The Ups and Downs of the Holidays

So, Fathead and I are back home (Southern Illinois, where we both grew up) for the holidays. This has been, for the most part, a very good trip. Lots of excitement and fun for doggy.

First, his cousin-dog Molly came to visit for the holidays too, and she and Zim are bestest buds. They love playing with each other and really wear each other out. The basically didn't stop playing the entire time they were together.

Second, Zim got to play with a 3-year-old for Christmas and he definitely really loved her. Unlike some dogs, who think that kids who scream and run and move funny are scary, Zim thinks they're great playmates. He's definitely a great little dog with kids. He's not perfect (he did start guarding a bit when she kept giving him and taking away a little toy car and he growled after she kept putting her hand over his eyes, but he was mostly a doll and he definitely was more patient with that behavior from the little one than he would be from most people) but it's definitely great to see him being a good little family dog. I was pretty sure before that he would be great with the kids we eventually plan to have but I'm now very confident that with the right ground rules in place, he will be nothing short of fabulous. He's really a super patient little dog and he just generally likes kids.

Finally, Zim got his first snow and oh, how he loved it. He was half-bounding through it and half stalking it and he's just had a grand old time with her. I've been desperately hoping for snow because I knew he would love it and he did! Watching him run around in the snow was definitely all that I hoped it would be. More, in fact.

That said, the trip has not been all perfect. Today Zim had a little escape and it was absolutely harrowing.

So, my mother in law was getting rid of some milkbones that had gotten wet (with icky sewage water) when the bathroom had flooded due to some pipes being destroyed under the house (so, you know, trying to make sure the dogs didn't get sick from eating gross sewage food) and she left the back door open while she did. Zim walked right out. This was, possibly, I think, because he was wearing his harness, as he is not normally prone to door bolting (although perhaps saying he doorbolted is inaccurate since he just walked calmly outside instead of running through like he'd never seen the sky before). I was near him, so I followed him and called to Fathead and my father-in-law to help me. Unfortunately, however, despite walking calmly and slowly toward him, Zim evaded capture and kept hopping along happily through the snow. Eager to explore, and perhaps confident due to the fact that Mommy and Daddy were nearby, he started away from the house and through the street. My father-in-law asked me about food, so I ran in to grab the pork we'd been heating up for my lunch. By the time I got back out, I could no longer see Zim and my father-in-law was calling to Fathead to stop chasing Zim (at a walking pace), but since Zim wasn't stopping when Fathead did, he kept forging (again, at a walking pace) after him, unwilling to let him get out of sight.

The next time I saw Zim, Fathead had him clutched safely in his arms, safe and sound. He had captured  the Great Explorer when he'd stopped to pee on a tree. However, this was only after Zim had wandered into the road, which is a highly traveled one with fast traffic. Honestly, even thinking about my baby on that road and what might have happened just makes me sick to my stomach. The worst part, of course, is that it was hard to know what to do. We were unwilling to try walking away or stop following him, because we didn't want to lost sight of him and that's usually when he decides he wants to go find you. He wouldn't come when called or stop as he didn't want to be caught and have his fun (and, in his mind, perfectly safe and probably almost normal, with Mom and Dad nearby) little adventure cut short. What this really means, I think, is that I need to implement the recall-training program I've been thinking of putting him through for the past couple of weeks. We need to come up with a new "come" command and practice with him on a long line and then jackpot him something fierce upon complying (either forcibly via the line or freely) with the command. Hopefully this will give us a better option should a situation like the escape today ever come up again.

Check Out These Photos of Zim!

So, the wonderful Angel Sallade, who did the professional photos of Zim that we had done just after Thanksgiving, has made a post about Zim on her blog. It has a number of lovely photos of Zim. Check it out!

I am Zim!!!

Stuck Puppy

Guess who got his head stuck in Fathead's backpack loop and had to be cut out of it? Zim did!

Zim's Birthday Party

So, Zim had his birthday party today. It wasn't actually his birthday, but his birthday is this coming Tuesday and Saturdays work much better for parties so we had it today. Anyway, it was wildly successful. There was a cake for the people (of whom there were about 11) with his picture on it as well as some "cake" for Zim (his hypoalergenic food mixed together with fish oil and wrapped in bacon). Then he got his presents (all wrapped in the same box), which he unwrapped himself and really adored. He got a new Kong Wobbler (since his old one is kind of torn up), an IQ Ball and an Invinciblez Snake. I think he might get a bit frustrated with the Treat Ball, but he was totally taken with the snake. He squeaked that thing just forever. Good decision on my part to get that for him, I think.

So, now, pictures and video from the big event!!

The cake that the humans got (Zim wanted some too, but unfortunately for Birthday Boy, he is on an allergy trial).

The video of Zim opening his presents. It's actually 3 videos put together, because I took it with a normal digital camera instead of a video camer, but you get most of it.

Birthday Boy was so pooped after his party that he just could not bother to care when we draped his new squeaky snake over him.

A Very Zim Christmas

Because I could put Zim on Christmas cards, for the first time ever, we will be putting out Christmas cards. Here they are.

And Once Again, Vote for Zim!!

So, I'm doing another plug for my little boy in a Facebook contest. This time he's entered into a contest at his daycare and so if he wins, he'll win five free days of daycare, which is a huge deal. As of right now, I think he's four "likes" behind the leader and it's only been up for less than 12 hours so here's hoping he wins.

Anyway, follow this link and like the picture posted by his daycare!!!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=454312221273118&set=a.452320324805641.94819.131862300184780&type=1&relevant_count=1

Zim's First Santa Visit!

So, after 6 on Monday, the mall Santa does pictures with pets, so today Zim and I went and got ours done. Santa and his helpers were very taken with my baby.

Professional Photos

The photographer just posted these to Facebook and they're so cute I thought I'd share them right away!

This last one is of Zim wearing the bowtie Mommy made for him for Thanksgiving.

So Far, Today Has Been a Much Better Day

I'm so proud of my little fuzzbutt. After having so much trouble with him yesterday that I actually got mad at him for the first time, my baby has been completely wonderful today---partially due to his own wonderful personality and partially due to the fact that his mommy and daddy are committed to trying to keep working with him to make things better.

So, as I wrote (late) last night, Zim does not like getting the peroxide cream for his demodex put on his face. We'd managed to get him to be okay with having it put on most of his face, but we were still getting growling and snapping when we tried to apply it to his cheek. We were worried that we might have to makeshift muzzle him for the process, but we were also worried about how that would impact him---it sure wasn't going to make him like the process and we were worried it would make it worse. Well, we just decided to say "fuck it" and this morning, we pulled out some cooked pork from a pork roast we had and fed it to him the entire time we were applying the cream despite his food allergy trial. It worked beautifully. Not a peep from him, only happy munching. We're going to keep it up for the demodex cream, only giving him anything other than the allergy food when we do this and keeping it to pork because a) then we know exactly what's ruining the allergy trial if he doesn't improve and b) we're pretty sure that he's not allergic to pork, so we are hoping that we'll see an improvement even though we are breaking the trial. I do feel a bit bad that we're doing this, since we do need to get to the bottom of his allergies but I do think this is the best route. We can't have him snapping at us during medical treatment and it's important we clear up the demodex because I don't think we'll see an end to his itching if we don't even with the food trial.

In other news, Zim had a photo shoot today and he was a very good boy for the photographer. I wanted to get some photos for his first birthday (which is coming up really soon---December 4th!) and so I went looking for a photographer and I found this woman: http://www.angelsallade.net/. I really liked her photography, because she seemed to capture the pets' personalities so we hired her to come out today to do a session with Zim. She should have some photos up from the shoot on Facebook sometime tonight and I'm very excited to see how they turned out. From what I saw, she seemed to be getting some really great ones.

So, yeah, today I remembered why I love my baby so much and why it is that I've only ever once gotten angry with him even though we've had him for about 10 months now.

I Got Mad at My Dog Tonight

I've never really been mad at Zim before. He's annoyed me before and he's tested my patience, but before tonight, he'd never made me mad at him.

So, Zim's demodex seemed to be getting worse, so we took him back to the vet and got a cream for it. Well, he doesn't like having it applied to the pink demodex spots at all. We think it's because this hurts (the cream is peroxide based and must sting) and then when we first started applying it, I think we made matters worse by how we were holding him and the fact that we just didn't really know how to go about making it a positive experience. So he growled, and eventually he started snapping.

We've made some progress with getting him better with having the cream put on him---no one holds him while it gets put on and we try and stuff him with treats (by which we mean kibble, since we can't resort to anything higher value due to the damn allergy trial---which he ruined yesterday anyway by stealing some Thanksgiving turkey). So, he's okay, now, with getting the cream put on all the spots but the couple that are on his right cheek. With those he still growls and snaps---and worse, as he snaps, he eats the damn cream!! Well, all this makes putting the cream on him very unpleasant and I dread having to put the damn stuff on him twice a day. And tonight, as he snapped at me and licked the cream from my finger as I reached for his cheek for the umpteenth time, I just, well, I'd had enough. I got really mad. We've had so much trouble dealing with it and I'm sick of getting snapped at, annoyed that this irritated cream-eating behavior comes with it and afraid that's he's going to escalate and really bite me despite the fact that there is now food and a clicker and no restraint involved in this whole hellish process.

We've thought about looping a leash around his face just for putting the stuff on his cheek, to try and avoid me really getting bitten and since the positive reinforcement doesn't seem t be helping with that one spot, but then I think, well, won't that just make the experience worse for him? If we resort to that, mightn't we end up moving him so far backwards that he won't let us do the other spots and maybe not want to be handled at all? Because when he's not at the vet or getting a cream that stings put on his face, he has no problem with me touching all of those spots and even manipulating them to a point (he doesn't like having his head grabbed and moved but is fine with chin grabbing, lip lifting and all simple touching).

Maybe we should just give up on a strict allergy trial for a while and shove something really good into him while this happens. As I said before, it's not like he didn't ruin the trial anyway with the turkey. Maybe a few days delay in getting it started again will be worth it and we can get him to cooperate with getting his demodex under control.

Well, either way, tonight was terrible with putting the damn stuff on and it just left me really mad at the dog. Then, as soon as we were done, he grabbed something he oughtn't and I had to take it away and I basically told Fathead to hurry up and take Zim to bed with him. He'd said he was going to bed already and I was mad enough that I wanted no delays. I just wanted Zim out of my hair.

And now I feel really guilty that I got mad at my baby and that I acted mad.

My Dog is On an Allergy Trial and I Cried About It

So, Zim has probably always had some sort of light allergy. He's always had dry skin and he's always scratched and chewed at himself, although once we took him off a chicken-based food, it was never to the point where he was losing fur (and even then, it was very bad at all, people that weren't me and Fathead didn't notice at all). Well, this last week we noticed he's scratched some fur off his face and cut himself, so we took him to the vet. Turned out he had one (yes, one) live demodex mite there, so that's why he's scratching. We're not even treating it because the vet thinks he'll fight it off himself since it's such a mild case (at first they thought all the mites were dead). But, based on his history we did decide to go ahead and start him on an allergy food trial. This makes me so sad. At first I only thought it would be slightly inconvenient but now I know that it's super sad.

Zim's first birthday is coming up and I was going to make him a cake. No idea how I'm going to do that now. So, yeah, I cried. And I'm hoping to figure out a good solution. Maybe there are some other foods out there with hydrolyzed protein that I could turn into an awesome treat for him? It just feels really lame to be turning his normal food into a cake. I may actually even call his vet and see if there are other things I can feed him in order to make this one day work. :(

What's worse, the holidays are coming up. My boy is going to miss out on turkey and al manner of good stuff. Plus, we now have to carry treats on us so people can given him treats in stores, since we have to control what he eats.

This sucks.

Vote for Zim!!!

I've just entered Zim into the Greenies Monster Cute Photo Contest. The links to vote for him (and the photos I entered) are below. Vote for Zim!!

http://apps.facebook.com/monstercute/showentry/1310914

http://apps.facebook.com/monstercute/showentry/1310892

A General Update

First, pictures. We just took them this morning and they're just the cutest thing---like most pictures of Zim.

So, first thing we'll talk about is potty-training. Zim has been doing fantastic. He hasn't had an accident since the last time I posted that he had one, which means that we are one day short of a month accident free. I think he's actually potty-trained. Finally. God, I really sometimes thought we'd never do it but we're finally there. I'm so proud of the whole family---me, Fathead and, of course, my wonderful little Zim.

In other news, Zim had his 6-month check-up at the vet this past Friday and I'm really overall not happy with how it went and Fathead and I have decided we need to make some changes in light of it.

First, Zim has developed a fear of the vet. We were hoping that stuffing hot dogs and cheese into him would help but it only did so much. It kept him calm right up until he got onto the table, but even with those tasty treats on offer, getting up on the table still definitely freaked him out, even though he'd been calm (well, probably more expectant since he knew we had good treats) up until then. Then the poking and prodding happened and the most I could get him to do was lick a treat. Then they needed to put stuff in his eyes. He was fine for the first drop, but for the second he knew what was happening and he growled. It was then that things went to shit and that I really wish that Fathead and I had made better decisions.

First, they suggested a muzzle. I was not entirely comfortable with this, but I do think it was necessary for the eye drops. Even after a fair amount of conditioning, it's not his favorite thing when I clear his eyes. Having a stranger put cold drops in his eyes when he was at the scary vet was going to get someone bitten. 

What I didn't like, though, was when they suggested that we leave and they take him in back. We agreed and I really think it was the wrong decision. The entire time we were away, all I could think about was my baby and I immediate felt like I'd been a terrible parent for agreeing to let them take him back when I wasn't really comfortable with the suggestion in the first place. When they have him out of my sight I have no idea what's being done to him and I know he's past his threshold already because he wont take the very rare and absolute best treats ever of hot dog bits. I was scared they would traumatize and ruin my dog.

They didn't, but Fathead and I talked about it and we're going to proceed differently moving forward. 

First, we're going to try going into the vet whenever we go into PetSmart and do some counter-conditioning with him. They said that as long as we ask the receptionist we can even take him into the exam room to try and get him okay with being on the table.

Second, we're not going to let them take him in back again. Anything they can do to our dog they can do in front of us. It was an uncomfortable experience and we're not having it again.

Third, despite what it sounds like the vet wanted to do, he will not be muzzled regularly for visits. Yes, if he growls (or if we already know from experience that he will), he will get muzzled but only then and only for the purpose of whatever he's growling for. Zim is a sweet dog who loves everyone and his first reaction to something he doesn't like is to get away, not get aggressive. He's not generally aggressive at the vet, even if he is very scared (and he is). He doesn't need a muzzle 95% of the time that he's at the vet and I refuse to have my dog muzzled unnecessarily.

Lastly, we're going to watch when we schedule our vet visits. We've decided to make sure they're all with Dr. Pavlovsky, who Zim has never had a problem with and who we like a lot. Unlike the vet who was there at this last visit, Dr. Pavlovsky has never asked that Zim be taken in back even though he did once growl when someone tried to force his mouth open. Basically, I think we're going to have an easier time going with our plan of no muzzling unless necessary and no being taken in back. I also think he's less eager to push unnecessary tests which is an unrelated bonus. Honestly, if he were to open up his own private practice while we were still in Champaign, we would follow him to his new practice. I'd been thinking earlier that we should be trying to make sure we only see Dr. Pavlovsky and this latest vet visit has solidified it.

And now, to end this post on a happier note, Zim has gotten huge---by which I mean he has apparently grown 2.1 lbs in the past month, because he weighed in at 16.4 lbs at the vet. I was absolutely amazed. I mean, I suppose he has been looking a lot less tiny next to the other dogs at the dog park but I had no idea he'd grown so much. Honestly, since he'd been static at about 14.3ish lbs for the last 2 months before this visit I'd figured he'd probably stopped growing. I mean, I figured he might get another growth spurt around nine months, but I honestly didn't really think he would. Well, he's 2 days from nine months old and here he's grown 2 lbs. I mean, he's still a slight, skinny little thing but he's definitely bigger.

Zim's First Off-Leash Experience

This was entirely an accident. I really don't know how it happened but somehow when I went to unhook Zim's harness from the car and hook his leash to it, I missed. So he hops out of the car with the leash clip lying on top of him rather than attached to him.

At first we didn't notice. Zim stuck close to Fathead, who had the leash in hand. Then I saw that the leash was just hanging and Zim was totally free. I told Fathead, who tried to grab the dog to leash him. Zim skittered away, seemingly thinking, "what the Hell is this?"Having evaded Fathead's reach, he begins his calm stroll straight to the front door. We follow him, calmly, and as he's just reaching the door, Fathead grabs his harness and leashes him. I then come and unlock the door.

So, really, Zim did surprisingly well with this. Mind you, no rabbits came skittering by and Zim was tired from his day at doggy daycare and probably just wanted to go take a nap, but still, he was very well behaved. I'm glad that was the case. It makes me a little bit less scared of him getting lose.

Mind you, that's only a little. His recall is still selective and he's still very much a dog who will choose to run up to another dog or chase a squirrel rather than come when called. This does not mean that Zim will become an off-leash dog.

Zim Playing Cards

Realized I never posted these and they're just too cute not to post.

Keeping Puppy Safe In the Car

So, I was bopping around the internet trying to figure out if there is an even better way of keeping puppy from coughing when he decides to pull on his leash since he has a delicate throat (possibly the result of collapsing trachea but the vet says that since he shows no other symptoms and he's otherwise really healthy, not to worry about it for now), and I ended up finding this:

http://centerforpetsafety.org/research/

It's the test results for a number of car harnesses, all of which fail catestrophically---and I'm pretty sure Zim's harness was tested. The company, Kurgo, claims that they've done some more tests on their products and their's should not fail, but I'm honestly not so sure given that it really does look to me like their product was one that was tested and failed. It's not that I'm questioning their dedication to make a safe product---I think they are really trying to make one---but I think it's like the link I posted above states, there are no standards. Even though manufacturers try, it's really hard for them to make something that's actually safe because there are no standards for them to use to make sure they're safe. They have to make them up.

So now the question is, what do we do to keep puppy safe in the car? He's really well behaved in the car, so making sure he's tied down so he doesn't bother us isn't the issue. The issue is that I don't want my dog killed in a wreck. I want something that keeps him safe. I just don't know what that is anymore.

Why My Puppy is Perfect

So I've definitely written a lot on this blog about Zim's problems, which he certainly has. That said, despite the fact that he's got separation anxiety and still isn't 100% potty-trained, I still think he's perfect. Why? Because he's the perfect dog for me. Sure, it's a pain not to be able to go out without putting him in daycare and it's really frustrating to have a dog that seems to be impossible to get over that last potty-training hump but that stuff's not what really matters. What matters is whether he's the dog I wanted---and he is.

Reason Why My Puppy is Perfect 1: He loves me. Yes, this is probably part of the reason why he got separation anxiety but it's impossible to wish it were any different. He adores me. He gets so excited when I get home and he's happy to cuddle with me if I ask him to. If I pick him up or sit on the floor to go pet him he'll start licking my hands like crazy. Having a pet that loves you is really the reason to get one in my opinion so the fact that he's so devoted makes Zim really perfect.

Reason Why My Puppy is Perfect 2: He loves everyone. He's a really friendly dog and there's not an aggressive bone in his body now that we've gotten through his resource guarding. This is such an important thing in a dog, I feel. The one thing that I really feel an animal cannot be is aggressive to human beings and Zim, far from being aggressive, wants to greet and lick everyone of all races, genders and ages.

Reason Why My Puppy is Perfect 3: He's cute as a button. You've seen him on here. How could anyone not love that little face (which he gets so very many compliments on).

Reason Why My Puppy is Perfect 4: He's funny. He does the most hilarious things---like what's featured in the glove video I recently posted. He's hours and hours of entertainment. The fact that they have such funny antics is part of the reason I wanted a Shiba Inu and Zim has definitely delivered.

Reason Why My Puppy is Perfect 5: He's confident. Yes, he has his anxieties (like crates and being home alone) and his fears (the groomer, the vet) but he's basically a very confident pup. He's been that way since we met him at four weeks old. He likes going to new places and seeing new things. Better yet, he bounces back from bad experiences very nicely. Most things don't leave an impression on him, but even if they do counterconditioning with food works very nicely on him. We've gotten him over at least one fear that way and we're hoping that the magic of hot dogs will get him back to being okay with the vet too (and by the vet, we mean the exam part, the actual veterinarian himself Zim likes).

So, yeah, I think my puppy is perfect. I know that may not exactly make sense, to say your pup has problems but they're perfect anyway, but it's true. He's perfect.

Some Long Overdue Zim Cuteness

And a video too! Zim managed to pull the glove in this video through the X-Pen fence and he was being so damn cute about it that we let him keep playing with it (the glove only cost a buck or two anyway). And I managed to get a video of this cuteness to share with the world.

Broken Record Time---More Potty-Training Woes

So, as I've written about before, despite the fact that Shibas are supposed to be easy to potty-train dogs, with some even coming home basically potty-trained, Zim has been anything but. We've never been able to go more than two or three weeks without an accident and the fact that he has separation anxiety has made it even harder to figure out exactly what's going on---is he deficating because he doesn't like it when I'm not there with him or did he just not get an opportunity to poop outside? Either way, at 8 months old, he's still only about 90% potty-trained and he may even be regressing on his pooping.

Part of the problem is, of course, that we've not been able to interrupt him for simply months now. Picking him up no longer works and tonight when he had an accident and I finally kept my wits about me enough to try clapping loudly, that  didn't work either. I suppose next thing to try is a shaker can, but frankly I dispair of that working as well.

Really, I just don't entirely know why it is that he pees in the house. It's not a UTI, we've checked, and I don't think it's infrequent chances to go to the bathroom. When he had his accident a few minutes ago, he'd been on a walk not that long before. Instead he just quickly walked up to the baby gate and then peed. Now, I'll admit, in retrospect I realize this was a signal, but frankly he pulls that whenever he wants to go out for any reason and I'm sick of being at his beck and call for Zim-wants-to-have-fun-outside-time. That said, if I make him really insist, sometimes he pees in my house (and I'm not entirely certain he even signals before every accident, I'm just pretty sure he did this time).

Everyone keeps telling me he'll get there eventually, it just needs consistency and to keep a close eye on him. Well, been doing that and here we are. How the hell do you stop a dog who refuses to be interrupted from peeing from peeing in your house so you can redirect him outside? I really, honestly, have no idea. Like I said, we'll keep trying things but . . . well, first we have to think to use them, then we have to see if they actually work.

Honestly, sometimes I really do get tempted to see if I can teach him to use potty-pads because I feel like I'm banging my head into the wall and doing something that doesn't work for either of us. The problem is, of course, that we didn't start that way, and I worry about confusing him by refusing to take him outside and trying to retrain him or something. Maybe we should just try getting some potty-pads and only using them when he does have these infrequent accidents? Maybe that would be enough to teach him without confusing him? I really don't know.

Mostly, I just think I'm bad at this potty-training thing.

Zim's Separation Anxiety

So, ever since Zim tore up the carpet in front of the door in our room (where we put him when we're out), we'd been thinking he might have some separation anxiety. Eventually, because we also wanted to get someone in on his incomplete potty-training and the fact that we've never been able to crate-train him, we decided to call in a behaviorist.

Well, she came in for a 3 hr consult a week ago Thursday (about a week and a half ago) and we found out a lot of things. First, it seems that Zim does have some separation anxiety but he also seems to have some barrier anxiety. This is why, despite our best efforts, we've never been able to crate train him. According to our behaviorist, he's just not a dog who's crate-trainable (at least not without drugs). We'd stopped trying to do anything with him and the crate (despite his occasional bouts of separation anxiety-induced destructiveness) but now we've decided to completely let it go. It's just not for Zim and that's okay. Other than the separation anxiety, he's actually really good and I think once we get past this he'll be able to be reliably left at home. Second, we found out what we should be doing in order to help him get over us not being home.

The plan is to counter-condition Little Bit into being okay with us not being there. We were supposed to get him a bunch of puzzle games and then leave him in there for short periods. We're supposed to build up until he's okay with longer and longer periods while making sure that we don't leave him home alone so that he doesn't go into panic-mode, which would only reinforce for him how bad it is when we're not home. We're supposed to do it about twice a day.

Well, we've been at it for about a week and a half now and our progress has been . . . mixed. At first, Zim did great. He lasted for 15 minutes with one toy while the behaviorist was there. He then lasted the exact same amount of time when Ben was home alone with him and tried it with about 3. Then, it sort of went downhill. He lasted 12 minutes. Then 9. Then 4. So we decided to try a Thundershirt in conjunction with the counter-conditioning. It's definitely worked, although not as well as I'd hoped. He lasted 15 minutes the first time, then he went down to about 11. Well, he was also crying at the baby gate to the kitchen, so we thought that trying to do this so often (about twice a day) might be a bit much as the whining seemed to indicate his general level of anxiety had increased (weird, because he's really not an anxious dog overall). So we stopped the exercise for about two days then went back to it today with a lot of baby steps. Mostly new toys, the Thundershirt, only expecting about 6 minutes and we'd just gotten back from the dog park. Well, he did great and then he completely collapsed into about a 6-8 hr nap. We can't always take him to the dog park before we do this, but hopefully if we do it more often, along with the shorter time (which the behaviorist suggested when we e-mailed her about the decreasing time) we'll start to see some slow progress.

Adorable Pictures from Facebook