Progress!
For all of those in the trenches I wanted to post a hopeful and positive progress update!
We rescued a 4-5 year old dog from our local shelter in November. We realized very quickly she has had a rough life and had separation anxiety. She would howl, wail, and try to break out of her crate beginning on day 1. We moved away from the crate to a gated area hoping in would help but it did not. She became an escape artist and we had to revert to the crate for her safety.
We initially gave her a few weeks to settle in and decompress and then started working a desensitization protocol from Dr. McConnell’s booklet “I’ll be Home Soon”. GREAT RESOURCE! It really helped and she was beginning to show progress - albeit tiny, tiny amounts- but then we had to leave her for a week at the end of February and it reset all of her progress. She was back to a full blown panic the moment she realized we were leaving.
At this point we booked a vet appointment to discuss options and felt comfortable starting her on an anxiety medication. She is a pretty anxious pup in general and is terrified of the outside and other dogs. We are working with her on that as well. She started Prozac the end of March and we fully committed to the protocol from Dr McConnell’s booklet. No missed days, no giving up. And let me tell you, I almost didn’t make it through week three. It felt like progress was insanely slow and I was completely sick of doing the same drills over and over. Luckily Dr. McConnell’s booklet warned this is exactly what would happen and to stick with it - so we did. And holy cow am I glad. Yesterday our scared girl spent 15 minutes alone without a moment of panic. She was calmly lying on the floor when I returned. I’m so excited to see the progress she will make over the next few weeks. It was like a light switch flipped somewhere in weeks 5-6.
I’m positive the medication is helping as she is suddenly making huge strides in all her training but I just wanted to throw out an encouraging post for those still in the midst. “I’ll be Home Soon” was an incredible resource for us, alongside medication, and I am so incredibly hopeful that she will be able to be calm and happy while alone soon.
Keep fighting for your pups! You can do this!