During our visit Toby was fitted with a D.A.P. collar. This is a collar that emits dog pleasing pheremones (synthetic) and works with the dog's body heat. In a nutshell, the hormones are based on the same ones a mother dog emits while she is nursing her pups which has a comforting and reassuring effect on the pups. I have never heard of this kind of collar before, but if Dr. DePorter was recommending it - I was going to use it.
The rest of my day was spent reading, filling in a calendar with medication info and digesting everything I was presented with. Toby will be on Prozac for a few months and Xanax if/when needed. What we need to learn and cut in stone is to basically ignore his fear behavior (unless he is very stressed) and Praise and Reward Bravery! That sounds so simple but is very, very important and makes so much sense.
There are specific fears we are working on with Toby which are: Fear of Ken and men in general, going outside through open doors, loud noises and reflecting lights. Most of the training we are going to be doing will give him general self esteem and will spill over into other areas where he's having small problems.
While so much was fresh in my mind, I greeted Ken at the door, just as I do every evening with Buddy and gave him some small kibble to toss to Toby to entice him to join us. That worked a little bit and will be something we'll continue to work on. I did the same thing while Ken was sitting at the table reading the paper. I instructed him to toss kibble to Toby and slowly make each land closer to him, Ken. Being an opportunist, Toby did approach Ken and ended up willingly accepting the treats and a pat on the head - which of course, was reinforced by Buddy joining in
Now - here's the kicker. This morning, as usual, Toby came upstairs to see me after eating his breakfast. His normal is bounding up the stairs, charging into our room and standing on his hind legs at the side of his bed with his paws flailing and acting like a crazy Airedale. I have to watch his paws because they are big and they can hurt and usually end up asking him to get off in order to calm him down. You'd think he hadn't seen me in days! This morning he came up the stairs, one at a time, pranced into our room, put his paws on the side of the bed and just wagged his tail. There was no flailing, no aire-pawing, no-I-want-to-jump-on-the-bed-and-be-whirling-dervish. I gave him a pat on his head and started rubbing his ears. Within minutes he laid his head down, on it's side, on my lap. I joking told him that was a good snuggle. I asked him to get down and he did and just laid on the floor. After a few minutes, I asked him to jump up again, which he did and we repeated the ears rubs, his head went down and I said again, 'good snuggle'. The third time I tried the this I just asked him to jump us and said do a 'good snuggle' and he put his head down. Could he have been that calm from the D.A.P. collar to learn this? A few minutes later Ken walked in. At that point I would have expected Toby to bolt and head for the hallway. It didn't happen. Toby just laid in his spot and accepted Ken in the room. Toby even got up to watch Ken doing his exercises from a distance, while wagging his tail. I was dumbfounded, so I decided to see if Toby would do 'good snuggle' for Ken - and he did! Maybe we were having a good morning - maybe the collar does make a difference. We'll have to watch for more changes and see what Dr. DePorter has to say.
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