# Anxiety issues are getting the better of me



## SandraDee

My boy, Scout, is 4 1/2 yrs old. Up until mid May he had never had any kind of issues with anxiety, other than some nervousness riding in our car. It was all manageable.

On May 15th my husband and I went out, left the kids and dog with a babysitter. The last words I said to the babysitter before we left was " if you want to take the kids to the park, don't worry about the dog, he's okay outside of his crate". While I was wrong. While they were out, the dog peed all over my house. i mean everywhere. Up and down the stairs, down the hall, he soaked my couch, my area rugs in two rooms..... We have no idea what happened to cause that to happen as he had only been crated at night for a few years, and had been fine being on his own in the house.

That night he started having issues in his crate. He would wake up in the middle of the night digging for his life to get out. Since then it has gotten worse. the digging continues, but now he refuses to go in his crate. He can't stay out of it at night because he just bothers us, and he has to go in it during the day when I am not home because I can't trust him to be out of it.

His anxiety in the car has also gotten a million times worse. He now has to be crated in the car as he digs at the windows, doors and seats to get out, and then tries to jump on whomever is driving. Its not safe for him to be uncrated.

So what the heck is going on? We have no idea. He seems fine when he is with one of us, but sometimes not. Sometimes he just randomly starts shaking.

We have reverted back to puppy training. He is with me at all times if he is out of his crate, he gets treats to entice him into his crate.....its not working.

Any suggestions on how we can help aleviate his stress and anxiety. The vet is hesitant to put him on meds until we have exhausted all kinds of training suggestions.

He is starting to drive me mental, and I am getting resentful towards him. He's such a sweet, well behaved boy most of the time. I have no idea what happened that fateful night.


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## organicthoughts

Maybe try a different vet and get a chiropractic work up on your dog. Perhaps he fell or hurt himself while you were out and is experiencing pain. He could have hurt something that puts pressure on his pelvic area which makes it harder for him to hold his urine. I'd get a full structural work up done by a specialist before you move forward with treating strictly anxiety.

These dogs can act weird when they are in pain.


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## Spy Car

How much physical and mental stimulation does the V get on a daily basis?

Bill


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## SandraDee

The peeing thing was a one time occurrence. We had a full workup done on him (goodbye $460) to make sure it wasn't something physical or an infection going on.

He gets a minimum 5 km run through the woods once a day mid morning, and often more. I am a SAHM so I am with him most of the day, only out for short stints to run errands. On nice days we spend a lot of time outisde.

ETA: Scout is the fifth v i have had over my lifetime, so I am very familiar with their behaviour, he's the first one we've had that has had any anxiety beyond being scared of thunder or fireworks.


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## tknafox2

All this happened after one incident with the kids and babysitter??? 
Have you asked the kids if something out of the ordinary occurred that day?? 

The only reason I mention this is, with my late V Foxy, I was walking her one night, our neighbors were having a party and had fireworks. She could see the explosions and sparks at the end of the street, and became terrified... it started an anxiety that never subsided. 
At least I knew what had caused it... you have no idea if something weird happened that day.


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## SandraDee

The peeing happended while the kids were out at a park with the babysitter.

I know what triggered the anxiety in the car. That happened this winter. We were driving somewhere and I turned on the back windshield wiper in the car, and it squeaked and scared the dog. Since then he has not enjoyed going in the car, and that anxiety has just gotten 100 x worse since the peeing thing a few weeks ago.

we thought it may have been fireworks as it was a long weekend in Canada and fireworks were happening, but the peeing issue happened at 6:30 when no fireworks were being set off (we confirmed that with the babysitter ) and the day after, when they do the majority of them, he was in the backyard with myself and was totally fine, he was running around playing catch. So we ruled out fireworks as a cause.

The only other thing we can think of that has caused this, was we had a patio door replaced the Monday before the peeing incident. he had been left in his cage for about an hour while the window guys were here, but he seemed fine immediately following the work.

I don't think we will ever find out what really triggered what is going on in his brain (oh only if he could talk). I am just looking for some strategies to deal with it and maybe help him move on. I know it would help to know the trigger but it is what it is.

We are having some major renos starting in the next two weeks and Scout is going to stay with my parents (who also have a V) for the duration just so we can try to avoid any further problems. And to be honest I am going to be glad to get a break from him for a while.


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## dextersmom

I really feel for you. Our V also has some anxiety, which is usually manageable or completely unnoticeable. But he does have periods of time where something sets him off and he gets into a cycle. This only really happens with his crate - he gets upset in the middle of the night for no apparent reason and then has some anxiety over being crated for a while. Here's an old thread if you want more detail about him... he actually just had a freak out in his crate Sunday night, but other than that, I don't think he's had any issues since I posted the thread.

http://www.vizslaforums.com/index.php/topic,28714.0.html

He doesn't potty in the house, have trouble in the car, or really generalize his anxiety like it sounds your V does. But what we've found helps him break the cycle are "sleepytime" pills. We get the NaturVet Quiet Moments tablets at the recommendation of our vet (some pet stores carry them, maybe even feed stores). They just contain a lot of l-tryptophan (like you would find in turkey) that mellow him out. He only gets them maybe a handful of days a year, if he's stressed about his crate or we have to board him. They just seem to take the edge off him and it doesn't take him more than a few days to forget what was bothering him. It might be worth a try. Our vet also recommended a Thundershirt for him if it continued (but it didn't). Good luck!


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## gingerling

Sandra, even a high strung dog wouldn't go into full melt down mode over something she has experienced in the past, like being left alone. Something happened, and my bet it was with the babysitter. Was she new, did she know your V? Can the kids speak to the interaction btwn she and the V?

You need some info here about possible causes of the panic (which is what this is, not mere anxiety), but frankly, I'm not one to medicate, but in this case I would: What you want is to stop the panic and settle her ASAP (she really sounds like she's tormented), and hopefully, have the new, relaxed feelings be paired with life and hopefully extinguish whatever freaked her out. After awhile, you could then taper the meds and see how she is.


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## SandraDee

We have not had the babysitter since the incident, but she wasn't new. She has been sitting for us for two years. She wasn't home when the intiial incident happened, she had taken our kids out to the park.

Anyway things are getting worse. We have been doing some renovations at our house this summer, so he went to stay with my parents for six weeks so he wouldn't have to be around the parade of trades coming in and out and the noise. My parents have a Vizsla as well. From all accounts everything was fine there, with the exception that he refused to go in his crate. So my parents let him stay out. This means now that he his home he no longer goes in his crate, which is where he used to sleep.

The first day he was home, I left him for about ten minutes while I dropped my kids off at a daycmp. Came home and he had peed on the couch. Argh!

He is now sleeping in our room but he is super jumpy anout everything. I closed the door to our closet and he jumped up ran to the corner of the room and sat their shaking. He jumps at any little noise.

Two days ago I left him home for an hour or so. A painter was here, but the dog knows him and he was making little noise. I left the dog in my bedroom. He went nuts. I came home to a destroyed room and found the dog standing with his back legs on the nighttable, and his front legs on the window sill, under the blinds trying to dig his way out the window.

This is becoming a really huge issue. I feel like I can't leave him at all and am feeling very trapped in the house. i can't take him with me everytime I go out. He is terrified of the car, and I can't take him grocery shopping etc. 

He seemed fine at my parents and maybe it was becUse he had another dog with him, but there is no way in heck we are getting a second dog. We don't have room or the resources for one, And there is no guarantee that dog would be a calming affect either


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## gingerling

The short answer here is you might need a behaviorist to work with him, what you're describing isn't so much "Anxiety" as it is downright panic. As I said in my previous post to you, he might need some medication for a while to extinguish the emotional and behavioral symptoms, he's really suffering here.

Vizslas are very sensitive, so they are more vulnerable to these types of reactions, and although the intuitive response might be to keep him away from over stimulating situations by sending him to his grandparents house, etc., what you really want to do is the opposite: You want to gradually introduce new things to him in a calm and reassuring way so he can learn how to accommodate and adjust...to self soothe. But at this point, it sounds like you need a pro in there to medicate him and work with both of you.


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## Zoton

Yep seems odd....maybe the baby sitter just got ****ed off ,had a bad day and something went wrong,as you know they are sensitive souls.(V's not babysitters)


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## dextersmom

Gingerling said:


> As I said in my previous post to you, he might need some medication for a while to extinguish the emotional and behavioral symptoms, he's really suffering here.


I'm sorry to hear he hasn't been improving. I would also recommend talking to your vet about medication for him. Not that he has to take it forever... but it might help while you work with him on his issues.

As I posted before, our V is also prone to random freak outs in his crate. I came home Friday after work to find he had broken/bent some of the wires of his crate and cut his paws in the process. There was a busted crate and blood on the carpet. It was awful. He doesn't seem to have anything physically wrong with him (no broken teeth, deep cuts, etc.). He's never gone to that extreme before. We believe it is flies in the house that set him off. He's very OCD about them and if there's a fly in a room, he will stare at the ceiling and act very paranoid. He's been doing that in his room ever since Friday. Today's the first day he'll spend in his new crate during the day (he has been crated overnight still) and I'm terribly nervous for him. I gave him a "sleepy" pill before I left and an extra long walk to hopefully take the edge off of him. I wouldn't risk leaving him unless he was medicated when he fixates like this. I plan to talk to our vet about calming supplements, etc. to help manage it long term.

I'm also thinking about getting a DropCam to watch him during the day, to see if I can pinpoint what's going on during these episodes. He also had some weird behavior later that evening (possibly from swallowing/getting stung by a wasp but we're not sure) that has me a bit worried he could have experienced a seizure or something that afternoon. They are so sensitive though, it could easily have been something minor. 

Please keep us posted on how he's doing. I got a small taste of feeling "trapped in the house" while we were waiting for his new crate to ship. It is very stressful.


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## hotmischief

I know of one or two vizslas that have suddenly developed symptoms of anxiety and fear - sudden change of personality. Can't remember what the diagnosis was but it was picked up with a thyroid test.

I believe that Dr Jean Dodds is considered brilliant for thyroid tests - have a read up on this link

http://www.hemopet.org/hemolife-diagnostics/veterinary-thyroid-testing.html

If you use Facebook may i suggest you join the group Vizsla Health Information - copy and post the details on that group. There are a lot of very knowledgable people on there including a couple of vets.

I feel for what you must be going through and your poor Vizsla, and I do hope you get to the bottom of the problem.


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## texasred

The only thing that makes me think it might not be medical, is the dog was fine for 6 weeks at the parents house. The day he returns, the problems start.

I would still do a full checkup at the vets, if for nothing more that to rule things out. I would even go as far as having you parents dog spend a few days at the house. See if that makes a differce in his behavior. I dislike having to medicate a dog, but sometimes its what's needed to improve their quality of life.


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## Canadian Expy

Something simple to try (but I would still suggest medical assessment followed by behaviourist regardless) is Bach's Rescue Remedy. I have used it on my own V after attack related anxiety, as well as on a couple of fosters that had anxiety when they came to me. 

It may be worth a shot. I would give a few drops on a treat a few times a day, and then decrease dosage as necessary over time.


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