Panda, as you probably know by now, is pretty awesome. She's smart, she's well-behaved, she's only ever had one accident in the house (it was our fault, and it was in the bathroom!) - basically she's the perfect dog.
Except!!! She can't be left alone. That's right - she has what's called "separation anxiety," which basically means she gets upset when we leave her, and she's disproportionately excited when we come back. ("When we leave her" includes when other people watch her, although she's gotten better with dogsitters.)
If I remember, I'll post a picture of what she did to the bathroom door after we left her in there for a few hours at a time twice a week for a few weeks. It's not pretty.
Our hope, of course, is that she won't always have separation anxiety - we've been working hard to train her to be happy when we leave, or at least not to be distraught. And we're making progress. These days, she seems to have outgrown scratching the door when we leave, but she still whines, howls, paces, and is generally unhappy enough that we worry about what kind of damage she might do, either to the apartment or to herself.
So we consulted with a behavior specialist (Thank you Gordon!) and our new veterinarian, and together we decided that Panda would do best on anti-anxiety medication. As of tonight, she's been on Prozac for a week and a half, and I've stepped up the training in the hopes that she'll be more susceptible to reform now.
The game is this: I leave and try to come back before Panda gets upset. Sometimes I leave delicious treats in a bone to distract her for a while. Sometimes she's calm for a few minutes, sometimes she gets upset immediately. Here's an example of Panda unhappy after I leave (warning: this is kind of sad):
See what I mean? The good news is, this is a huuuuge improvement over what she used to be like. Wish us luck with the rest of the process!
I only had one paper to write, but it's been an intense first half of the semester, so after finishing my paper this afternoon I decided to take the rest of the weekend off. That means I can finally give you an update!!
I'll start with last night. I made a lamb stew/tomato sauce, put it over pasta, and enjoyed it with my friend Larry. Afterwards, we went to his apartment (4 houses down) and played Rock Band!
This morning, Maggie and I took Panda to the dog park, and she got chased by a greyhound (three times her size) named Maddie. They ran so fast!
Tonight, Maggie and I will finish watching the last episode in season one of Mad Men, which (despite a slow start) is excellent.
Topics for future posts: Birthday Presents, Panda's Agility Training, Dissertation Progress, Maggie's Trip, Garden Plans, Home Improvement...
I have got to get back on the posting wagon. There are tons of Florida pictures and videos to share! And second semester just started, so I have all kinds of updates on classes I'm taking and teaching! On the home front, I have new kitchen gadgets to gush over! And Panda has a new training program! And and and . . .
But all that will have to wait. For now, I leave you with the masterpiece of filmmaking that Maggie and I improvised one morning a few weeks ago.
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