Visit with Dr. Dodman

OK, so Roscoe has not seemed quite right this year. More on edge, more reactive, sometimes really shut down at trials (Xanax is no longer helping in that department), has marked a couple of times in my house......... :O .............it has seemed to me his Buspirone isn't taking the edge off him any more. Like he is menopausal or something. Seriously, the occasional outbursts of rage seem to fit that sort of thing. And the mood swings. Of course, last weekend he was AWESOME and PERFECT and no sign of such "issues". Isn't that always the case?

I decided it was time to check in with his trusted behavior medicine vet, Nick Dodman at Tufts. It was a good appointment because Roscoe had a MAJOR meltdown. The waiting room is pretty intense at Tufts. Often dogs at the end of their lives, there for last chance help, or treatment. We walk in and sit next to a HUGE golden retriever with an ENORMOUS growth on her nose, making her mouth all deformed, her nostrils all strange looking. Poor thing looked absolutely miserable and was there for some radiation treatment or something. Stress, stress, stress...........the room oozed stress. There were some small dogs, but mostly HUGE dogs. I sit in a corner seat, facing him away from everything and basically shove Charlee Bears into his mouth to keep him from stress barking. Next in comes a HUGE Spinone/Doodle/Irish Wolfhound type dog and plops down next to us and I have to tell the owner "He IS NOT friendly", so she pulls the dog away from sniffing Roscoe's ass. Roscoe just about implodes. I shove more Charlee Bears in him, trying to break them up into tiny bits so he doesn't get STUFFED/FAT! I thought I was going to implode.

FINALLY, they come get me. We enter the room, Dodman's office, and Roscoe is a shaking mass of nervous energy, woofing under his breath, reacting to every sound outside the door. I try to get him to sit and focus. Lasts about a second each time. Dodman says something about Roscoe being pushy and demanding his cookies from me. Hah, he is always demanding cookies, but this wasn't about the cookies, I explain. This is about the sounds outside the door and how intense the situation was in the waiting room. I explain our meltdown in the waiting room and how uptight he is. Not sure he agrees with me, he is of the mindset of these types of dogs being dominant and pushy, no matter how much shaking the dog is doing sitting in front of him "demanding his cookies". I have to just work through that with him.

We chat about what's been going on. He explains I should make sure to let Roscoe know he is top dog over Spur and to remind him of that often. Letting Roscoe get resources first, etc. Elders rule, he is very firm on that deal. Yeah, I have probably been praising Spur more in front of Roscoe a bit too much, which doesn't help my relationship with Roscoe. I will be more mindful of that. He thinks if we increase the buspirone the marking may go away and some of the anxiety may diminish. We will try it for a month or so and re-evaluate. He gave me a script for Clonidine, a blood pressure med. I WISH I had that yesterday for the waiting room! It can be giving regularly or situational. Situational, say for trial stress, I have to give 1-2 hours to take effect, but can give 3-4 times/day. Sounds good and I can do a test of that next weekend at Sunday's trial, if he melts down in the first class I can give it and see how he does the next class.

We can also try stopping the buspirone, and starting just the clonidine. That's a possibility. Ultimately, the drug of choice would be prozac, but we tried that years ago and it diminished his play drive which is essential for his performance work. Something very important to both of us. It's what we do, and it helps him tremendously.

At one point we decided to test his urine, since I had not done that. I had a blood panel done, which was all good, but had not tested his urine. The attending student was going to take him out herself to get that. I was like..................."Uh......NO, I will be doing that", LOL!! I am not sure they fully understand the extent of his aggression. A stranger taking his leash, shoving a tray under him to collect urine would surely have been bitten!!! I do think Roscoe suffers some from little, cute dog syndrome. There was even a point when Roscoe was working on a stuffed toy we gave him to keep him occupied, that Dodman reached down as if to pat him. He didn't and I didn't say anything, but GOOD GRIEF PEOPLE!!!!! This is an AGGRESSION case!!! Oi! It can be a struggle working through these things with people and the cute factor is a big issue. I am always on edge in public, ready to blurt out "NOT FRIENDLY", but in an office with the country's top behavior medicine veterinarian I didn't think I had to. Sigh..................... I was exhausted by the time I got home. It was a long drive, during rush hour traffic, the waiting room scene drained me, the visit was difficult. I wish we had thought to give him the stuffed toy first thing. But, at least Dodman got to see the crazy, uptight version I talk about.

Started his increased buspirone this morning.