Side Effects

It’s been kind of a crappy week so far. The mirtazapine we’d been giving Piney for his constant nausea made him slightly less nauseated but a lot more bratty and barky and quick to turn scary, like this morning when we tried to work on some CAT and he jumped out of bed and charged the front door, where Ira was. We stopped the drug today. And I’m about to talk to our behaviorist about giving him more Valium to lessen his (also constant) anxiety. He better get better. He has to.

CAT Dog

We started Piney’s Constructional Aggression Treatment this morning, in the tiniest increment possible. It went like this: Piney was in bed with me, as he is most mornings, while Ira got ready for work. Then, right before leaving for the day (actually for the whole weekend, but don’t tell Piney), Ira walked toward the bedroom till I saw Piney tense up. I told Ira to stop there, which he did, and then he made little noises there in the hallway until Piney showed a sign of relaxation. It took a long time, like 50 seconds, but finally Piney turned his head away from the bedroom door. As soon as I saw that shit I was like “Bye, honey!” and Ira turned and left the apartment.

That sounds like nothing, probably, but it actually went perfectly. We re-created a moment that makes Piney nervous—Ira approaches the bed in the morning—but kept it within a very very low-stress threshold. Then we held it there until Piney showed a sign of de-stressing, and he was rewarded for that behavior by having the stressor—Ira making noise near the bedroom—removed.

We’re going to do this once per morning for a while, then gradually increase the difficulty. Very gradually! As Jolanta says, “We do not want to push this dog.”

Speaking of pushing my dog, one of those assholes on the front stoop actually refused to get up when I walked out with Piney this morning. I would tell on them today, but I figure it’s only fair to warn them that I’m inclined to do that, before I actually do it. Right? As much as conflict-avoidant me hates to say things like that out loud to people’s faces.

And in cuter news, here are some pictures from the Halloween costume contest Ira judged last month: 2009 Halloween Winners.

Life Is Ruff

P’s bandage came loose at day care today, so they patched him up. And then he got busy doing his main job of looking cute.

Jacked

This morning while playing in the dog run Piney cracked a toenail so violently that half of it was hanging off and it was bleeding all over the place. I took him to the vet and they trimmed back the nail and wrapped his foot with a fashionable camouflage bandage. I have to tie an IV bag over the whole thing when he’s outside so the bandage stays clean and dry. That IV bag drags a little bit with every step and makes a loud scraping sound, drawing the attention of passersby, who take one look at my dog, wearing a jacket, a muzzle and an insane foot dressing and look at me like, Whoa, that dog is jacked up. And they are right. See?

But you know what, I bet everyone has something in their life that is just as messed up as my dog, but at least other people don’t have to walk around with that thing all day long, absorbing the judgment of strangers.

Howl

Here’s a video they made today at Piney’s day care.

The Moment

Yesterday, at Pino’s second training session with Jolanta, we threw his ball for him at the dog run, just like last time, and he was doing OK, never taking the ball back to Jolanta but occasionally throwing her a wary glance, and sitting when she told him to. Then, after like 20 minutes, he did something amazing. Jolanta was sitting on a bench, and he pressed his ball into the side of her leg and pawed at the ball for a while—which in itself is awesome, but I’ve seen him do that before with people—and then, like the fourth time he did this, he looked up and for a millisecond put his face very close to hers, maybe to check in with her or to smell her or to otherwise figure out more about her? I think his nose may have even made contact with her face. It was a split second, a micro-gesture, but its meaning, I think, was huge. Piney is starting to trust his new trainer.

No Cake for Allergic Doggies

Happy fourth birthday, my darling, terrible, lovable dog.