This poor dog is breaking my heart.

It seems as though Sonny's progress had plateaued for a while.  He'd be voluntarily coming out of his crate at night when we're hanging out on the couch, and in the morning when I first got up.  He was beginning to play and interact with me a little bit as well. But it seems as though he's now taking steps backwards.  He spent a lot of time outside his crate when Rob was away, and for the first several days when Rob was back he continued with that pattern.  He even ventured close enough to Rob to smell him, and Rob stayed perfectly still, which was absolutely perfect for Sonny.

But for the last 3-4 days, he has been spending significantly more time in his crate than he was previously.  He hasn't voluntarily come out of his crate in days, and while in there, he presses himself up against the back of the crate so hard and for so long that he's leaving crate imprints on his fur.  He wraps himself up into a ball as small as he possibly can and shivers the entire time.  Previously, he would come out of his crate to sniff around and jump into the papasan chair.  Sometimes he chose to lay in Roxy or Buster's crate instead, and since neither of my guys mind, I don't stop him.  Sonny's crate is covered, and he is obviously uncomfortable when it's not covered.  Roxy and Buster's crates are not covered, so when Sonny voluntarily enters their crates to lay down, I consider it some level of progress for him.

The only time he moves is when I walk towards the crate with the leash, at which point he lifts his head to sniff my hand and allow me to attach the leash.  When I begin to walk away from the crate, he gets up, stretches, and follows me to the door.  When we get outside, he goes to the bathroom and then pulls me back inside, where he proceeds directly to his crate, where he doesn't move again until it's time to go back out again.

Worse yet, last week I took Sonny to the kennel so the vet tech there could help me cut his nails.  I didn't want to attempt it by myself, because he moves his paws a lot and I feared I could not safely trim his nails.  When I got there,  the vet tech was in the kennels so I left Sonny in the office with the rescue's president and the other vet tech for the rescue.  Previous to me taking him home, he'd been alone with other individuals without a problem, and those individuals are experienced with fearful dogs and specifically with Sonny, as well.  But poor Sonny was so scared that he defecated in the office despite being housetrained.  He had already gone to the bathroom that morning (within the last hour), so his response was definitely fear-based.

I feel terrible for this dog -- he's sitting there suffering silently and it's only been 5 weeks on the Clomipramine.  I am certain he needs a stronger dosage, so I'll be speaking to the vet again (she was out on vacation last week).  I think she'll want to wait until the 8 week mark in order to up his dosage since she told me that it sometimes takes 8 weeks to see any difference in the dog's behavior, but I think this backwards progress is a pretty clear indication that he needs additional medication.

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.

....of set-backs and successes

This is Sonny's new favorite spot.... only a few inches away from his crate, but in the corner of the room furthest from where Rob and I usually are.  We don't spend much time in this chair, and up until recently, it's been Buster's favorite chair.  Maybe that's why Sonny chose it... it smells like Buster. And he adores Buster. He seems to like being able to watch us from it, and it works nicely because we don't spend a lot of time there, so he gets it all to himself and feels comfortable and most likely feels safe there also.

Anyway, on to Sonny's behavior.

This morning I was up early enough to try a short jog with Sonny, but he was all over the place, crossing back and forth in front of me, weaving side-to-side, running behind me, in front of me, behind me again... once he'd hit one end of the leash, he'd try another direction and then another and so on.  He pooped, but wouldn't pee, so I took him inside and tried again in a few minutes.  He peed the second time around, so I let all three pups out for their morning play session.

It's strange though, it's almost like a light switch that turns on and off. Literally, the second we come inside the house, it's as if we weren't just outside and he wasn't just in a pure panic. His tail lifts and he runs to Buster's crate, play bows, woo-woo's at him, then run's to the baby gate and licks Roxy's face and tries to nibble on her ears, then runs to me, play bows and woo-woo's at me.  It only lasts a few seconds, but it's showing me the dog that I know he can be with the proper treatment.

In Sonny's case, I truly believe that proper treatment involves medication.  Sure, over time, Sonny could potentially learn the same things that Roxy has learned, and then some.  But, how long is "over time?"  Do we sit back and let this dog suffer in silent fear while we wait it out?  I don't think that's fair; in fact, it's neglectful.  Trainers, veterinarians, and several individuals on the shy-k9s yahoo group believe the same thing -- it's no different than neglect or abuse to simply ignore the dog's anxiety and hope it goes away.  You wouldn't ignore a liver or thyroid problem in a dog, it would be considered neglect or abuse.  In those cases, the organ malfunction is the liver or thyroid.  In a fearful or anxious dog, is it not the brain that is malfunctioning? Isn't it our responsibility to treat the malfunctioning organ, regardless of what it might be?

While at work today I called the vet to set our follow-up appointment, and since Sonny's stools are still not fully formed, she wants to keep him on the prescription food for another week and follow up next week. So I asked her what we are doing with regards to his mental state, especially considering that Sonny's food and treats are 100% limited to his prescription food, so now more than ever, I'm not able to work with him because kibble is not exactly a high-value reward.  After some back and forth, the receptionist on the other end of the call let me know the doctor was putting together a prescription for Clomipramine for Sonny.

Finally, I don't feel like I'm fighting an up-hill battle for this dog to feel slightly comfortable in his own skin.

Then I was sent home from work for being sick.  I came home and took Roxy and Buster for a quick walk, then came back home to take Sonny out.   We went outside and he dragged me across the street and pooped right away; then his normal panic routine ensued:  crossing back and forth in front of me, pulling in all directions, trying to back out of his collar, etc.  So we came back inside and figured I would try again in a few minutes to get him to pee.  I brought Buster to the water bowl and came back to the living room and Sonny had peed on the floor. Great. The medication couldn't come at a better time -- Sonny is becoming too afraid to even stay outside long enough to go to the bathroom.

When we came inside, I put together some food for him, with some water and his first dose of the medication and put his bowl down in his crate.  I walked away and I'm not exactly sure what happened, but he wound up spilling the whole bowl all over his crate, and then he wouldn't eat it.  He pressed himself up against the back of the crate, like he was trying to be invisible.  I left him be, thinking he'd eat the food, plus it's stressful for him to have me right there in his crate cleaning up the food while he's in there.... but 10 minutes later, he still hadn't eaten.  I cleaned up the food non-nonchalantly and he devoured it the moment I closed his crate.

He came out of his crate and had a moment of joy, where he ran around the living room, smiling.


Here's to you, Sonny... and here's to working towards a more relaxed face, like this one, moving forward!

Now he's laying in the Papasan Chair, and for just a moment, I heard him sleep-woofing, for the first time in over a month and a half, he's sleeping with me sitting so close.  Actually sleeping too, not sleeping with one eye open.