Thin Threads of Hope

I know many have been waiting to hear what Dr. Sung's evaluation of TWO is, as have I. Today we made our way to her office (which she shares with Hudson's Veterinary Dental Specialist - the amount of money I have left in that office makes me shudder). I'll dispense with any of the niceties and get down to it. Here is what she said:


She believes there is hope for Baby and that if he were her dog, she would not consider euthanasia at this point. She did say that it must always be considered as an option if he were to become fear aggressive due to his size. I agreed which puts a premium on me managing him correctly and preventing that from ever happening.

Dr. Sung said she was impressed with how well he did in her evaluation room considering the amount of stress he was under. It was fairly small and enclosed and even I was surprised that he was dozing quietly by the end. He took treats throughout but vocalized his distaste for the whole thing with barking and growling. His inclinination is still to run from his triggers which we had to take advantage of once again in order to get him in the building. However, he was manageable and I was not surprised by his behavior coming inside.

She suggested using the muzzle beginning by introducing it as a true basket and bearer of many treats. We will use it as a treat bowl with the basket part taped and then work up to putting it on him for really short periods in much the same manner as I introduced the Halti. Once that's accomplished, I'll begin taking him to Dr. Hartung's office for "fun" visits where nothing happens besides treats being doled out. As soon as we are confident we can get him in the door and he can wear the muzzle, I'll have him examined and blood work drawn as a base line for any medications.

Dr. Sung wants me to change some things which, in retrospect, I should have picked up on a long time ago as they are standard ds protocols. Instead of having him interact directly with his fear inducing object, i.e. men, I should be his focus, lavishing treats on him as a man stands in the vicinity and slowly moves closer incrementally with the goal being never to induce a reaction. If I get a bark or a growl, we have pushed him too far. So as usual, my hurried approach of having men toss him treats, was way too much too fast. This makes perfect sense and explains a lot of his escalating behavior towards men.

Dr. Sung suggested working on a form of relaxation in which he is rewarded for sitting with his mouth closed (slowing his breathing) and his ears forward. Kind of like that annoying saying that says when you're smiling, you can't be frowning. (You can inside...I do it all the time at work!) If his ears are forward and he is breathing more slowly, he should be more relaxed as a result. We will be adding a mat or a blanket - something that is a portable, safe place that he can always retreat to when he feels stressed. This should be easy to implement as he already knows "Get in your bed".


The more difficult decision in all this was her determination that he could likely benefit from medication. I have a lot of reservations about this, mostly based on the information I've received from BHR and their experience with Maremmas which I think is valid. However, due to the serious nature of where we're at with him, I think it's worth trying. I decided a reasonable compromise would be to start him on a very low sub-therapeutic dose of Prozac which she recommended and very gradually work up so I can see if any side effects occur. I questioned her about disinhibition but in her experience, this occurs far more often with the anti-anxiety meds like Xanax or Valium than the SSRI's. She believes that if the medication is successful, it will allow him to be more relaxed and receptive to desensitization. So we will begin the medication therapy and see how that impacts him.

We also discussed the things I have been doing at home at M and BHR's recommendation. She was supportive of T Touch, wrapping and the DAP spray especially. Dr. Sung agrees that I went far too fast in my initial attempts to expose him to the world but like Kathy Sdao, believes that it would be detrimental to isolate him completely from the world. Plus, he has a genuine and compelling interest in what's going on around him and isolating him would only be curtailing his natural curiosity.

Once he is on meds, we will very slowly introduce "new" things. First he will work on being outside, leashed and working with people we don't know inversely, meaning instead of having them move closer to us, we will slowly work closer to a trail where people pass by every once in awhile with me keeping his focus on me and feeding him treats. This is something we have unintentionally been doing while walking on the sparsely populated trail. Then we will introduce my parents, especially my father, making small hand gesticulations in the background while I feed him treats. Once we are making small steps with that with no reaction, we will introduce one day a week at work with a guy standing in the background and so on. This will be a measured, slow and steady introduction to ds and cc unlike the shotgun approach I started with. We even discussed working up to taking him to the park when few people were there, on a 6 foot leash and staying off the trails, working with the ds protocols. And there's always the rent-a-parks I have been researching. Alas, our current exercise issues are unresolved.

Dr. Sung gave me a large quantity of material as well as a specific plan for treatment. My type A, disciplined self loves that! A harness will be purchased and a Gentle Leader as he ably removed himself from his Halti while we were trying to get into the office. The safety strap saved us from a dire fate of large, white, fearful dog running all over Kirkland. She also gave me the name of a good kennel in Monroe should I have to board him in an emergency. She has referred many clients there and they are familiar with aggressive or potentially aggressive dogs and will feed and care for them without any interaction which is ideal. For those of us with difficult dogs, it's our worst nightmare to put our dogs with someone convinced they can "get through" or save the dog. I love TWO and I cannot take the chance that someone like that will push him into aggression and I would lose him.

Finally, although I have read a lot about agility, rally, herding etc. I had not seriously considered it for a breed like TWO nor could we ever compete of course. However, when I asked Dr. Sung about giving him a job other than devotion to me and resource guarding me, she had some great ideas. One was to eventually take him running again and have him wearing a dog backpack which I can load up with a little weight if needed. This might mimic a wrap and also give him a sense of purpose and she has had success with other clients using this method. She brought up carting though I think something trailing behind him would cause a WO meltdown. She also suggested setting up an agility course in my backyard using PVC piping which is a great idea. He loves leaping and jumping and is amazingly agile. It would solve our exercise issues for now if I could get him to do it, even if only the barest of basics. So we will be exploring options like these as other options for activities he can focus on at home.

This was a very useful, applicable session that I will be able to implement immediately. Although expensive, I got a lot of great ideas and suggestions out of it that made it well worth the time and money. As always, the time required to save my dog is the least of my concerns. As long as there is hope for saving him and he has the ability to assimilate and learn what I can teach him, we have a thin thread of hope. Even Dr. Sung could see the charmer beneath the growling boy!