Ew, no thanks. I used to take it for my fear of flying, but it makes me feel awful. I'd rather be scared than spaced out like that
Ok, the adaptil spray made no difference at all. I sprayed her bed and her collar (not on her) and left for 15 mins before putting it back on and putting her in the room with her bed. Zero difference in her behaviour, demeanour and reaction to the clippers coming out. I'm second guessing her body language now but I'll put that in a new post so that I don't clog up this one
I've looked into most calming supplements for my two. I used an Adaptil plug in when I moved them indoors into crates and it did work to a point because I could tell when it had run out. I found a supplement called stress less which if I remember correctly is just magnesium. It's a very common supplement to give horses. Apparently magnesium helps us/animals cope with stress but during stressful situations magnesium is used up so its a vicious circle. I got in touch with the company and received a very nice email. They explained how it worked but because my dogs had had struvite crystals they suggested I discuss it with my vet. They did say though that the magnesium they use does not affect urine PH so should be fine. They sent me a copy of test results to show the vet. I will post them if I can find them. They did think low magnesium could be a problem for my dogs as when their nervous behaviour started they were under a lot of stress and on a low magnesium diet for their bladder infection. I haven't tried them though because I'm neurotic about their bladders although now you've reminded me about them I think I might discuss it with my vet. http://nupafeed-dogs.co.uk/stress-less/4582282169
A magnesium deficiency will cause signs of nervousness in horses and so a magnesium supplement can fix this. But most horses are not deficient and there is very little evidence that adding magnesium to a diet not deficient in it will have any positive effect. People just give it without any evidence that their horse needs it. If a deficiency in any animal is suspected it's best checked out by a vet first. Then the right remedial quantity can be recommended.
The more I think about this, the more reluctant I am to use anything without talking to my vet. I've emailed one of the vets local to my family in the UK who stock NutraCalm to ask them their procedures for prescribing it, how it works and what potential side effects there are.
@snowbunny To be honest Fiona despite the nervousness and stress my dogs suffer from I wouldn't use any supplement. I have tried CSJ calm down herbs but I couldn't tell you if it helped or not while I was using it although they did seem more excitable when I stopped. That's the problem I have as my dogs' issues are longterm so any supplement or calming drug would need to be longterm which I don't like the idea of and I don't think supplements not prescribed by a vet can be guaranteed to work. I think it depends strongly on the dog, the problem and the severity of the problem. Obviously your situation would be short term use but I wonder how much help these supplements would be ? I think desensitisation training without supplements, unless Willow is severely stressed, would be much more beneficial and if Willow is so severely stressed that you don't think desensitisation training alone will help then the only thing you can guarantee will work is meds off the vet. My cousins dog, Harry, is petrified of fireworks the vet prescribed what sounds like a doggy version of rohypnol. It calms the dog and stops them remembering the stressful event but even that at full dosage although helped wasn't a complete success.
Yes, you're right. She certainly doesn't need anything long-term and the blasting is only every now and again in the winter, relatively unpredictable and it would be inappropriate to medicate her against that. Similarly with gunshot - I'm more than happy to assume we'll never take her out on a shoot, but there is the odd gunshot heard here in the summers. The place we're buying in Spain has spent cartridges on the land, so it has been used for hunting fairly recently, so I assume we'll hear more if we're spending our summers there. Because of these intermittent exposures to the noises, I do want to address them, because I hate to see her so stressed. I'm just concerned having seen her reaction last time there was avalanche blasting. It was barely audible to us, and we were still at home at the time. She's never reacted in those conditions before, but she immediately cowered and slunk off to her bed. That's why I'm worried that my abilities to desensitise her with just distant noise and distraction may not be enough. My thought was, if I could give her something to calm her for the beginning of a desensitisation program, it might help jump an initial hurdle and break an association of fear of a very distant noise.
I do find it weird, though, that she's absolutely fine with thunder and fireworks, even when directly overhead!
You've probably already tried this but do you have a cue word to say it's ok I'll deal with it ? Or a cue word specifically for scary noises ? I have a cue word for if my dogs get nervous or we are about to meet something they look like they may react to. I also have a cue word for loud noises. My dogs don't react too often to loud noises. A bit like willow they are fine (touch wood) with thunder and fireworks but occasionally a noises will spook them. My cue is its ok its just Paul !!! Paul is my cousin who works the farm and is always making loud noises. I used the same cue with my old lab. They know Paul makes loud noises so if there's a motorbike screaming in the distance for example and they get nervy I say it's ok its just Paul and they relax like they think oh right ok. It might sound daft but you could try getting your OH to make strange noises encourage willow to investigate then use his name as a cue. Do it enough times she might start believing gunshot is him when you tell her.
When i was at training i overheard a lady say her dog had been given a herbal implant to calm her lab?! It was a young lab and at that age i thought all labs were a bit flaky lol.. saying that i don't know her story and it wasn't my conversation so i couldn't ask her about it. Luckily for us Baxter's pretty laid back, at the training Baxter got called the 'calm' lab!
Something else may have happened to her, maybe something that caused pain for example, at the same time as a distant, sudden bang. Dogs are all about association. Unfortunately your highly unlikely to be able to find out what.
It's also possible that bangs from some things just sound very different and Willow finds some sounds aversive on their own. After Charlie had spent 3 nights in a vet hospital, he came home and (after the drugs had worn off) was jumpy and scared at things like a car door slamming. I found it astonishing that a dog, previously rock solid in terms of nerves, was suddenly displaying signs of extreme reactivity to noise. A trainer pointed me to an article that explained how noisy environments could just have this impact on dogs, because some noises when certain acoustics are added in just sound unpleasant, and it's possible the kennel environment of the hospital was noisy. Thankfully, it wore off, although Charlie has never quite returned to exactly how he was before, I don't think. He is more jumpy these days (but because he is pretty much not a jumpy dog at all, it's not very alarming - he is still less jumpy than the average dog).
Poor little love, I just want her to understand that it's nothing to be scared of and that I'll look after her. I would have never have said they'd be like this; as young puppies, it was Shadow who was frightened by loud noises, and Willow was bomb-proof. Now, it's completely the opposite. I wish I knew what it was that caused her to become scared.
I would say this, wouldn't I (given the theme of my views in general) but did she spend the night at the vet's when you had her spayed? Based on my experience of Charlie, it makes me wonder. Plus you saying she started barking at people etc. after her spay. We have speculated before whether the reports of increased reactivity in neutered dogs might in fact nothing to do with neutering per se, but the way some dogs react to the events around surgery.
I was wondering the same thing after your comment about Charlie's stay in hospital. She stayed over the night before her spay. I wish I knew if the early spay had anything to do with her fear now. I am making it sound like she's a quivering wreck, which isn't the case. Most of the time, she's a normal happy-go-lucky Labrador. It's just certain triggers that scare her. So, potentially the fear could be down to: An early spay (6.5 months) Her stay at the vet's at this time Lack of ongoing socialisation The normal teenage fear stage that's never gone away Something else A combination of the above It doesn't really matter as far as Willow is concerned, as I'm not sure my approach now would differ based on the cause, but it would certainly influence my decision making in the future.
No, I don't think it makes any difference. I think it's useful to think about these things though, it does influence future choices, like you say. I don't think you really had her spayed 'early' - most of the studies that refer to 'early' spay are talking about very young dogs. I do think there is a potential point about the wider impacts of surgery. Charlie only showed signs of this being a problem (particularly in terms of being sensitive to noise as a result, although that was temporary) after a stay in a large hospital type kennels though.
Homer's fear of noises started when he was about two years old. He was rock solid as a younger pup and was quite happy with bangs and fireworks even going down to watch the displays a cross the river. His fear got steadily worse and he was already nervous when hubby was looking for a CD during a firework display and for months Homer's nervousness was focussed on the CD cupboard. There have been a few times he's not wanted to go along the path but never as bad as this time. Dodgson and Horrel do a herbal supliment. I think he may need something for a while, long term to reduce nervousness and desensitise him slowly for long term secure effect.
Well, I've had two very flaky responses from vet surgeries near my family: "We do sell Nutracalm here. It is just herbal, so you do not need blood tests or to see a vet first. You can buy it over the counter with us. We have a lot of patients using nutracalm for anxiety problems with great results. We have handouts here all about the product. So you are welcome to pop in to collect one and have a chat with one of our nurses about the product, or if you give me your address I can pop one in the post for you." and "Thank you for your email, we would love to try and help you and your Labrador. we use nutracalm with a lot of patients and have had great results. I have included the web address which has some information about it. http://www.nutravet.co.uk/products/nutracalm the products are all natural and I use them myself for all 4 of my pets. If you would like to discuss further please let me know. We can arrange an appointment with one of the vets if you would like to know more about blood tests. Alternatively a free appointment can be made with myself or one of the other nurses to discuss nutracalm use and behaviour. Please do not hesitate to contact us with any further queries." "It is just herbal" ... "the products are all natural" ARGH!!!! In other news, I just put on a YouTube video of a guy doing some shooting (a guy called Gordon H - his videos are from gun-mounted cameras which is pretty cool). I streamed it to our TV for more realistic sound, but played very low volume. At the first gunshot, Shadow sat bolt upright and stared intently at the screen. Willow just wandered off to the kitchen to see if I'd dropped any morsels as I was baking Mary Berry's crumbliest fruit scones... This gives me some information, I think. The noise is realistic enough through the TV for Shadow to find it stimulating. But it was too quiet for Willow to find it scary. This is useful, as it gives me a baseline to work with. I'll keep it at this volume and make the noise all about good things (although I draw the line at my scones...) for the time being.
last night homer was scared of car doors closing! I've played parts of the Clix Noises cd with the radio or TV on at the same time. Cd on very low and the TV on low but just enough to hear over the cd. I've tried to play different sections and not at the same time, but mostly in the evenings. Homer takes himself off upstairs. Will do some more at this level then with the TV off. I think the Adaptil spray in the kitchen is helping but only just.
Jes, I'd probably see the vet if you haven't already, to check our anything physical or diet related that might be causing Homer's behaviour - it sounds like it's really not like him, and is a big change in behaviour relative to his normal self. Not that I know him, but he's always seemed like he used to be a pretty calm and steady dog (in your posts).
