Behaviourist Journey. Take Two [2]

This week we had our consult with our new fully qualified behavioursit. For anyone who is struggling with their dog, please go and see a professional. We always feel so much better after talking through our issues with someone who understands what is going on and can give advice. Honestly, the relief we felt after our two hour zoom is amazing. We felt validated in our struggles.

We dicussed all the issues we have been having with Roo. What steps we had taken to try and sort them out, what training method we are/have used and what advice we have been given. One of the first things she said was "Roo needs medical intervention". For some this would be hard to hear, for us, it was music to our ears. This is what we wanted. We have been struggling for months, we know Roo needs help geting to a calm enough place that she can work through her struggles.

We were told again that Roo is anxious, she has generalised anxiety and it is pretty severe. Roo is hyper sensitive to change and noise. Whether that is us sitting on the floor of the living room rather than the sofa. The postman coming at a different time. The wind blowing louder than normal. With this level of hyper sensitivity, without medical help, we will not be able to work through it. This was so validating for us to hear. We have been trying for months and to hear that we were doing everything we were meant to be doing and there was nothing else we could have done to fix this was amazing.

Our new behaviourist has looked over Roo's medical notes and the report from the specialist. It seems as though it is quite likely given the extremeness of Roo's behaviour that the cyst on her brain is causing an issue. The part of the brain it is in controls perception amongst lots of other things. Therefore, it is likely that Roo is percieving nearly everything as danger. This would explain why it takes her a while to stop barking at people she has known since she was a puppy.

The current plan is:

• Medical Report to go to our vet so we can get long term anti-anxiety meds.

• We need to keep a diary of reactive and obsessive incidences for two weeks to see if any patterns emerge.

• Small changes to our training plans and management. Training to be kept to 5 minute blocks multiple times a day. We need to stop ignoring her attention seeking and she is allowed back on the sofa with us.

We will check back in with our behaviourist in two weeks to see how things are going, hopefully we will have started medication by then.