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.