Both Emmett and Lucas had their blood panels this morning at our local vet. Em’s is just routine; since he’s on oral chemo probably forever, they’re monitoring his levels every 10 weeks. Lucas’ is part of the weekly checkups he gets for his Purdue chemo trial. With both of them undergoing two different chemo protocols, it rarely happens that their schedules sync, but when it does it’s so convenient!
As you guys know, Lucas has always been a reactive dog. Over the years it went from reacting to, basically, everything to just dogs and occasionally strangers. And not all dogs either; he rocked doggy daycare but flipped at any dog passing him in the neighborhood. We took reactive dog training classes. We briefly joined a dog walking group. We practiced and trained and balanced counter conditioning with management. As for strangers, he was pretty much fine as long as he was left alone.
His annual vet visit always caused strife because it was just. so. stressful. For him and for us. But, luckily, he was the picture of health, so we really only had to deal with it once per year.
Until…
So, when Lucas got his cancer diagnosis, we knew it would entail numerous vet visits. Honestly, I had no idea just how many. His initial consults locally, his amputation, three days at the hospital after that, two wound check visits, getting his stitches out–all that before chemo–then consults at Purdue, weekly blood tests at our local vet, chemo appointments every three weeks plus one extra trip so far because his blood count was off… He still has another blood test next week, a chemo next week, another round of staging radiology three weeks after that if they don’t want to do a fifth chemo (we just learned of that possibility today), followed by radiology staging every few months after that…
Meanwhile, try taking a three-legged dog who’s as cute as Lucas anywhere! He gets stopped on the street and in the lobby at the vet and just about everywhere we go!
All this has given us far more opportunities to work on desensitization and counter-conditioning exercises than we could have ever dreamed of.
And you know what?
It’s working!
This morning, our vet remarked about how well behaved he is and how comfortable he is compared to how he used to be. He loves everyone and hops around greeting and licking. Of course, every single time he goes back for his blood test, I send the can of cheese with the tech. And cheese showers down on him in the lobby–and it becomes a downpour if there are other dogs nearby. He did snipe at a dog last week, but it wasn’t his fault. I made it clear that he needed to have distance from the other dogs, but as we were checking out, a woman wasn’t paying attention and her dog came right up to him. Not his fault, and it was only a small snipe, not a full-blown melt-down. Victory!
Clearly this progress would not have been made if he hadn’t received this diagnosis and a rigorous schedule that requires weekly or sometimes twice-weekly vet visits. It’s given us tons of opportunity to work on his training, and he’s made so much progress that others are commenting on it! As for strangers, he’s getting used to people coming up to say hi. He still whines a bit, but for the most part now it’s excitement rather than stress!
I suppose if you were a “silver lining” type of person, which I strive to be, this is definitely a shiny one emerging from this horrible situation. He’s becoming more confident and comfortable in places and with people, something we’ve wished for him since day one. It’s pretty awesome to see him navigating previously untenable situations with darn-near-ease (well, that plus cheese), and that’s one more thing we have to be grateful for!
I’m so glad to hear Lucas has been doing so well with all the strange things and situations during his treatments. Hallelujah. After all, being severely reactive would only make an already difficult situation even harder on all of you.
In addition to your training and desensitization, I wonder if the act of learning a new skill (walking on 3 legs) also helped to boost his confidence.
I find that teaching Honey new things is the biggest way to build her confidence. And Lucas did have to learn some incredible balance skills.
It would be interesting to talk to other people with tri-pawd dogs to see if they’ve noticed something similar.
Pamela, I love so much when you take the time to share your insights. Thank you. You always come at things from a fresh perspective, and I absolutely appreciate it. I hadn’t thought about it from that angle at all, but it sounds like it could be so true! I think I’ll poke around the Tripawd community boards to see if there are any other similar stories. Thank you!!
That’s wonderful! I think these kinds of things help keep us grounded to living in the moment and celebrating the victories, no matter what size they are. 🙂
You are SO right, Elaine!! Those live-in-the-moment reminders so often come from our dogs, don’t they? 🙂
Mom is going to buy a can of that magic cheese when we go in to get our nails cut, cos Gussie screams like someone is pinching and hurting him, the windows shatter and walls shake.
stella rose
I’m not exaggerating when I say this: Spray cheese changed everything for Lucas. He was SO scared and SO reactive that he refused every treat we could buy, make, think up… until we hit on this. He responds to it in the face of his worst fears. Plus, for me, it’s easier to carry than a bag of treats, so a total win-win! (We used to buy Easy Cheese brand, but our supermarket has a store brand that half the price and seems to work the same, just fyi.)
That’s great that Lucas is doing so well with strangers now. I know how popular three-leggers can be with folks, so it would have been so stressful if folks kept trying to come up to him and he was afraid or reacive. Our Abby thought everyone loved her and wanted to say hi to her (and be jumped on by her) both before and after her amp. I thought she *might* stop jumping on folks after the amp – I would joke that she was afraid we’d cut something else off her – but that didn’t happen. She’d still jump on folks, but at least it was only one paw.
As for the canned cheese – oh man! That stuff! We use the Kong Easy-Cheese or whatever it’s called on Rita when the gardener comes over. She goes from leaping, barking, wild Tasmanian Devil to calm, quiet, sweet baby. It’s like a miracle in a can.
What is it about that cheese?!? I don’t know what they put in it–actually, I don’t really want to know–but sure am glad to have it!!
I think that’s such a sweet story about Abby still jumping. I keep thinking how great it is to see his spirit intact, even if his gait isn’t, and it sounds like that’s what happened with Abby and her jumping!
Good job!!
It’s all him! He’s doing ALL the hard work–physically and mentally! I’m just holding the leash! 🙂