Ever had a dog who is terrified of everything? Strangers? Dishwashers? Air Conditioning Units? Cars? Birds? Leaves? Sound of change clinking together? Being leashed up? Pictures hanging on doors or walls? Wind? Elevators? Any closed doors? (There could be strangers on the other side) Terrified of any part of life outside their safe crate. Terrified to the point of fear poop and peeing at the sight of a stranger who is still a solid 50 yards away? A dog that you have to physically drag outside? Not pull along but dragging, sliding dead weight across the ground?
Ever felt like you were completely in over your head? Wondering if you can ever both survive? Will your dog ever be comfortable in their own skin? Is it even humane to let them continue living in this fear? To what extent is our responsibility to our critters? Does it stop at physical health? Or mental health? What's an owner to do? Where does an owner turn to get help for their pup?
I certainly do not have all the answers, or any answers. I only know what worked for me and my borderline spooky little girl Sunshine. We are years in and still work on her braveness daily. It's become a way of life and will remain for as long as I am able to have her in my life.
Hopefully I can let others learn from my mistakes. I am still kicking myself about them years later. First thing I did was turn to my veterinarian. Your supposed to be able to trust them to help your pets, right? While waiting for the appointment I threw myself into researching anything and everything about shy, scared, timid, phobic dogs. I researched greyhounds in general along with other fearful phobias in all canines.
There is a wealth of information out there! All different theories ranging from always ignoring your fearful dog, to theories allowing you to comfort your friend. the one thing I ran into multiple times was that some greyhounds who have borderline low thyroid levels may display the signs of a thyroid problem. Anxiety, loss of hair, dull coat, low self esteem, etc.
So off we go to our vet trip and I explained all the issues we were having. How it was impossible to potty train since she was so terrified that she couldn't possibly go potty. Once back inside or when safe in the car she would instantly pee. She couldn't help it. At some point you just cannot hold it anymore! When that scared she would poop without even knowing that she was doing it. No squatting needed! That usually happened inside when we were surprised by strangers. Or at the vet office in the waiting room. She was basically living in a crate with a towel on the bottom, since it is easier to wash than giant comforters. We were at management and survival level for all of us.
I advised the vet that some of the members of the rescue group that I adopted through suggested putting her on some Clomicalm to help her adjust to normal life. Once your that scared, no one can learn any behaviors. Your body is in survival mode and adrenalin is taking over. I then asked about the possibility of testing her thyroid to see if possibly that was causing some of these issues.
The vet was not happy about prescribing medicine but agreed to try the clomicalm, which would take about 4 weeks to kick in her system. We were refused any short term anxiety meds. The vet did agree to testing Sunshine's thyroid. What happened next still haunts me. I was so stupid. It took one vet tech pulling and two others pushing from behind to get the 60lb greyhound into the back room for a blood pull. Extremely traumatic for the dog and 100% unnecessary! Looking back they easily could have just picked her up and carried her back.
Her thyroid test came back borderline low but he vet did not want to let us try treating her for a low thyroid. After 6 weeks the clomicalm still wasn't helping and it was suggested by the vet that I accept that this dog could never go outside and that I should build an inside potty area in our 2 bedroom apartment for this 60lb dog! At that point I was asked to leave as a client. I have never stepped foot back into that vet's office and never will.
Next I called around to a number of other vet offices in the area to see if any of them were willing to consider medicating Sunshine's thyroid based on behavioral symptoms vs medical. Of course these places could not discuss this over the phone with me so this started our expensive vet hopping. We exhausted the other 5 vet practices in the area. None of them would help us. I finally heard of a place about 90 minutes away in another state. This vet actually owned a greyhound and had tried the thyroid medicine for some previous clients going off behavior instead of just clinical blood test numbers.
Third day of the new thyroid meds and BAM we have a new dog that knocked me on my ass when I came home from work! She became a crazy zippy dog inside the 4 walls of our home. Still scared outside with all the same fears, but at least she was outside of that crate. We started some Prozac and that slowly helped things get better...
It was a lot of hard work. Through trial and error I learned how to socialize Sunshine without flooding her. If I pushed to hard and exposed her to too much she would shut down and nothing productive would be learned from that experience. I had to learn to work within her comfort zone and notice her very subtle communications that things were too scary.
Having such a scared dog creates a flight risk. I had to make sure she NEVER got loose. There's no way she would come back to me while she was in a panic. So we created some rules. Mommy is your safe spot. I you come to me I will step in front of you and get between you and the scary thing. You cannot EVER run from a scary thing. You are allowed to be scared but if you run we will go back towards the scary thing. If you run away from the scary thing, but run to Mommy as your safe spot, your the best smartest pup ever and you get a pile of praise rewards and an endless supply of cookies! If you get scared and freeze on a walk, you can stand and look for a bit. If Sunshine still didn't want to move forward I would bend down and hug her tight with my arms around her chest right behind her front legs. Then lift her front legs off the ground a bit and jiggle her slightly in a silly way. Then release her and in the silliest voice possible say "Lets go little piggy" and immediately skip/jog/hop in the direction we were going in the first place. The jiggling and silliness distracts her from the scary thing and makes it fun instead.
We worked on obedience, which helped her gain confidence She's a fence jumper so we channeled that into jumping onto picnic tables or boulders where we walk. She oddly calms down on top of boulders. She is higher up and can see things way before they get near her. The more skills she learns the more relaxed about the world she becomes. Jumping through hula hoops, jumping straight up to touch your hand with her nose, sitting, waiting, laying down, etc.
I researched and learned specific ways to interact with a shy dog. When she was scared, stroking on the top of her head triggers a brain response that establishes the fear. Stroking on her chest is a much better idea. It triggers a different part in their brain. Always stoke her underneath her neck to lift her head up to help increase her self confidence. Every normal dog behavior was rewarded. Stalking squirrels on leash was encouraged. Sniffing was praised. Rolling in smelly stuff on the ground was celebrated (This was clearly not thought through all the way!)
We managed through her fears in a pretty decent way. She improved so much that I was able to wean her off the Prozac and keep her just on the thyroid med. She was still a very shy dog, but I thought this would just be normal for her. We were past crisis level and I'm not really fond of keeping her on meds forever.
Over the next 6 months she slowly gradually slipped back into crisis level again. Our vet that was 90 minutes away no longer worked at that practice and I didn't know where to turn. We got a vet recommendation from one of our greyhound friends and I went to the appointment prepared for battle. This vet is about 40 minutes away and now I really know what people are referring to when they ask if your vet is greyhound savvy! Amazing! This vet listens to what I have to say and during our first appointment Sunshine even sniffed the Drs face for a millisecond! This is a stranger who is a vet! Amazing!
We started her on Prozac again and a heavy dose of Xanax for short term. 2mg twice a day. That heavy dose of Xanax is a miracle. The dog we had at home the first day of starting that was unrecognizable. Not scared out on her potty walks, she pranced everywhere, no longer hid behind me at every noise, excitedly embraced the leash because it meant a new adventure. No more hiding in the bedroom, she was active and into everything. Instant solution! I was shocked.
After a month of the Prozac we slowly weaned her off the Xanax and she reverted back to her scared spooky ways. The vet wanted to try Clomicalm and I advised we had tried that when she was first adopted and it did nothing. Then she suggested Amitriptyline. Cheap drug that has been around for a while and can easily be gotten at any drug store. Sounds perfect to me so we tried it. 4 weeks in and we had an amazing relaxed mentally sound dog.
It's almost been 2 years since we started on the Amitriptyline. I'm really not a fan of medicating my dog for the rest of her life, but I don't think it's every going to be worth the risk of her reverting back. If it shortens her life by a few years, she will have an AWESOME life. It is horrible to watch the dog you love and the dog that you are supposed to care and protect be trapped inside their own body and head.
My advice to anyone with a shy dog is to research! read as many different opinions/case studies/ and articles. The truth is somewhere in the middle of all of that conflicting information. Do not rely on your vet to fix this. Don't be afraid to insist on drugs. If the first one doesn't work, there are half a dozen others to try. Be assertive about your dog's medical and mental care, you are their only advocate. Make sure what the vet tells you makes sense and if you don't understand, ask! If they can't or won't explain it to you, RUN to a different vet.
Medicine is not the magic fix. It only allows you to get their brain's calmed down enough to be able to socialize and teach them that the world is not a scary place. I feel very guilty. If I had embraced the medicine on a serious level during the first two years we would not have had to go through the struggles and heartache that we did. Sunshine would have had two more years of a really nice life. You will never be done socializing and training. You will have to keep this up until their last breath.
Sunshine is still a shy dog. When she gets scared she recovers like a normal dog, instead of shutting down for days. Most recently we were jogging on a trail and she suddenly spooked forward for 3 steps then swung in front of my path and faced behind us. A millisecond later a mountain biker called out, as he popped up over a hill, that he was coming up on our side. She spooked so hard that clumps of hardened dirt flew. I initially thought she was bit by a snake. She calmed right down as soon as I saw and acknowledged the scary bike. While laughing I told her she was a good girl for turning and coming back to me when she was scared. Of course I about died laughing, which helps her relax and realize the scary thing is not a threat. She is a great watch dog. We continued on our way as if nothing happened.
If something like that would have happened back when we first got her she would have been facing behind us for the rest of out jog/walk and have been fixated on something else possibly attacking us from behind. Everyone gets startled and scared of things. The normal reaction is to recover and go back to normal after it's realized the threats aren't real.
I try to get her out in public as often as possible. She has learned that kids aren't as scary as she once thought they were. Plus they usually have cookies! We travel very frequently. Basically every weekend from April-Oct, with three separate week long trips tossed in there for fun. She's used to packing up and experiencing different things. Used to being flexible and sleeping in hotel rooms. She's shy but so darn NORMAL. I can't wait to see how she is in another 3 years. She just might be jumping on strangers for pets as we meet them.
I am the pain in the butt owner at any vet. I do not allow anyone to take Sunshine into the back. I made that promise to her and I plan on keeping it. When she needed Xrays the ER vets let me walk her into the Xray room, lift her onto the table and position her. They held her into a pretzel while I exited the room. When it was time for position #2 they actually called me back in to help turn her over. They commented that she instantly relaxed in their hands as soon as I walked back into the room. How can you even begin to quantify that level of trust?
At our normal vet I only had to explain "My dogs don't go in the back without me because Sunshine had some very bad previous experiences and I promised to her that I would never that happen to her again. " I apologized for being a crazy owner, but this is what I require as a client. Our vet rocks so much that she does everything in the room with me holding the dogs! They don't even ask to take any random foster dogs in the back. They do all procedures right in the room with me. Blood pulls, staple removal, stitch removal, etc. I figure they have my files labeled as crazy owner, but that is fine with me! :)
Hopefully some of my gibberish will help others with shy dogs. For my babies, their mental health is just as important as their physical health. If anyone wants to bounce any ideas off me please feel free to contact me. I would be happy to help if I can.
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