Maggy Settling in But Has" Issues"

Clomicalm (clomipramine) or other TCA (tricyclic antidepressants) work quite well for anxiety disorders in dogs.

SSRI's (selective seratonin reuptake inhibitors) like Prozac can also be useful. Many also use benzodiazepines (valium. ativan, alprazolam) alone or in combination with other drugs to treat anxiety disorders.

Many people don't like the idea of pharmaceuticals on a philosophical basis. These drugs properly used rapidly eliminate the anxiety or at least reduce it to a manageable level and both facilitate and speed up the training/retraining.

The are NOT meant to be permanent solutions or a substitute for behavior modification/training but an aid. They do work.

Doug, DVM

Lots of good ideas.... I would add that for some dogs, a pheremone collar can make a big difference. At under fifteen bucks, well worth a try.

Half a gram a day of L-tryptophan can also make a big difference. Maybe a full gram, if she's bigger. Dr Doug could probably suggest some pharmaceutical solutions and if it helps her adjust that might not be a bad idea, though personally I'd try the tryptophan first.

BTW stress increases allergies so it will be aggravating whatever she's got going on. A couple of benadryls once or twice a day often calms things down and might help especially during this transitional period.

You might consider engaging a behaviorist to assist you in helping her settle in and calm down. Walking will be a great help once she's able to do it, as exercise burns off a lot of the stress hormones.

PLAY, also, is very powerful. It is exercise and also a different state of mind. Try to find ways to engage her in play around things she may find alarming. Starting with the "scarey thing" at a distance and moving closer during the game or having the scarey thing move closer, can be one approach.

As Judy mentioned, a canine friend could be a help with respect to learning to walk on the street.

Our first rescue was a puppy mill dog. She was very afraid of certain men and it seemed to be their build, the kind of clothes they were wearing and if they had a baseball cap on or not. My adult son quickly learned to remove his baseball cap before he came in the house. My DH is a soft spoken gentle man, but it still took at least 6 months before she started trusting him. As far as the walking - she was afraid of everything - cars, trees, leaves blowing, children and bikes, lawnmowers - and -- shovels especially petrified her. We also noticed she was afraid of the tones the telephone made when we dialed a number. Guessing she had a bark collar on all her life. There was so much to overcome, but within a year she gained a personality, settled in and was the best little dog. She was also afraid of storms and nothing could console her. She had lived outdoors in all weather for 7 years, I couldn't blame her one bit!

As far as the itchy skin --- our current dog, a Japanese Chin was doing this. It was the flea/tic treatment. (We were using frontline) and after changing to a different one - no further problem. My daughter's lab also had the same problem with that. Keep it in mind as a possibility that it could be something like that. Good luck and I'm sure she will be worth all the effort. She needs lots of time.

bob_nestor wrote:
Sounds like she may have been abused by a male and she's now afraid of all males. My GF picked up a stray that was like that and she nursed it back to health. It took a long time and a lot of patience, but in time the dog came to accept me and we got to be good friends. She even looked forward to playing with me whenever I was around. One of the things I learned was to be careful of my body language around the dog until she learned to trust me. I was careful approaching her and learned to keep my hands down by my sides.

The horse my dad bought my mom was like this and they think he was abused by a man or men. A few years after we got him my dad rode him on a hunting trip he took.

Time and patience :)

Dori

Francesca Knowles wrote:
Advice given was to bathe very infrequently, and only when there was a definite reason to do so. Also to brush/groom vigorously as often as possible. That combined with reduced-grain food seemed to solve the problem.

Bathing is rarely a problem if done correctly. That means using a gentle shampoo, lukewarm water and particularly rinsing thoroughly. The same is true with brushing -- many people use a too heavy hand, and that can certainly cause brush burns and other irritation. I've seen many more problems over the years from lack of proper bathing/grooming than from too much. The idea that frequent bathing is a problem originated decades ago when all dog shampoos were very harsh and drying. That's no longer the case.

Our little Yorkie had been itching too. I bought some hot spot relief at Petco and it has helped her. Also adding fish oil to her dish. Best of luck to you. A lot of good tips here!

Thank you all for your great suggestions and encouragement. Have engaged the males in the house so hopefully we will start to see a change.

Per the itch:

It sounds like a situation I had with a dog some while ago. I, too, did all the treatment/baths etc with mixed results. I was finally advised that I might be overtreating, perhaps exacerbating the skin problem by constantly removing essential oils.

Advice given was to bathe very infrequently, and only when there was a definite reason to do so. Also to brush/groom vigorously as often as possible. That combined with reduced-grain food seemed to solve the problem.

I follow the same protocol with my present dog, a rescue we've had for about three years now. In that time, she's had perhaps four or five actual baths-with-soap and except for a bad reaction to an unfamiliar food has had no skin trouble.

As for the itchiness -- It's likely due to allergies. Next to flea bite allergies, inhalant allergies (pollens, molds, dust mites, etc.) are the most common type of allergy. And unfortunately they're usually the hardest to treat. There are a number of OTC and prescription antihistamines that you can try. Your vet can give you dosages. Often you have to try a few to find the one that works best for any given dog.

A food allergy is also possible. Feeding a grain free food is no guarantee, as dogs can be allergic to any food that contains protein molecules. From the studies I've seen, animal proteins are statistically more likely to trigger allergies than the often unjustly villified grains.

An under-active thyroid can cause itchiness, but I doubt that's likely given her age and because you say that her coat is improving. A thin, sparse coat can be another sign of a thyroid issue. So if hers is improving . . . probably not thyroid.

As far as her fear of men--I can't add anything to the great tips you've already gotten, other than to stress that it really does take patience. I took in a stray once who had obviously been abused (she had fresh scars). It took my then boyfriend/now DH and a very kind, dog-loving male neighbor three years of working with her to get her to fully trust them. But once she did, she totally did and it was like she'd never been afraid of men at all.

Elizabeth24 wrote:
Maggy is a 2 year old Goldendoodle mix (we think). She came from the Pound in Calgary and was in pretty rough shape when we got her She was skin and bones but has filled out nicely and her coat is really beautiful compared to a month ago. There are some pictures of her on the site under the heading "New Addition" Sorry, I am not very good with computers and posting pictures or I would post a new picture.
She has really changed since her last pictures.

She is a really loving beautiful dog, love her to death and we just want to make her life better than it was in the past. If we could only get her to be more trusting of males and become street smart she would feel much more comfortable. Thankfully she travels well as we will have a long journey shortly and then perhaps the RV park won't be as scary as life in the city.

Thanks for the reply. You have already made her life better, and thank you for that. Solid advice here in other posts to help her with males. Just be real patient and let her approach.