child clomped through the area wearing snow boots. Once she saw the child, she was fine (and in fact, just about exploded with excitement because she really likes this particular kid), but the noise put her on edge.

Overall, I’m still very happy that I put Maisy on the paroxetine. I’m excited to see the changes over the coming weeks- I have a hunch that this is the right dose for her, but only time will tell.

Update: This afternoon, I emailed our veterinary behaviorist with the raw data logs and a short summary of how things are going. She responded very quickly, saying that she agreed with my theory regarding Maisy's Dude Issue, adding that this is why she worries about vets prescribing meds without discussing behavior mod to accompany them.

She also said that she thinks the increased anxiety around the cats may be an extension of her resource guarding. Her theory is that Maisy knows the cats are still in the house, and knows that they could suddenly appear even when they aren't nearby. As a result, she listens more closely to the noises around the house, and reacts to them a bit quicker. After she told me that, I looked at the logs again, and found that roughly three-fourths of her food-related anxiety behaviors were provoked by noises the cats made in the other room. (I didn't know the cause of the remaining quarter.)

I just have to say, her continued support between appointments is incredibly helpful, and I cannot recommend her enough. Seriously, if you live in Minnesota and need a veterinary behaviorist, you should see Dr. Duxbury.

Re-check with the Veterinary Behaviorist

Maisy had her eight week re-check with Dr. Duxbury, her board-certified veterinary behaviorist, on Monday. This appointment lasted longer than I expected- almost two hours- and we reviewed the behavior logs and the charting that I had done. We also discussed my general observations, as well as my goals and hopes for Maisy. I guess I still don’t know if Maisy’s response has been “typical,” but Dr. Duxbury did say that for most people, the level of improvement we’ve seen in Maisy is “enough.”

I don’t want to undermine Maisy’s progress- it’s been phenomenal, and I’m thrilled. In fact, Maisy was incredible in the exam room yesterday. At our first appointment, Maisy alternately paced and sought out interaction. She settled only when I asked her to, and it was very clearly an operant behavior, not a truly relaxed one.

This time around, Maisy was much calmer. She spent most of the time on her mat, and she had a very soft, heavy-lidded look to her eyes. Incidentally, I’ve heard people talk about this look on email lists before, but never really understood what they meant. Now I do, and I must have pointed it out to Dr. Duxbury half a dozen times because I was so amazed. Although she did get up from time to time, her body movements were soft and fluid instead of quick and frantic. She wasn’t pacing so much as she was bored. She was truly a different dog. Dr. Duxbury even said that she wished she’d taken video at Maisy’s initial consult!

With that said, I want more progress. Maybe that makes me greedy, I don’t know, but like Dr. Duxbury said, we won’t know how much more is possible without trying. She certainly didn’t seem to think I was being unreasonable, and I completely trust that she would say something if I was.

We discussed my goals for Maisy. Dr. Duxbury wasn’t surprised that Maisy had a hard time when we were at my parent’s house, but she was a bit concerned by how long it took Maisy to recover. (I actually feel like a three to four day recovery period is a big improvement for her, but I don’t have any data to back that up.) We agreed that a short-acting, as needed medication is probably in Maisy’s best interest. We discussed both trazodone, which is a serotonin modulator, and alprazolam (Xanax), which is a benzodiazepine. Since we don’t have any big events planned for several months, we decided to wait until we’ve decided what to do with her routine meds.

Because I want to see the number of anxiety-provoked reactions around the house reduced from the current average of two per day to something like three or four per week, we agreed to increase Maisy’s paroxetine. Currently, she’s on 8mg (1mg/kilo of body weight), and we decided to increase it to 10mg (1.25mg/kilo). I will continue to keep intermittent behavior logs, and we’ll consult again in four to six weeks. At that time, we’ll discuss increasing to a max of 12mg (1.5mg/kilo) and/or adding a second medication (probably clonidine, a centrally acting alpha-agonist).

Speaking of behavior logs, I totally got a gold star. I’m glad they were useful, because they are an awful lot of work. Honestly, I’m not looking forward to doing more of them, but I can’t deny their importance. Dr. Duxbury’s student analyzed them for patterns (she thought maybe Maisy was having a series of lower-intensity behaviors that culminated in a high-intensity one, but that theory didn’t pan out). We also discussed the fact that some of the stimuli that Maisy is reacting to is reasonable- for example, someone at the door- while some of it isn’t. My new task is to start coding my logs in an effort to pinpoint which type of stimulus is causing most of her reactions.

I will also start doing some desensitization and counter-conditioning around the house. I decided to focus primarily on interactions with the cats, mostly in an effort to help reduce the stress in their lives, too. Dr. Duxbury also recommended giving a treat when Maisy startles but doesn’t go over the top. Obviously, being consistent with this will yield the best results, so I’m going to have to pay close attention to what’s going on. I will also need to have treats close by, which may result in my being mugged for a few days. This could be interesting!

Like I said, it was a great appointment, and I was absolutely thrilled with the professionalism, respect and attention we received. Seriously, if anyone in the area needs a vet behaviorist, I can’t recommend Dr. Duxbury enough.

Medication Update: 8 Week Re-Check

Maisy has a re-check appointment with Dr. Duxbury, her veterinary behaviorist, this week. We are going to evaluate her response to Paxil, the current dosage, and consider if an additional medication might be helpful. I’ve kind of been freaking out about this. I have no idea if Maisy’s response to the meds is typical; maybe the average dog is doing better (or worse) at this point. But I guess this is why I hired a professional, right?

There is much less preparation to be done this time around; no form to fill out and no videos to be taken. Because I’m a geek, I have been keeping behavior logs, although the behaviorist didn’t request them. Instead, I was told to be ready to share my general impressions of how Maisy’s doing, and the areas of continuing difficulty.

I find this incredibly overwhelming. I think she’s doing well, and I’m happy that I chose to put her on medication. But she’s not doing as well as I hoped, and I have no idea how much improvement is reasonable to expect. I don’t think Maisy will ever be “normal,” but how close can we get without overmedicating her?

After several days of panic, and many scribbled pages of notes, I realized that it would be easiest to think in terms of goals. How would I like to see Maisy behave? What do I want to see change? In the paperwork I filled out prior to her consult, I identified two goals: for Maisy to be able to relax, and (if possible) to be able to take her to trials again. Although I still have these goals, I’ve expanded on them so that I have a better idea of what I’m looking for. I’ve also prioritized them, because it’s far more important that she can relax at home than at a trial. I’ve listed these goals below, along with my comments on her progress.

1. Ability to relax at home. Specifically, I want Maisy to be able to hang out and/or take naps without startling over undetectable or minor environmental stimuli. Overall, she’s improved. Her vigilance has reduced, as well as frequency of outbursts. The outbursts are lower intensity and lower duration. She is less restless, and is choosing to nap instead of seek constant interactions with others. She is sleeping more often and more soundly, and is demonstrating increased impulse control around the cats.

2. Ability to settle in low-stimulation environments. If I take her to a friend or family member’s house, I’d like for her to feel comfortable enough to lie down and chill instead of pacing or wandering around. Although my parents thought Maisy did well at their house over Thanksgiving, and commented that she seemed calmer, I think that her vigilance and outbursts were on par with baseline data, or possibly even higher. (I wish I’d done behavior logs at their house.) Also, she paced the entire time we were at my grandparents’ house one afternoon, and couldn't settle, even when there were treats involved.

3. Ability to sleep in low-stimulation environments, especially for overnight trips to a family member’s house, but also at hotels. Maisy didn’t sleep the first night at my parents’ house, instead pacing most of the night, punctuated with barking outbursts. After about 12 hours, she seemed to get used to the environment, and was sleeping better than she had prior to medication (even at home), but not as well as she had been when I did the logs for the six-week update.

4. Ability to recover from stressful events within 24 to 48 hours. Maisy had an average of 3.75 outbursts a day for approximately four days after returning home from my parents’ house, at which point they reduced to the six-week levels, or maybe even a bit better. Despite the frequency of outbursts, 40% were silent (compared to 14% at baseline), which seems good. She was able to sleep (and absolutely crashed the night we got home), although not as well as she’d been doing prior to the trip.

5. Ability to go to trials without demonstrating reactivity. Bonus points if she can relax in her crate at a trial, or can do full days and/or multiple days. Obviously, we haven’t tried this yet. We’ll continue to wait and watch to see if it’s appropriate. It may not be, but I would really like to be able to do at least a single run at a small trial once or twice a year. That said, I do recognize that it’s not likely that she’ll ever be in it for the long haul.


Overall, while I’m pleased with Maisy’s progress, I’m hoping for more. I’m looking forward to discussing everything with Dr. Duxbury, and can't wait to tell you guys about the appointment. It's sure to be interesting!

This Thanksgiving I'm Thankful for Paxil: a 6 Week Update

Wow! What a difference two weeks makes! My last med update was kind of… lackluster. The numbers were actually a little worse, even if, subjectively, I felt she was doing better. This time around, the numbers have improved and my subjective impressions feel much more definite. For anyone interested, here’s the baseline, here’s the first update, at two weeks, and here’s the last one, at four weeks.

I did another round of behavior logs for 48 hours earlier this week. Here’s the cold, hard data:

The 45 minute resting test is where we chill out together and I measure how often she startles or raises her head during a nap. During the baseline, she had 11 instances, punctuated with lots of vigilance. At two weeks, it was also 11 times, but with less vigilance. At four weeks, it was an abysmal 19 times, but I think that was mostly because we’d gone for a walk first, which totally riles her up.

This week… Well, it’s getting much harder to count. Do I count when she lifts her head up or otherwise move? If so, there were 14 instances of that. But if I only count times where she was startled or vigilant, it was three. THREE. Most of her movements were stretching, and when she lifted her head, it seemed more like she was bored, not restless. She was sleepy-eyed, and moved slowly and lazily. This is in sharp contrast to six weeks ago, when her movements were quick, frantic, and she scanned the environment frequently.

Next up: startling or alerting towards subtle environmental stimuli. At baseline, she had an average of 3.375 per day, many at night, with prolonged vigilance following an incident 45% of the time. At two weeks, this number was 2 per day, with vigilance 25% of the time. At four weeks, it was 2.667 per day, and again with 25% vigilance.

This week… Again, it’s so much harder to count. Technically, there were four instances, putting her average at 2 per day. However, most of them were questionable. During one, I was sitting right next to her on the bed when she jumped off. My husband, who was in the adjacent room, said that it seemed like she was startled, but I hadn’t gotten that impression from my vantage point. During another, we couldn’t tell if she was rushing at a cat or not (I haven’t been counting those incidents because it was too hard to get accurate baseline data on them). It had all the qualities of being cat-related, but we hadn’t heard the cats do anything naughty. Finally, in a third instance, I honestly couldn’t tell if she was sneezing or if she was “wuffing.” Which leaves only one honest-to-goodness incident, which had only mild vigilance following it. And none of them were at night. (Yay!)

As for reactivity, this is the part where I have to admit that I haven’t been walking her as much lately; winter in Minnesota has set in with cold, snow, ice and early sunsets, all of which conspire against us. Still, she has had two reactivity-free class sessions, which is amazing!

So, while data looks pretty good to me, what’s even more amazing are the things that I can’t quantify- the little things that are going on around the house, and which prompt me to email my dog friends about five hundred times a day. I think they might be tired of things like “OMG SHE’S SLEEPING YOU GUYS.”

For one thing, she’s sleeping more. I don’t mean quantity- she’s lying down about the same amount as she used to- but rather, quality. Instead of dozing, she’s actually sleeping. On Sunday, she actually began running in her sleep, something I’ve never, ever seen her do before, and which indicates that she’s probably in REM, the deepest level of sleep.

Similarly, on Tuesday morning, I rolled over in bed. Maisy sleeps with us, and usually when I shift, she jumps up and moves. But that morning, she didn’t stir, not when I rolled over, not when I touched her, not even when I lifted her paws up and then dropped them. She was limp. She was asleep.

Further proof that she’s probably sleeping more is the fact that this weekend, my husband repeatedly commented on how cute she was, lying flat on her side. Wonderful though he is, he’s not a terribly observant man, so for something like this to make his screen is pretty amazing.

Maisy is also a world-class beggar, but she's polite about it: she'll lie down with her chin on my foot or leg, and stare at me with her big brown eyes. When she does this, she is very clearly working me, but this week, while begging, her eyes just kept closing. It was like she just couldn't keep them open.

She’s also beginning to demonstrate the ability to self-interrupt. She has long taken on the role of Cat Cop around our house, rushing and barking at them when they do naughty things like jump on the counter or scratch the furniture. Usually, that rushing includes running into them and bowling them over, but sometimes she will stop herself and then look at me, kind of confused about what she ought to do instead. I praise her lavishly when that happens.

All in all, I’m thrilled with how she’s doing. She seems so relaxed these days. Full medication effectiveness comes at eight weeks, so I’m hoping that the little bit of anxiety I’m still seeing subsides. But even if it doesn’t, I’m so thankful for how she now seems comfortable in her own fur.

I wrote this entry on Tuesday morning, because I knew we were leaving for my parents' house for Thanksgiving that afternoon, and that I wouldn't have time to crunch the numbers once there. Of course, I expected that a new environment would make Maisy edgier, but I wasn't prepared for how much. She's returned to pre-medication levels in terms of frequency of outbursts. She's barking, growling and rushing at things.

Even so, I do think the vigilance has reduced. Initially, she seemed to search out the causes of sounds (the hundred year old clock especially unnerved her), but she quickly adjusted. She isn't as relaxed as she has been at home, of course, but I'm pleased that the vigilance has reduced. Even better- she's sleeping here! The picture in this entry, poor quality as it is, was taken on my parents' couch. She was sound asleep, and was even doing that twitchy-almost-running in her sleep! Also, my dad commented that she seems "calmer" than she used to, and he didn't know she was on meds.

I have a lot to be thankful for today.

Medication Update: 4 weeks

Maisy has now been on paroxetine for four weeks, three of which have been at the full dose of 8mg. When Maisy’s veterinary behaviorist prescribed it, she said it would take 4-6 weeks before we saw any results. Since I saw some improvement at two weeks, I was very excited to see what she’d be like at four weeks. So, for the last three days, I’ve been keeping behavior logs in order to get some objective data.

The data has been… interesting. I was expecting to see a decrease in the number of outbursts Maisy is having, but this has not happened. Prior to her appointment, Maisy would bark or growl at subtle or undetectable stimuli an average of 3.375 times a day. At two weeks, this had decreased to an average of 2 times a day. During this week’s behavior logs, Maisy’s average was 2.667 times a day.

Although this is a reduction from the baseline, I was still disappointed when I saw this. Of course, the numbers are the numbers, but I really felt like Maisy is doing better than she was, especially since it seems like Maisy isn’t as vigilant as she used to be. She might be vocalizing when something startles her, but she seems to settle down faster.

So, I went back to the original behavior logs. Although I hadn’t been scoring the intensity of her reactions, I had kept a fair amount of detail. During the basline period, Maisy’s outbursts included extended vigilance (defined as either trotting around the house scanning the room intently for at least ten seconds) 45% of the time. Two weeks ago, she demonstrated such vigilance 25% of the time. This time, she scored the same: 25%. Good.

Next, I did the restlessness test. This is where I settle down with Maisy and watch a TV program while she lies next to me. During the baseline, she lifted her head or got up 11 times in 45 minutes. Two weeks ago, the number was the same, but the amount of time she looked around had reduced greatly. This time was actually worse- 19 times. It really seemed like she was having a hard time settling down. I think this was because of when I did the observation. The first two times, I came home and immediately watched the show. Yesterday, we went for a three mile walk with friends first. I think the amount of activity immediately preceding the test affected the results. I’ll do it again in a couple of weeks and see what happens.

As for her reactivity, she’s doing well. Like I said, yesterday we went on a walk with friends. I was a bit concerned in the beginning when she rushed towards two dogs. However, she was quiet during those incidents, and frankly, I couldn’t tell if she was trying to scare them off, or if she wanted to go say hi. After that, she settled down nicely and passed other dogs, including large, dark, prick-eared dogs, without a problem.

We also had a milestone in her reactive dog class on Tuesday: It was the first time she went through an entire class without any incident. She’s come close before, with only one or two soft vocalizations during the hour, but this week, there were none. Now, granted, she was in a covered crate the entire time, but that’s never stopped her before. Even better, she was actually relaxed- she appeared to be resting instead of working for treats.

Finally, I should note that Maisy is not experiencing any side effects due to the medication. During the first three weeks, she had some harder stools than normal, but that has subsided over the past week.

Overall, I do think the medication is helping her. She’s tolerating well, and she seems more relaxed. The decrease in vigilance is pretty amazing. The medication will continue to build up in Maisy’s system, and full effectiveness should be seen between 6 and 8 weeks. Hopefully, Maisy continues to improve.

Medication Update: 2 Weeks

Maisy has been on paroxetine for two weeks now. She took a half dose for the first week, and has been on the full dose (8mg) for a week now. Since the prescribing information I received from the compounding pharmacy said that we may see results as early as 2 weeks, I thought it would be interesting to do a quick evaluation of how it’s going so far.

The most important thing is that Maisy has tolerated the paroxetine well. She hasn’t had any significant side effects, and at this point, it is unlikely that she will. She has had slightly harder, dryer stools, but nothing that’s worth worrying about. It may or may not even be related to the paroxetine, but either way, I’ve been supplementing her breakfast with canned pumpkin to help her out.

I do think the paroxetine is helping. The veterinary behaviorist told us not to expect improvement until Maisy’s been on the medication for 4 to 6 weeks, with full effectiveness at 8 weeks, but even so, I’ve noticed some small changes that give me glimmers of hope.

The first thing I noticed happened after Maisy’s fourth (half) dose, when she actually took a nap in the middle of the afternoon. Not only that, but she actually slept for the entire time, and didn’t startle awake a single time! It used to be that if I touched her while she was lying next to me, she would jump. Now when I pet her (or even just accidentally bump her), she might simply lift her head, but often she just opens her eyes to look at me instead.

The restlessness seems to have reduced as well. For example, about a month ago, Maisy and I were hanging out together while I watched television. Maisy was lying down, and over the course of 45 minutes, I counted 11 times that she lifted her head for two to three minutes to scan the environment. Yesterday, we did the same thing, and although the count came out the same, it seemed like she was actually resting. Each time she lifted her head, it only lasted five to ten seconds, and several times, it seemed that she was actually shifting to get more comfortable. She went from curled up in a ball next to me, to lying flat on her side, to lying sprawled on her back!

I think this is part of an overall trend of lower intensity reactions, especially when something startles her. For example, the other day Maisy was lying next to me quietly when I heard a noise outside. Maisy heard it too, and I thought she was going to jump up like she used to. Instead, she jerked her head slightly, but only lifted it about an inch off the couch! I’m not sure if she interrupted her response on purpose or not, but it was amazing to see.

The vocalizations around the house are happening less often, too. When I did the behavior logs prior to her appointment, I learned that Maisy would jump up and growl, bark or “wuff” at subtle or undetectable stimuli an average of 3.375 times a day. In an effort to get some objective data, I’ve been keeping a behavior log for the last 48 hours. During this time, she’s only displayed the behavior four times, for an average of twice a day.

As for her leash reactivity, well, it’s too soon to say for sure. She did growl a little bit at a chocolate lab that we saw in our local pet store the other day. She even lunged at him, but by the time she reached the end of the leash, the growl had dissolved into this pathetic whine. Later, as we were standing in the check-out line, the same dog rushed up to Maisy, and although she briefly stiffened up, she quickly relaxed.

Yesterday, as we were walking past an elementary school, a group of half a dozen older kids suddenly burst out of the school, chattering loudly. I could see Maisy tensing up as if she was going to lunge and bark. However, instead of having a hair-trigger reaction, it almost seemed like she was thinking about whether or not she should react. This slight hesitation (it was really only an extra half a second) was just enough time for me to interrupt her response, and we played a quick round of Look at That instead!

For all of these changes, Maisy is still the same dog. She’s still energetic, playful, and eager to train and work. Her personality hasn’t changed at all. She doesn’t seem drugged up or different in any way, she just seems more comfortable. We should see this increase as the medication becomes fully effective, and while it’s possible that she might need a second med to help her completely, I’m thrilled with what I’ve seen so far.

Training Tuesday: Moving to Day Zero

In my last update, I commented that I wasn’t getting the results I wanted from the Relaxation Protocol, and as a result, wasn’t sure what to do next. Since I knew that we had an appointment with a veterinary behaviorist, I decided to hold off on the protocol until I could consult with her. We decided that I should start over with the protocol.

So I did. But I’m still not happy with how Maisy’s doing. Here’s a video of Maisy and I doing Day 1:



Although Maisy did much better this time than when we started the protocol at the end of August, she still isn’t really relaxing. In the video, you’ll notice that while she remains in a down, she’s in more of an alert down, crouched and ready for action. She maintains eye contact for the majority of the time. Her chin never touches the floor.

That said, there are a few moments where she relaxes: she shifts on to her hip at 2:45, and towards the end, her gaze isn’t as focused on me. Unfortunately, I missed those rewardable moments because I was so focused on what I was supposed to be doing (I guess I’m not so good at multi-tasking). I suppose this is the beauty of video, though; it’s really helped me see where I could do a better job with the protocol.

As a result, I’ve decided that we’re going to move back to “Day Zero.” Every night, I’ll just sit next to Maisy on her mat for 3 to 5 minutes, and reward for increased relaxation. I won’t miss things like rolling on her hip or reduced eye contact because all I will be doing is sitting there. I’ll use Dr. Duxbury’s suggestions to slow down and feed in position.

Since we do mat work like this in my reactive dog class, this should be familiar to Maisy, and I expect that she’ll assume the “flat dog” position pretty quickly. Once she can remain flat on her side for the entire time, I should be able to stretch out the amount of time between treats fairly easily.

The next step is for me to move from a sitting position to a standing one. This will completely change the picture for her- I’ve always sat next to her while doing mat work, and I’m usually on the floor, at that. In addition to increasing my rate of reinforcement, I’ll make the transition to standing a fairly gradual one: first, I’ll sit in a chair, then I’ll kneel in front of her, and then I’ll try standing.

Maisy’s medication should be kicking in by then, too, so I think that I’ll begin to see some true relaxation instead of “operant relaxation.” Speaking of medication... Maisy has taken six half-doses of her paroxetine so far. Although it is probably too early for the medication to be doing much, she does seem slightly calmer around the house. Yesterday she actually took a nap! It's possible this is a side-effect (lethargy is a common side-effect of paroxetine), but it's encouraging either way.

Why, yes, she does.

Recently, I wondered if Maisy might have Generalized Anxiety Disorder. As a result, I scheduled an appointment with a board-certified veterinary behaviorist to find out. The short answer is yes. But the long answer is probably more interesting…

So, Maisy had her appointment with Dr. Duxbury yesterday. Before I go any further, let me just say that I really enjoyed working with Dr. Duxbury. Since she has so much education and experience, I was nervous that she might be one of those ego-driven specialists you run into from time to time, but nothing could be further from the truth! I really felt that Dr. Duxbury took the time to listen to what I was saying, and she was very respectful of me and the work I’ve done with Maisy. If anyone in the Twin Cities metro area needs a veterinary behaviorist, I would highly recommend her. It was an expensive appointment, but it was worth it.

The actual appointment was about 90 minutes long. Dr. Duxbury complimented me on the pre-appointment questionnaire I had sent in advance; I gave enough details that she had a really good picture of who Maisy is. This ended up saving a lot of time because she didn’t need to take much history from me. In fact, apparently I described things so well that she didn’t even review our behavior logs! Instead, we jumped right into watching videos.

I had about an hour’s worth of video that I had taken at home, in class, while on walks, and even at trials. I really enjoyed watching the videos with her, mostly because she found them so interesting. In fact, she ended up copying all of the videos I brought in so she can use them with her advanced students. She said Maisy is an excellent example of a “complicated case,” and that it will be very helpful for her students to see the video.

I think the video she liked best was the one below. It’s long- 10 minutes- but this is a very typical snapshot of Maisy “relaxing” at home. (The action starts around two minutes in.) Dr. Duxbury was especially interested in the interactions with the cats you see towards the end of the video, especially the stereotypic tail chasing.



Dr. Duxbury’s assessment of Maisy, after viewing the videos, and interacting with her in person, is that she is “functionally anxious.” Dr. Duxbury complimented me on the work I’ve done with her, and said that Maisy might not have been functional at all had circumstances been different for her. Here’s what she wrote in her report:
You have done a wonderful job trying to help Maisy learn to relax and to not react to other dogs and other environmental stimuli. Her continued reactivity and vigilance even in her 'safest' environments (e.g. at your home) suggests that she is generally anxious. This is likely related to her very limited early environment.

I also appreciated that Dr. Duxbury saw Maisy’s good qualities. Most people are quite charmed by Maisy when they meet her- she’s cute, of course, but she has a personality that just doesn’t stop. In fact, it is sometimes hard for people to see that she has issues because she is so functional. Dr. Duxbury described her as “outgoing and social and very eager to play and to work on training, but at the same time she seems overly attentive to subtle stimuli in her environment and reacts… to other dogs.”

Ultimately, Dr. Duxbury diagnosed Maisy as follows:

• Fear related aggression (lunging, barking, growling only -- no bites) to unfamiliar dogs and certain unfamiliar people.
• Resource guarding - directed towards the cats.
• Generalized anxiety - increased sensitivity to environmental stimuli, exaggerated startle response, hypervigilance, long recovery after arousing events.

The main component of the treatment plan was, as I’d hoped, medication. Dr. Duxbury prescribed paroxetine (also known as Paxil). She said she’s had really good results with paroxetine for dogs like Maisy, and felt that it would be the best choice for her given her particular set of issues. The only downside to paroxetine is the dosage- Maisy will be taking 8mg a day, and it generally comes in 10mg tabs. Since that would be very difficult to split accurately, it will need be ordered from a compounding pharmacy, which increases the cost. (Of course, the upside to that is that it will be salmon flavored, which will make it much easier for us to give!)

Dr. Duxbury didn’t have any further suggestions for types of behavior modification. She said that about the only thing I haven’t tried is BAT, which she didn’t feel would be helpful for Maisy (although she didn’t rule it out for the future). She said that I should continue to do what I’m doing, including my classes with my current trainer, Robin Sallie.

She did have some suggestions on how I carry out the behavior modification. These suggestions are relatively small changes to how I do things, and probably things Robin has told me to do a million times before (in fact, I actually asked her if she’d talked to Robin in advance, it sounded so much like her!). Despite being fairly minor revisions to our training, I suspect that they will, in conjunction with the medication, make a huge impact on Maisy. Because of that, I’ll dedicate a separate post to the topic.

Anyway, Maisy will start her medication as soon as it arrives from the pharmacy. We probably won’t see any changes in her behavior until she’s been on it for 4-6 weeks, so she’ll have a recheck with Dr. Duxbury in about 8 weeks. At that appointment, we’ll discuss the medication, the dosage, and whether or not we want to add a second med to the mix (something which Dr. Duxbury said may be needed for Maisy). While I don't believe Maisy will ever be "normal," I am pretty excited to see how this will help.