June – MN

Meet adoptable deaf three year old June who is looking for a loving forever with someone who lives out in the country away from the busy city life. Someone who will add structure to her daily routine and keep her safe.

From her current caregiver. Seeking a new home for June, who is roughly 3 years old. She’s truly one of the sweetest velcro dogs I’ve ever met, but she’s also one of the most challenging. Seeing a home in the country as an only dog with someone who is home more often than not. Must have advanced dog skills, especially with behavioral dogs, the patience of a saint, and the knowledge that you are taking on a “project” dog.

The good:
She’s an incredibly sweet champion snuggler. She will snuggle you all day long if you let her. She can also be quite goofy and is very fun to play with. She loves chase, fetch, tug, hide and seek, you name it. She also loves car rides, though will sometimes bark at cars while stopped (but not all–haven’t detected any patterns). Snow is the best thing ever–she’ll run happy circles in the yard during/after each fresh snowfall.

She knows these basic hand signs: sit, wait, eat, come, water, walk, potty, quiet, no, good girl/yes. She’s finally starting to get the hang of down, watch me, and shake as well, but down has been especially hard for her. High-value treats are key for keeping her engaged with learning, and lots of head scratches and “good girls” and happy faces. She loves to please.

The bad:
In a nutshell, over the last year, she has become very reactive. She went from being the belle of the dog park to not playing nice with old friends and not being able to be integrated into group at doggie daycare. I have been working on counter-conditioning with her, but I feel like she’s getting worse and a city environment just isn’t the best place for her. She barks at everything she sees out the window (birds, squirrels, people walking), and barks and lunges on leash when she sees other dogs, no matter how far away. She will redirect this aggression to my other dogs if they are close enough. She’s never broken skin and apologizes after by licking their mouths, but they grow more wary of her by the day. She’s also starting to react to bicycles and some people. We go on walks on off hours to work on her counter-conditioning with the fewest number of triggers possible, but that’s really hard in the city and I don’t feel like she’s really making much progress.

She also has pretty severe separation anxiety. She was crate trained, but seems to be going backward on this as well. She used to sleep in her crate through the night until about 7 am with no issue, but for the past few months, she takes about an hour to finally settle, and then wakes up between 4 and 5:30 am, no matter how much we keep her awake during the day, how late she stays up, or how much exercise (physical and mental) she gets. Taking her potty and putting her right back in often results in nonstop whining and pacing or barking. She will also move the kennel clear across the room while we are gone and has stopped eating treats left in there for her (though she’ll lick a frozen kong).

Her history:
She was abandoned at an animal hospital in TN in October 2016. She was treated for demodex. Her skin improved. She was hit by a car just after Christmas 2016. Fractured pelvis and fractured femur. Surgery on her left hip (FHO) was January 2017 in Tennessee. Arrived in foster in MN in February 2017. I adopted her in June 2017 (from a now-closed rescue). At the time, she was on meloxicam, fluoxetine, trazadone, and gabapentin. I was able to successfully wean her off all medicines with no ill effects (the trazadone and fluoxetine were doing nothing to help her anxiety), though she will very, very occasionally limp if she’s been overactive.

Last week, her vet did put her back on fluoxetine at a higher dose (20mg/day). We’re trying alprazolam (up to 2mg/day) as well as needed while we wait the 4-6 weeks for the fluoxetine to take full effect. I continue her counter-conditioning and other training as well.

from Deaf Dogs Rock http://bit.ly/2XKpc06
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