sonny: playing, petting, and men.

Sonny's face is more relaxed now than it was previously.  He's only been on the Clomipramine for 9 days, but I think I can see a difference in his behavior.  They're small changes, but I still see them. He's soliciting attention from me more; mostly play, but some affection as well.  Inside the house he's gotten much, much more relaxed.  Outside, we're still working on.  With daylight savings time, I have to be extra careful about checking around outside before bringing him out, to make sure it's quiet.  This has helped prevent him from being too scared to go and then coming back inside and going on the floor. We haven't had an accident inside in over a week, but our outings are still very brief.  He has even thrown out a few play bows outside recently, which he hadn't previously done before.

He seems most comfortable at night, when it's dark out.  It's usually 10:30 by the time we get outside for their before bed potty break, and he is much more likely to pull me towards something to sniff at night time. He's also much more comfortable outside if he's out there with Buster or Roxy, so I try to get him out with them when it's possible.

The past few mornings, Sonny has been in his glory... he is so excited when we get up and start the day.  He gets excited to see me, and super excited to see Roxy and Buster.  He's been bouncing around and playing with them, and chasing me, bowing at me, and nudging me with his muzzle.  Yesterday, we got to play a bit (him and I) and we were doing some quick "play and pet" and he was wagging his tail the whole time.  The other day, he was running up to me and sniffing my face and then running away.  This morning, he was running up to me while I sat on the floor, sniffing my face, licking my face, and bumping into me without freaking out.  So I took the plunge and started rubbing and scratching his neck and he was loving it; he reached his neck up in the air a little, then he ran off to grab a toy and brought it back to me! He came back to me, running full force, with a fleece toy in his mouth and he actually tugged with me for a bit.  When he didn't have the toy in his mouth, his mouth was wide open in a giant, gaping smile and his tail was wagging the whole time.

He seems to really like getting his butt scratched, too.  When we're playing, he'll sometimes turn in a circle and lean into my legs and I'm able to reach down and scratch his butt feverishly, and he wags his tail and whole body, and turns his face back to sniff my hands while smiling and wiggling all over the place.

He's still very weary of Rob.  All of the play and fun we're having has been sans Rob.  Even during play, he's on alert for any noises or movement from the bedroom areas... if he hears a noise, he runs to his crate, and then sticks his head out to check things out.  If nothing changes, he'll come back out to play some more.  But the moment he hears Rob's alarm clock go off, he runs to his crate and won't come back out again.  It's not just Rob though, it's men in general.  That's probably going to be his biggest challenge.