Don't Howl For Me Argentina

Here is Goldie sleeping peacefully in his crate.  He hated his crate at first and I assume he associated it with the animal shelter and being abandoned.  He would howl and whimper and it was pretty rough for both of us at the beginning of this week.

I sometimes take a sleeping pill called Restoril when I have bouts of insomnia and when I called Dr. Schwartz about Goldie's sleeplessness, he said, "I like to use a medication called Restoril for dogs".  Yes!!!!!  I didn't even have to get Goldie his own prescription.  We both take the same dose and we can both sleep now. 

Of course, I would never recommend medication for a dog without a just cause.  There were a number of reasons that the veterinarian and I decided that Goldie needed some extra help adjusting. 

He needs as much rest as possible to finish healing from his surgery.  He also needs a firm routine to help reinforce the training that I am doing with him.  Goldie is temporarily on a course of Clomicalm, which is the only FDA approved medication to treat separation anxiety in dogs.  It is made by Novartis, which is the same company that makes Ritalin, Lamasil, and other well known medications.  I hate the idea of "drugging" a dog to act a certain way.  But the great part about Clomicalm is that it doesn't sedate Goldie or change his personality.  It merely eases the anxiety he feels when he is left alone.  With positive reinforcement, Goldie will learn quickly that neither I nor his future owner will abandon him.  I plan on using the Clomicalm for a couple of more weeks until Goldie feels secure in his new environment and at peace with his new found freedom.

Comments

[Vivian]

Earlier this week I had the good fortune to spend a couple of hours with Goldie, while I was visiting Jon and Sunny. He is the sweetest dog and has the most loving eyes. Goldie will make someone a devoted companion and I hope that he will soon find his forever-home.

[Liz]

Great job with the dog - word of warning, we had a VERY BAD experience with our dog and clomicalm. A once sweet dog with severe separation anxiety became a still sweet but now very stranger-aggressive dog after being on that medication.

Not all dogs have that side effect, of course, just wanted to give you a heads up :).

[Jon]

Thanks for the info, Liz. So far the medication has been great for him. Not a miracle cure, but a definite help. Thanks for your interest in the blog. =)

[leen]

Life begins at conception, begins at birth - Or come up with another stage and develop a different persuasive speech topic