I have a behaviorist phone consult tonight...

AmazingGrayce

Sooo..after some posting on here and chatting behind the scenes with NenaGunther I have taken the advice to seek help from a behaviorist to finally try and get some control over Graces SA. I do admit that for at least the past year I have not helped the problem because I basically gave up on trying and have just found it easier to revolve everything I do around trying to not have to crate her or leave her home alone...this has to stop. I will live the next 13 years with her like this if its necessary but I need to begin at least attempting to take an active role in working to help her overcome the SA if its possible.

I just got sooo tired if trying things for the first 2 years and finally some progress was made and than I moved to NJ and it was like starting from scratch again. The move made her worse than ever.

I have been filling out all the paperwork, documenting incidents, sharing some videos I have and such with the behaviorists over hte past 2 days through email and tomorrow I will have a phone consult. IT sounds as if they will discuss options as far as some type of medication as well which I am open to as long as its not some type of sedative or thing that will alter her personality or daily activity level since I am quite active with her.

So wish us luck...I imagine Im going to need some support to push through this training process. Its going to be a challenge to get back into working on this after pretty much giving up on any chance of fixing it. Ill keep you updated on how it goes.

THANK YOU NENA AND GUNTHERS MOM FOR THE REFERRAL AND GETTING US ON THE TRACK TO WORK ON THIS. We needed the push ..I think Im ready to dive in and attack this problem once and for all. Confused

I know im part to blame for her problems I hate to think that..but I do know its prob true...Im as attached to her as she is to me. So this is going to be a challenge! I pray I can at least make some progress with her.

weim2mom · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 12:53 am Post subject:

We will keep you both in our thoughts and prayers.

Please keep us posted!

weimamama · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 10:40 am Post subject:

Ah, JL... I didn't realize Grayce was so bad with her SA!
I'm so sorry about that. It's a tough thing, but I am sure you both can work through it, especially the way you tackle things head on with Gracie... like the FUN stuff.
She's an active active girl and still pretty young, so I hope you can do this w/ out "altering" meds.

Good luck and if you need anything; even to vent if you get frustrated, call or email me!

~Kel

simis · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 3:01 pm Post subject:

Good for you and even better for Grayce! I'd love to hear what you end up doing to treat the SA. Please keep us posted!

NenaGunther

weimdawgs · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 7:22 pm Post subject:

JL, so sorry....I didn't realize the SA was so bad for Grace. I'll be thinking of you both and you know where to find me if you want to talk.

Keep us posted on her progress.

kamfam · Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 7:51 am Post subject:

Good luck to you both! Let us know how things are going.

Trene · Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 8:26 am Post subject:

Oh wow, well let us know what they say. Sky's bad too, my fault she's such a momma's girl. Howls and cries when I go anywhere w/ Storm or if my s.daughter and I leave the house. John says Sky pretty much howls and cries the whole time. I feel so bad that she gets like that.

Phoenix1705 · Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 9:07 am Post subject:

Good luck with everything! It is great you are exploring all your options! I hope things go well!

afromaiko · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 6:46 pm Post subject:

Please let us know how you get on. Mika is driving us batty and it's getting worse. I wish I knew who to call here, I can't even find out if there is such a thing as an veterinary behaviorist around here. Crying or Very sad

Amrita12 · Puppy Joined: 17 Jun 2008 Posts: 41

Good luck to you mommies with SA, I guess you have to tell yourself its "weaning" time, and it will be better for your Weim. ...

What this is telling me is that my pup must learn to be alone from the start -- true ? Or is there no co-relation between how much time you spent with them the first few days / months ...? Please do share your experiences and thoughts.

Reading all the posts here I get a bit scared. ....I guess SA is Weim thing ?

ZaneTheBrain · Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 7:59 am Post subject:

Let us know what happened with your phone consult!

My vet describes weimaraners as 'the poster child for separation anxiety and destructive behavior' more so than any other breed that she's treated. I think she was worried when I first got Zane and told her that he was my first dog-her eyes looked like this Shocked

. I took him in last week for his elbow and she said that he is her new favorite, that he is a pure delight, and that she can tell that I've put a lot of time and energy into socializing and training him. So proud..... Soppy / in love

. What she doesn't know is that he still takes his anger out on his poor beds, my plants, and last week he tried to rip the toilet paper holder out of the wall when I left him in the bathroom while I was away! I'm anxious to hear what they said to see if something like that would help Zane.

AmazingGrayce · Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 12:12 am Post subject:

sad pathetic grace http://gallery.me.com/jlstorch#100281

So heres a video i took today of Grace in her crate. Its LONG...for the first few 5-10 minutes shes not too bad but towards the middle to end of the video shes just starting to get all worked up.

Ill add another post in a few w/ an update on what the behaviorist is having us do and whatnot. Part of it is video taping her in the crate so they can see what she does.

AmazingGrayce · Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 12:43 am Post subject:

ok so now for an update on what Im doing to work with Grace.

2 days ago she started taking Flouxetine (sp?) which is basically puppy prozac. It sounds as if there is a high success rate in getting a major improvement as long as it is done along with the behavior modification. The meds could take up to 6 weeks to kick in and start working but from what I understand the purpose is to help her be able to learn a new way of responding to being alone. Since she has been responding in such a negative way for so long it has become an automatic response that is basically ingrained in her..whether shes anxious or not its just the response she knows and what she has done for 3 years. This medicine will hopefully allow her to learn a new response that I hope will not be such a negative response!

Some of the things I will be doing to work with her are:
Grace is VERY intuitive. She can figure out when we are going out to the dog park or hiking before I even start to pack anything up. She learned that I always forward the phones to my cell phone so the moment I pick up the phone and dial it and it rings to my cell its like a signal to her that we are going somewhere fun and she starts running around all excited and happy. What the behaviorist has asked us to do is once we are ready to do soemthing fun with her to first leave her alone in the house for @ 3 minutes. Than come in, get her and go do whatever it was we were planning on doing. So hopefully she can start associating being left alone with resulting in her than going to do some of her favorite things.

I also need to work on ignoring her completely whenever I first come home. No greeting her until she completely calms down and stops focusing on greeting me..THAN I can give her a nice big greeting.

I will also be separating her into other rooms in the house throughout the day to work on getting her to not be such a velcro dog following me from room to room.

Some of these things are going to be more challenging than others. One thing thats going to be very difficult is the fact that I am currently staying with my parents. Due to Graces SA issues when I moved back to NJ I moved in w/ my parents for the first time in almost 10 years (ugh!!!). The only thing I can afford is an apartment and with her howling and barking there is just no way an apartment is an option for me...so I am very lucky that my parents have taken both Grace and I into their home and even more lucky that they have taken to Grace and I would say absolutely love and adore her as much as I do. Now the hard part is my mom. SHE SPOILS GRACE MORE THAN ME! My mom has always been difficult to get to be stern with Grace. She is the only person that Grace will still jump up on and my mom cant quite get the hang of how to tell her NO! Getting my mom on board with some of these training methods is going to be difficult. Im trying my best to explain why we have to do it but I know shes still not happy @ doing it..she feels like she is being mean if hse ignores Graces greeting when she comes home....she says thats the part of Graces personality that seh loves and why would we want to change it? She cant quite make the connection that we just dont want to encourage certain things in Grace that are effecting how she is when left alone. So in all honesty I dont think the training of Grace is going to be the most difficult thing..its going to be the training of my mother.

I really really love my parents and Im sooooooo lucky with how great they are but Ive always been independent so living here is driving me up a wall...but I just dont have any other options unless I could find someone whos renting out a small guest house thats not attached to or near any neighbors! I need to get Graces SA under control so I can get my own place or I need get a huge raise so I can afford a house haha.

So this is where Im at right now....Ill update as things progress.

Phoenix1705 · Posted: Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:38 am Post subject:

Sounds like you are off to a great start. Hang in there and stick to it, I am sure you'll see progress before you know it!

On a side note, I had to move back in with my dad one time after several years, when I first seperated with my ex husband. UGH, I hated it. It was me, my collie, my two kids, and then his collie. The house was all of 900 sq ft. It was a doozy to say the least. I don't think I lasted 5 months but I wish I would have stayed longer just to save up more before I started renting.

You can do it! Smile