Go Nelly

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Go Nelly

I was picked up as a stray in GA and sent to Maine where I spent a year in a shelter before my mommy
(1)

06/07/2023

Nelly has the best smile in the world. 🌎💚💙

22/06/2023

NOT CANCER

Nelly had a vet visit yesterday. Originally scheduled for a week ago, got rained out (because she has to be sedated outside), rescheduled two days later, but the pre-sedation meds were not enough to calm her for the vet to approach. So rescheduled again for yesterday and we changed strategy.

I wasn't sure it was going to work, but she let me syringe 2 FULL syringes of Sileo into her gums while I simultaneously sprayed canned Easy Cheese into the front of her mouth.

Since the honey I first bought and trialed was a bust, I asked for and received a wide variety of sticky foods to try on my local Buy Nothing group (sticky to help the Sileo stick to her gums). People gave me Fluffernutter, peanutbutter, cream cheese, Velveeta, Wonder bread, honey, molasses and Easy Cheese. After trialing them all to see if Nelly would like any of them I decided the Easy Cheese would be the...well...easiest!

I was VERY relieved that she let me syringe all that Sileo onto her gums. She'd already had two rounds of meds before that, by 10:30 in the morning. So this was round two of what would be FOUR rounds of sedation meds that morning. She needs a LOT of drugs to knock her out.

When we arrived at my vet's, I backed my car up to their dumpster and the plan was to open the back passenger side door, as her crate was backed up to it, and while the vet gave her the shot through the back holes in the crate, I would feed her Easy Cheese to distract her at the front of her crate, because she needed more sedation to fully knock her out. Thank you Rehmel from The eXtraOrdinary Dog Community - Shy and Fearful Dogs for the idea!

We were quiet and didn't talk in earshot of her so that she would not know my vet was there (hopefully). It was an intramuscular injection and he said it would hurt. I was worried that she'd be scared in the crate in the car after that, thinking she'd randomly feel stabs of pain at any given time. But...after several minutes of squeezing the cheese through a 10" silicone straw attached to the cheese can (which, of course, spilled out all over the seat as well), my vet hand signaled that he was done!

Nelly never indicated that she felt a thing. 😲 She has a ridiculously high tolerance for pain.

Waited about 20 minutes and she was still not out, so vet administered another small dose.

Finally, she was out and the vet had me drive onto their lawn to get close to their fenced back gate, and he and his assistant pulled the crate out of my car, with Nelly in it, and we slid her onto a blanket in the fenced yard, then muzzled her. This went smoother than last year, thankfully.

My fear-informed vet and his fear-informed assistant, then went to work quickly. He checked the hard-as-bone lump on Nelly's right rear leg which we'd originally thought was osteosarcoma, and he said it's not!! HUGE relief as she would not have had much longer to live had it been osteo.

He said she either broke the bone or it was bruised and the regrowth formed this lump of bone. He said he would not recommend surgery and that it should be fine left alone. It had to have been a bruise because I cannot imagine her not indicating something as serious as a break!

He also took an x-ray of the bone and confirmed it's not cancer. 🤗
She does have a bit of arthritis where one of her back cruciates was torn. And that may be why she's limping on her right rear leg now, ever since we left the appt. yesterday.

We were there for 5 hours - including 3 hours waiting for her to wake up after the reversal agent was given. She originally popped up a few minutes after it was administered, walked around, then lay down outside the fenced yard and I could not get her up after that for 3 hours. So she snoozed while I sat next to her, until a vet tech came out to help rouse her, which worked since she's a stranger to Nelly. Nelly finally got up, and after walking around a bit, I was able to get her up her ramp into the car.

She was given the 3 year rabies vax, so we can resume walks again, which will make her very happy.

So...just as my vet and I have finally worked out a protocol that works...he is leaving practice next week. UGH! He's the go-to vet in the area for very difficult patients like Nelly. He said she's one of the most difficult he's worked with. 😕 Visits are during his lunch hour, always require research, and usually take at least a few hours. He's more fear-informed than many other vets. So now, I have to start searching for a new vet who is willing to take on such a difficult patient.

I also want to do a med change - I think she needs it - but I don't know if we can do that now, as most vets will want to examine a dog before changing behavioral meds, but that's just not possible for a good long while. This was a very costly visit, financially, emotionally and mentally, and I don't want her to have to be fully sedated any time soon again. I cannot afford a vet behaviorist at this time, either.

This journey with Nelly just seems fraught with obstacles...so many challenges, even in our daily life at home. Sometimes I feel mentally wiped out by it all...but at the end of the day I love her dearly and I'm relieved the lump wasn't cancer.

Go Team Nelly! 👊🐾👣❤️

15/06/2023

THE DEAD DON'T TRIGGER

We recently started walking in a nearby graveyard where I've not yet seen any other dogs, and only seen a few people. So I can walk Nelly without being as hypervigilant as most other places. It's on a busy street at one end, and the traffic noise does make Nelly anxious and frightened, but we can mostly avoid getting too close to that end.

There is a college track and small stand of trees abutting the graveyard, that has some short trails through it, that we like to walk on as well. So far it's been a good place for us, other than the one creepy guy in the long overcoat in the woods that we ran into. I believe he was doing drugs back there, so I am keeping my eye out whenever we go back there, and from the back of the graveyard because I can see debris on the other side of the chain-link fence, in the woods, where I suspect people do drugs and hang out, and we pass close to it as we walk through the graveyard.

We don't have many low-trigger places to walk since other dog owners don't follow the leash rules on local trails, so we have to deal with shady characters, risky trash, loud vehicle noises, and other unpleasant things in order to do walks, as is the case with most reactive dogs and their pet parents.

At least the dead don't trigger her.

It is interesting to read some of the gravestones - many from the 1800's and early 1900's. Some historical figures. They don't bother us. It's only the living that do. So now we have one more decent walking spot in our small repertoire. 🐾👣🪦

20/05/2023

Nelly is nutty for her Jolly Ball! 😜 Look at this knucklehead. 🤪 Her third eyelid is up and her pupil is looking down at the ball. 😂 You don't see that every day!

14/05/2023

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO MOMS AROUND THE WORLD! 😍🐾❤️

06/05/2023

WHAT DOES THIS LOOK LIKE?

Confidence!

This may look like an ordinary scene for most dog parents, but to me it's progress! Because I am inside the house and she is out there, comfortable enough to snooze out in the yard ALONE. 😮

Nelly is a fearful FOMO dog - Fear Of Missing Out. She is usually never far from me in proximity, whether inside or out. She checks on my whereabouts frequently. Sometimes racing through the house looking anxious when she doesn't know where I am.

Over the last several months she's started to go to bed in the bedroom ALONE before I go to bed. This was something she hadn't felt comfortable doing for the first few years after adoption. She used to wait till I was ready and follow me in and not get in the bed till she was sure I was getting in. Now she usually gets in before me - it's really a BIG thing for her to feel confident enough to do that!

And now she's starting to go to bed alone in the bedroom while I am still busy in another room, which is a whole 'nother level of confidence!

Now that the weather is warming up, she's also starting to spend more time in the yard alone! It's a beautiful sight of a dog slowly gaining confidence.

11/04/2023

A REACTIVE DOG PARENT'S DREAM - WALKS ON PRIVATE TRAILS FOR FREE!

I belong to my local Buy Nothing Facebook group. If you are not familiar with the Buy Nothing Project, it's a movement to build and strengthen communities through a hyper-local gifting economy. (https://buynothingproject.org/about) You can ask for gifts of stuff or services, for instance, and you can gift or lend these things to people in your community. You can search Facebook groups to see if you have a BN group near you.

I've gifted many items myself and received many as well, including a sewing machine, clothing, a grocery bag full of locally hunted venison, vases, candleholders, a container of homemade Thai food, I even asked for and received help raking the snow off my roof when my back was hurting, and received lots of stuff for the dogs at the shelter where I volunteer.

Recently I posted to the group asking for private trails to walk Nelly on, because she's reactive to many things, especially off-leash dogs, who are everywhere on every trail I've taken Nelly to, despite the rules that dogs must be leashed. So I can't take her to public trails anymore. So I thought I'd ask on my local Buy Nothing group if anyone had land we could use. I wasn't expecting any offers.

But...I got...TWO OFFERS to use group members' private land to walk her on!! One property is about 5 minutes from my house! That wonderful person used to be the shelter's foster coordinator and they know how difficult it is to care for a dog like Nelly and appreciate that I adopted her to save her life after a year in the shelter and her trajectory not looking good. They went even further and asked their neighbor if I could extend my walk to their abutting property as that person is only there briefly in the summer, and she said yes! So the walk around both properties is about 30 minutes - almost all on the edge of a field, and it's very peaceful and the most relaxed walking I've done since I adopted Nelly 2.5 years ago, because I don't have to be hypervigilant as usual! 🥲

The other property is about 8-9 minutes drive from me and is 40 acres! The trail is a bit swampy in areas at the moment and sort of covered by brush for a large section, but there are also fields with unused greenhouses where we can walk. I did learn that a neighbor does sometimes walk his dog off-leash and cross over onto this property, so it's not as relaxing as the first property. Plus there are plans to develop portions of it - nothing major - but there could be a lot of activity there in the coming months, so it may be very temporary.

My next plan is to post to local forums and offer to keep an eye on someone's land in exchange for letting me walk my dog there. Because I learned from the first property owner that their neighbor has someone keep an eye on the land in exchange for letting him bow hunt there. Later I spoke with another member of the BN group who said she also watches someone's land from out of state. Maine is dubbed "Vacationland" and there are many out-of-staters who own property here but don't use it much of the year. So I'm hoping to pick up another private property to walk Nelly on.

Right now I'm walking on these private trails/fields about 3 days per week. I'd like be able to walk her more frequently on private land without feeling like I'm imposing. So I'll keep pursuing this.

It's really helped reduce my stress by not having to be hypervigilant every day on every walk. And Nelly can just enjoy her walk without having to worry about triggers popping up. I've learned that it's amazing what you can do to help your reactive dog when you get a little creative. 😁🤓

21/03/2023

ROLLING IN THE HAY TO CELEBRATE MORE PROGRESS

Lately Nelly seems to be making progress on several fronts. Don't get me wrong - we often have setbacks, and we have some difficult patches we've been through in recent times, but overall, I'm pleased to see that she's improving in a handful of things lately.

One of those things that is quite notable is that she's become less scared of me reaching for the doorknob. This has always scared her, just like a hand reaching for basically anything scares her, even if it's not aimed in her direction.

So, our routine when going outside to the back yard has been that I ask her to wait at least 4 feet (or more) from the door so I can approach the door first and get it open before she's close enough to feel the need to lunge at my hand. Once I have the door open, I toss her a treat and she approaches and goes out.

Her last outing to the yard at night is the exception - she's much more relaxed at that time and trots straight to the door and I'm able to open it without her going over threshold and lunging at my hand. Well, lately, she's been doing that more and more during the day. A couple times recently she's done that multiple times in one day, not just once on Tuesday and another time on Friday. The behavior is noticeably increasing in frequency.

In general, she seems to be a bit less anxious and a bit more trusting of me. I did increase one of her anxiety meds recently and that has taken some of the edge off the afternoons, which is when she's usually most anxious.

So, in typical Nelly fashion, she's celebrating her progress by demonstrating how to roll in the hay, her favorite enrichment activity after snuffling treats in the hay. 🐽😊

GO NELLY! 👊🦸‍♀️🤎

14/03/2023

CO-WALKING WITH ANOTHER DOG

It has been several months since I co-walked Nelly with my friend Jess and her dog Trevor - basically we haven't walked the dogs together all winter till a few days ago. I've walked Nelly with them and also with another friend and his dog several times over the 2 and half years I've had Nelly. Nelly knew both my friends from the shelter as we were all volunteers there during her yearlong stay in the shelter.

On this recent walk, Nelly was pretty aroused and tense seeing Trevor at first, even from about 50 feet. And a few times we got a little too close and she lunged and barked. But as the walk progressed, she became increasingly more relaxed, even from about 20 feet, toward the end of the walk.

In the past she's been able to be even closer to my other friend's old beagle - maybe less than 10 feet without reacting. I think she just needs to get used to walking with these familiar dogs again and she'll probably feel comfortable at the same distance as before.

I consider this a BIG win. Because she's pretty reactive to basically all other dogs - they all pretty much scare the heck out of her. That said, she's become a lot less reactive to my neighbor's two dogs on the other side of the fence when she hears them barking. I can generally easily call her inside if they are barking, and sometimes she even simply ignores them. I would not have thought that possible a year ago.

!! 🐾👊❤️

Also, a shout out to Trevor! He's the best of the best - he is fantastic helping his family's foster dogs learn the ropes, and is super chill walking with Nelly despite her anxious behaviors and occasional outbursts. GO TREVOR!! ❣️

05/03/2023

BEAUTIFUL NELLY

I know everyone thinks their own dog is the cutest ever, and I feel the same about Nelly. I absolutely adore those big loose lips, her big black nose and her black mouth cur gold and black coloring. 🖤💛

One day, maybe...just maybe, I'll capture a moment without that one wary antenna ear at full mast keeping vigil for any threats in the big scary world (as she sees it).

24/02/2023

THE POWER OF SUNSHINE

We've had some rough patches lately, but I want to share a win.

Nelly's scared of so many things inside the house as well as outside, so I cannot function normally in my home - I have to gate and crate her to do many every day functions like start a fire in the woodstove, stoke it, walk out the door, open a box, reach into a box, work in my sewing and fabric "studio" at certain times of day, and lift or close the shades in the sunroom.

Well, we've been living in the dark for 2 years, as the sunroom adds a ton of light to my tiny house and the shades have been down for two years to accommodate Nelly. I just couldn't take it anymore, so I started opening the shades after crating her in the living room, or when she steps out to p*e. This is stop-gap, as she freaks out when I do it, but I haven't figured out a way to cc/ds her to this as there's no spot in the house where she's under threshold when I do it.

In any event, she was also scared of the shades simply being up. I think initially, in part because she's afraid of our reflections and also because she can see the big wide world out there. Although, in reality, it's just our back yard. She can, however, see people and dogs passing on the trail behind our yard about 100 feet away, but that's not frequent as the trail only leads to handful of neighbors' houses.

Well, it's been about 6 weeks since I started opening the shades. At first I only left them open a short while because she'd get overwhelmed by them being open and would tensely bark at the windows.

But now, she can go most or all of the day sometimes, without barking at the windows. I'm able to leave the shades up basically all day without her stressing out constantly as she used to do. I think that's in part, because she LOVES basking in the sunshine in front of those windows. It's also where her biggest snuffle mat station is, and she has positive associations with that.

She does start getting nervous in the late afternoon as the light begins to fade, so I always close the shades before dark. She's very reactive toward the windows when it's dark.

So, the scene in this photo would not have been possible about 4 weeks ago. She's relaxed and enjoying the sunshine in front of the big windows.

Go Nelly!

05/01/2023

What better way to celebrate the new year than with a new bale of hay?!! 🥳😄

2022 was a rough year for us, mostly me, actually, and I have high hopes that 2023 will be the start of better things to come. 👣🐾

Happy New Year everyone and thank you for supporting our journey. Nelly and I wish you peace, love, and prosperity.

09/11/2022

BIG WIN DESERVES A SPECIAL TREAT

Yesterday, Nelly let me syringe medication directly into her ear with no fuss (and no teeth)! 😮🏆🥳 She was too obsessed with the sausage to even notice what I was doing over there in the distant background with her ear. 🍖😂 This was a huge win for us!

So I gave her a special reward - I added some lobster tail to her frozen toppl. 😋 My brother is a lobsterman, so I get it for free. 😁

Toppl included frozen raw food, kippers, lobster, and a dusting of dehydrated treat crumbs. Nelly approved!

08/11/2022

PHYSICAL & EMOTIONAL HEALTH

It's been 3 months since my last update. We've had some rough patches and I'm dealing with some health issues, so I haven't had the motivation to keep up lately. But things are generally going better with Nelly emotionally/behaviorally, but not physically.

During an extremely difficult vet visit in August, my vet found that Nelly has torn cruciates in BOTH knees. 🥺 My vet said this is not something he'd operate on. She also has a loose hip. And she had a mast cell tumor that he removed.

The torn cruciates change everything. I had to get rid of my couch, as that is where she slept during the day, and every time she would jump up there, it could have caused more tearing. She's fat, and that's probably going to be how she is for the foreseeable future due to several circumstances I will address in a different post. The couch was the only seating in my living room except my recliner, which she has no interest in. So the couch is gone. My bed is a thick mattress on the floor, so she doesn't technically have to jump much to get on, and she always uses a ramp to get into the car now. So, jumping issue, more or less solved.

Currently Nelly is also dealing with an ear infection. 😕 The good news is that she really surprised me in that she's letting me wipe it out with a soaked cotton swab. I do this in our "Icky Stuff" area, where I do all icky (to her) grooming, care, etc. I also give her a good amount of ham to make my intrusion into her ear more palatable. She's allowed way more handling than I thought she could. 🏆

She's also allowed me to have a window shade up in the sunroom for the whole day, without much fussing over her reflection. We have lived in the dark for 2 years because she freaks out and screams like a banshee, and will lunge and bite if I open the shade. So I just kept the shades down and focused on more pressing issues. If I did manage to get one open, she used to react to her reflection almost incessantly once the shade was up. But now she ignores the window most of the time, till it starts getting dark. 👏The trick is that I have to close her outside for a brief moment while I lift it to prevent her from seeing it and freaking out. That has turned out to be the least stressful way for me to let the light in.

She's also improving with triggers outside. All in all, she seems to be emotionally (and thus behaviorally) adapting to her world better, despite her physical health issues.

GONELLY!

21/07/2022

COASTAL HEALING

Nelly and I explored a beautiful new spot on the coast, only 4 miles from our home. There is something incredibly healing about the ocean and the Maine coast. I was born on an island (Long Island, NY) and moved to the coast of Maine when I was 2. There is very little coastal access in my town though, even though it's on the water. Most of it is privately owned. So I'm truly delighted to have discovered this public access spot.

The salty air, gulls calling, water lapping, and the incredible beauty here have really helped me decompress after having lost my mom a few weeks ago. I'm preparing for her memorial in a few days. It still all seems surreal to me.

Nelly is a great comfort and I'm grateful to have her by my side.

12/07/2022

NELLY'S REACTIVITY BUBBLE IS SHRINKING

So, the size of Nelly's reactivity bubble has been shrinking for the past several months, maybe even a year. Meaning, a trigger can be closer to her than previously, and she doesn't react. She still HAS a bubble and it best not be breached or she will let you know. But, it's noticeably smaller than it was this time last year.

This morning we went on a walk with a friend, Paul, and his sweet little old beagle, Bailey. Nelly has co-walked with Bailey maybe 3 or 4 times in the past, usually with another friend and her dog as well, who is a tad larger than Nelly.

I was amazed to see Nelly getting so close to Bailey, approx. 5 feet, and not react. Nelly didn't even really pay attention to her. In fact, I had to hold her back from walking too fast as she would have caught up with Paul and Bailey, and I know once she suddenly found herself that close by accident, she would react. But the fact that she casually walked so close to Bailey for much of the walk, doing her own thing, was wonderful to see.

I have also found that I can much more easily get her attention when exposed to most of her triggers now, as disengaging from triggers has become her default behavior much of the time now. I doubt she'll ever have ZERO bubble, but nonetheless, her lessening reactivity, her shrinking bubble, makes me very happy.

Our biggest challenge is off-leash dogs - Nelly is extremely uncomfortable with dogs running up to her. Sadly, everywhere I walk her so far, there are irresponsible owners who let their dogs off leash, breaking the rules of the property owner, and seldom do they have a reliable recall. For this reason, I don't walk Nelly daily. These irresponsible owners make it very difficult for those of us with reactive dogs.

I feel MUCH more relaxed walking her with one of my friends and their dog, as they walk in front of us and can generally head off any off-leash dogs. It seems the more I co-walk her with my friends and their dogs, the more comfortable she becomes with doing so. I do try to keep her in her bubble and reward her disengaging so she feels safe and doesn't practice her reactivity. She is getting better and better at it.

Go Nelly!

11/07/2022

DEATH AND COPING

I have not updated Nelly's story in 2 months because my mother suffered a stroke at the end of May and died this past Wednesday, July 6. All of my time and focus have been on her.

It's been hell, to be honest. My mom had been at a dementia care home for a year. She was moved to a different neighborhood of the facility, and the dominoes all fell after that. She developed shingles - a painful condition that lasted for months. Shortly after mostly recovering from shingles, she had a stroke, which paralyzed her left side. Because of her dementia, she could not be rehabilitated and we were told that basically the only option was hospice. So, 11 days after being hospitalized, we placed her in a nursing home about a mile down the street from all family members, as we all live close to each other. She was there for a month, where her ability to swallow weakened to the point she could no longer eat or drink.

During this month, she got covid, then I got covid, then my dad got covid. My brother was the only one who did not, and decided not to visit till my mom was out of quarantine so he wouldn't also get it. I could not visit for 8 days, my father 7 days, and my brother 5 days. We had been visiting daily and feeding her meals till then. So my mother sat in a covid quarantine for 10 days on her deathbed, 5 of which no family member visited. It was the worst, most helpless feeling I've ever felt. I begged the universe to let her live long enough to see us all again. It delivered.

She finally was taken out of quarantine, but by that time her ability to swallow was very poor, due to the stroke. Shortly after I was cleared to visit her, I got sick again (not covid this time). I continued to visit her daily and feed her dinner, and spoon liquids into her, although she hardly consumed or drank much. When it seemed near the end, I spent the night in a chair next to her bed.

Unfortunately, I had a terrible headache all night, was nauseous, and had sharp gas pain (as I was ill). It was a rough night, but my mom slept through it, thankfully. She had become unresponsive at that time, maybe even before I got there. She couldn't squeeze my hand anymore or acknowledge she heard my voice.

I slept maybe one hour in the wee morning hours, then maybe another a bit later. By the time I left, I was sicker than when I arrived. I could not visit again that day, nor go back that night, as I was exhausted and ill.

She died the next morning after a few final breaths. My father and brother were with her, but because I was not able to eat for 2 and half days, I was faint when I got the call that she was near the end. I planned to grab some food so I could drive, and wasn't sure I could drive even so. I texted my brother to come pick me up. I was halfway through my English muffin when he called and said she was gone.

My mother was an exceptionally kind and compassionate person, and once told me, when I was in my 40's, that she loved me more than life itself, as she flung her arms around me and gave me a big hug. What a rare thing to be told at that age. It's something I will hold close, always. I lived next door to her for over 20 years, and I loved her fiercely. Words cannot express what it's like to lose one's mother.

The good news is that Nelly has coped very well with my frequent absences, and no walks for weeks, while I was sick. I even had to leave her home alone that night I slept by my mother's bedside. I was SO nervous about that, given her history of separation issues. I had even set up a Zoom meeting and aimed my laptop at her crate, but I got piercing audio feedback that shook us both up pretty good. So I decided to leave her unmonitored, the first overnight alone for her. She panics if she is uncrated when I leave the house, but I thought she might have diarrhea that night, so kept her crate door open and put up a dog pen around her crate door, so she still felt confined (which for some reason makes her more comfortable), but gave her a space to eliminate outside the crate.

All night tossing and turning in the chair by my mother's bedside I fretted that I might not have closed the Zoom app. If the piercing audio feedback happened again while I was gone, it would have destroyed Nelly (it was a 6-hour meeting). When I got home shortly after 7 in the morning, I was relieved to find I had indeed closed the app, and she was relaxed and calm, laying in her crate. That was a real GO NELLY! moment.

Nelly also did well lazing about for a couple of weeks since I was too sick and fatigued to walk her. Our regular schedule was shot. But...she adjusted as if it were nothing. Her adaptability truly surprised me.

There are other positive things about Nelly's progress I will post about soon. Overall, she continues to improve in several areas. And I am grateful. Losing my mother has been hard enough without having to care for a difficult dog. Nelly will never be an easy dog, but she's making my life easier than it has been for a few years, even during my darkest hour. GOOD girl Nelly. Good girl.

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What better way to celebrate the new year than with a new bale of hay?!! 🥳😄 2022 was a rough year for us, mostly me, actually, and I have high hopes that 2023 will be the start of better things to come. 👣🐾 Happy New Year everyone and thank you for supporting our journey. Nelly and I wish you peace, love, and prosperity. <3 <3 <3

Hay Nelly!

I SHOULD HAVE NAMED THIS PAGE "HAY NELLY!" 😆 I put a new bale of hay in the yard this morning. It makes Nelly SO excited! You can see her enthusiasm in this video. 😄 She is just endlessly delighted with hay. It's become her favorite enrichment. She rolls in it, romps in it, snuffles in it, and sometimes lays down to rest in the pile of hay in my sunroom. She also pees and poops in the hay in the yard, which makes it easy for me to clean up out in the yard. I also use it to prevent her paws from freezing in the yard, so she's able to stay out longer now to play and just enjoy being outside. You can see the orange construction cones on the other side of the fence. That's where construction of my neighbor's garage has begun. They poured the concrete yesterday and my neighbor told me they are taking a 2-3 week break till the building begins. So we have a little respite. 🥳 #haynelly #GONELLY #gonellydog #fearfuldog #canineenrichment

Nelly the rock star during construction

NELLY THE CHAMP! 🏆🦸‍♀️⭐️ CONSTRUCTION 12-15 FEET FROM HOUSE Well, it's been a difficult few days. My neighbors, whose property borders my back/side door are tearing down their garage and building a new one 2-3x the size with an in-law suite. This is about 12-15 feet from my back door, as you can see in the video. I've spent the last 3-4 days strategizing how to help Nelly get through this since she is very sound sensitive and stranger reactive. Yesterday was day 1 of construction. A backhoe tore down the old garage and dug out the concrete foundation, plus dug up a good portion of my neighbor's frozen yard, by pounding the ground and concrete repeatedly with the backhoe shovel. Today, the backhoe has been pounding the frozen ground and tarmac of their driveway for hours. It's loud inside my house and makes the whole house shake, which scares Nelly. This has been the most difficult part for her - the loud bangs accompanied by the house shaking. I'm playing brown noise all day, but it cannot mask the loud booms or the house shaking. Today, she seems a bit less scared of it than yesterday. And I'm guessing this will be the loudest part of the construction and the only part that will make our house shake. 🤞 The VERY good news is, she's being a total CHAMP outside just feet away from the construction vehicles, loud sounds, and men talking loudly. This is really pretty stunning considering she's being exposed to multiple intense stimuli at once! 😮 My original plan was to test how she does going out the back door. I figured it wouldn't likely go well, so I'd take her out the front on leash for potty instead. But she's done so well that I'm mostly taking her out back on leash into the fenced yard for potty, past the construction just feet away! I did increase her anti-anxiety medication. And I recently increased her phenobarbital dose for her seizures. What I've noticed is that the pheno seems to have reduced her anxiety and helped her bec

TUG R US Nelly and I love to play tug and we have tug sessions throughout the day. It strengthens our bond and has been a great vehicle for teaching her "Get it!" "Leave it!" "Wait..." and "Drop it!" I got this new fleece tug toy recently and it's the perfect length. There's a ball on one end and I tied a plushy to the other. As you can see, Nelly spread her wings...er...ears, and was ready to fly away with the toy. ✈️🤣 #GONELLY #gonellydog #tugofwar #tug #fearfuldog

Nelly rolling in the hay

ANOTHER HAY POST Because Nelly is obsessed with it. 😆 She pulled this bale apart in my sunroom and then went to town on it. 🤣 She can't get enough of the stuff. I think it's her new favorite enrichment. 💕

Nelly playing with enrichment snake toy

DANGER NOODLE - NELLY'S NEW FAVORITE TOY 😄 I recently learned a new term for snakes - Danger Noodle! 🧨🐍😂 We just got this toy this week and Nelly LOVES it! It's so versatile - she loves trying to get treats out of the crack running the length of it, which is a new type of puzzle for her. She loves to chomp it's head to make it squeak, loves to chew on it and she loves to shake it. She typically shakes toys on cue, as in this video. I got it on Amazon (US) for $16.50. It's an enrichment dream toy for Nelly based on the many ways she interacts with it. We've also played tug with it. 😃 I learned about this toy on the Canine Enrichment group which is the most fun and amazing group for creative ideas on how to keep our dogs' lives enriched in so many ways. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ P.S. The initial still image may reflect her not loving having a phone aimed at her. Or maybe some bits of food came out of the snake and she was licking her chops. I'm not sure... #GONELLY #gonellydog #canineenrichment #dogenrichment

Nelly Snuffling a Hay Bale

HAY WHAT A GREAT OUTDOOR WINTER SNUFFLE MAT! 😆 I learned today that a bale of hay makes for a fantastic, HUGE, outdoor snuffle mat! I actually bought a few bales to cover the ice in my back yard so Nelly wouldn't slip, but it immediately turned into a gigantic snuffle mat. 🐽😂 Nelly in her element. 😎 She would snuffle and forage all day if she could. Well, she actually kind of does, at least several hours a day. Debbie Jacobs of Fearful Dogs wrote an excellent post in 2019 in her group that I saved. In it she wrote in regards to fearful dogs "Provide excesses of enrichment, activities and outcomes that delight them..." I still have a long way to go with providing a wider variety of activities, but Nelly certainly gets her fill of her favorite activity - snuffling, indoors and out. ☀️⭐️ (Photos in comments) #GONELLY #gonellydog #snuffledog #snufflemats

NELLY AND HER BIG BALL Nelly has never been much of a fetcher, but she LOVES big balls, and I recently got her this Jolly bally. I've been teaching her to fetch it because it's one more tool in our fun and exercise toolbox. Winters are long here in Maine. And cold. We need more ways for her to have fun and exercise when we can't go for walks. She still likes the flirt pole, but for short stints. I love watching her have fun and learn new tricks, like fetching, which she's doing reliably now. 🐾😊 #GONELLY #gonellydog #fetchdog

DAY 2 OF TRYING TO ESCAPE THE BLUE ANGELS SEIZURE-TRIGGERING NOISE, NELLY GETS LOCKED IN THE CAR FOR 20 MINUTES 😳 In the annals of "Well that didn't go as planned..." I spent all morning preparing for a road trip out of town to avoid Nelly being terrified for hours and then having seizures (like yesterday). As soon as I heard loud planes around 1:30, I figured the Blue Angels would be practicing next. So I raced to get Nelly and all my gear out the door, into the car, and out of town before the Angels started flying. In my haste, I forgot to put my shoes on. I drove her to another town out of earshot of the planes, but then realized I had forgotten my shoes. I was wearing crocs. I opened the trunk to get a pair of sneakers, put them on, then closed the trunk. Only to realize...the key was in the trunk! Nelly was locked in the car alone in her crate. 🥺 I panicked. It was mid-afternoon and in the 70's. The clouds were coming and going. I was in a place I'd never been before. Nelly was super hyped up - she had been barking, whining, and crying most of the drive to the trailhead. She kept it up while I stood there helplessly looking in at her with no way to get her out. 😬 I wanted to tell her to calm down or she'd overheat. I called my dad in a panic and asked him to bring me the spare car key. I had to explain over and over how to get to where we were as he wrote it down even though he'd driven past that spot 5 million times in the last 50+ years. He's 85 so I can't fault him, it was just frustrating how long it took when I was worried about heatstroke. Poor Nelly. I was ready to break a window if she overheated. She was panting hard but seemed otherwise physically OK, but was intermittently barking anxiously. 20 minutes later my dad pulled up and gave me the key. PHEW #1. We went for the walk (pics in comments) and she was OK. I drove around a bit after the walk to stall for time so we wouldn't get back while the Angels were still practicing. She wou

MORE WAGGY BUT CAMERA SHY Here's an 11-second video of Nelly looking so cute, but telling me clearly she doesn't like the camera pointed at her, as you can see when she turns her face away from me twice then starts to yawn. That is on the list of things I need to CCDS her to. I stopped filming quickly. I've noticed she's been wagging more lately. To be sure, the wag in the video is not her happy wag, but it just reminded me that I've noticed she's wagging more in all kinds of ways - slow loopy wags, fast short wags, quick thwap thwaps like in the video, among others. Like she's expressing herself more. 📣 In general, she's coping better with her triggers, is calmer, is jumping and mouthing less, and her hyper-arousal is less. Still a lot more work to go, but I am definitely seeing progress. ✊🥳❤️ #GONELLY #gonellydog #fearfuldog #shydog #counterconditioning #desensitization #rescuedog #shelterdog

Nelly's 1-Year Adoptiversary

HAPPY 1-YEAR ADOPTIVERSARY NELLY ❤❤❤ One year ago today I adopted Nelly. 4 months into the pandemic. 2 months before I found out my mother, who has dementia, was declining rapidly, and my parents would need a lot of help from me for the foreseeable future. Within 2 months of adoption, I found out Nelly has epilepsy. I also found she no longer tolerated other dogs, not even from 50-feet away. She is also fear-reactive toward strangers. She has generalized anxiety, as well. And the shelter's vet behaviorist said she is mentally ill. I also found that she has to insert herself into everything I do, making it impossible to get dressed especially. She's a FOMO dog - Fear Of Missing Out. She needs to be in the mix at all times and becomes almost instantly overstimulated the minute she jumps in the middle of what I'm doing. Did I mention she was also an adolescent? 😬🙄 She also has severe gut dysbiosis as the result of prolonged antibiotic treatment caused by a nail infection after the first vet I took her to, cut the flesh of her quicks down to tiny nubs in October, 2020. The dysbiosis continues to be a problem to this day 😕 and I just started her back on FMT (Fecal Microbiota Transplant) treatment. Nelly had been in the shelter for a year, and had several bites on her record. She would have been euthanized had I not adopted her from what I understood. No one wanted to adopt her. No one came back for a second meet and greet. I had worked with her in the shelter for months on training and had also fostered her for a month. So, we had a bond already, even though I had not seen her in the 4 months prior to adoption, because the shelter shut down to volunteers due to the pandemic. I didn't want her to die, so I adopted her shortly after my old dog passed away. Over the months I discovered she fears more things than I can list, including things I need to do to function on a daily basis, like talk on the phone, lift window shades, go into the laundry room

Nelly having a panic attack

NELLY HAVING A PANIC ATTACK EDIT: I now believe this was a focal seizure. So this attack was unusual in that it wasn't inside my house, rather it was in my parents' driveway - they live a few houses down. This is how the attacks always start. I think it's triggered by sounds. Before she started howling and crying, she suddenly looked around as if frightened by something she heard but can't see. That's how they always start. Then she starts howling, crying, barking, panting, pacing, and sometimes shaking. The panic attacks last anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour or more. After the barking, whining, etc. she then starts pacing the house looking spooked. Today, after doing that, she started barking, whining, and crying again. One weird thing about her attacks is that she loses her normal fear-aggression. I can touch her without fear of being bitten, she doesn't react to her outdoor triggers (at least she didn't today, just about 12 feet from my parents, but she was too zoned out in the panic attack to really notice them). It's like she's a different dog. No aggression. She becomes a fear-flighter rather than a fear-biter. I wish there was a way to harness the non-aggression while getting rid of the fear. She'd be a much happier dog and my life would be so very different without dealing with a mouthy-bitey dog every day. I wish I knew how to prevent these panic attacks. I do recognize early signs and can sometimes head them off with high value treats delivered quickly. I cannot figure out how to end them quickly. She eventually ends them with the proverbial canine body shake, and the switch is flipped. That's what happened today. She shook, then was immediately in high arousal/anxiety/assertive mode.

COMBINING MUZZLE CONDITIONING AND NOSEWORK

COMBINING MUZZLE CONDITIONING AND NOSEWORK I decided to try this today after someone suggested it on one of my training groups. I've been working on conditioning Nelly to a muzzle for 2 months and still haven't been able to advance to strapping it to her neck. I think she had previous negative associations with it, so it is taking a lot of time to create a +CER to it. She LOVES nosework and was super eager to find the treats in the muzzle so I hope this will help get her excited about seeing the muzzle. I'd love suggestions for other ways to get her really happy to see it and stick her nose in it. She does already stick her nose in it when I hold it out or set it on a surface but not till she sees the treats. I've looked at most of the videos on The Muzzle Up Project which is a fantastic resource, and I've watched Chirag Patel's muzzle conditioning video multiple times. I'd love to try different games to help Nelly start to love putting her nose into the muzzle and holding it there for a bit of duration. Then I'll advance to strapping it on her neck (without the basket on her nose).

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