Controlling, Obsessive and Neurotic Spaniel. Our journey to calmness [5]

sure you check out our other posts in this series. You can find them here

The switch to raw feeding seemed to do the trick. Roo now eats almost all her meals without any fuss. One battle won. Far too many still outstanding.

willwithRoo seem to just be getting worse. Her wandering, guarding and attention seeking are through the roof. On one occasion she guarded a tea towel for 5.5 hours! She is completely unable to settle and now she barely sleeps during the day. It used to be that if we put her in her crate for a nap she would sleep for a couple of hours each time, now we are lucky if it is even 20 minutes.

We have touched base with our behaviourist again who wants us to take an even bigger step back from engaging with Roo. Very little eye contact and no talking. This is the hardest part, she is our little baby and not looking at her or talking to her is very difficult. Initially, we could talk to her in a soft calm voice to reassure her that things are fine but it might actually be causing her to feel more restless.

She also wants us to try setting her up a room that is safe, with nothing she can take or guard for Roo to spend her time in. Allowing her to come out on her lead for loose lead walking and small play sessions but other than that, she is to stay in this room for a week. The idea is that this safe space will allow her to find some calm and settle on her own without the need for us to constantly manage her. Her crate will be in this space and she will be fed in there too.

Living in a two bed terrace house doesn't exactly allow for dog rooms so we will be giving up the dinning room to give Roo her space. This will allow her to see that we are still around, if we are in the kitchen or living room but with gates up to keep her space her own and stop her from getting into trouble.

If we see no improvement from doing this, then the next steps will be to consider medication to help improve her mental state.

It is heartbreaking to think that you are causing your dog to feel stressed just by being around. That your presence and engagement can add to their stress not comfort them. If less from us will help her now with a view to spending more time with her later then that is what we will do.