Na'ilah and I face our second dog obedience class today.
Things go much better than last week: we aren't the last to arrive, and there is no squirrel distracting Na'ilah. She performs "Touch" and "Sit" pretty well even though I have skimped on the "daily" practice.
After class we go on two errands while driving home.
As we pay for the four calibrachoa flowers in 4" pots--also called Million Bells--the cashier at Armstrong's Nursery offers Na'ilah dog treats... fun.
But Trader Joe's is more challenging. I have before never left Na'ilah alone in the car for even five minutes.
When I come out with two small bags of groceries, I see that she has vomited the entire contents of her stomach in a neat pile on a dog rug in the back of the car.
There it is, all completely undigested. Kibble from breakfast, chunks of hot dog from training in the morning, and various treats used during the class: bits of sliced turkey, little squares of jerkey, broken up salmon cookies.
I realize that dogs don't chew; they just (yes) wolf it down. Then their stomach holds food for a long time before digestion happens.
Clearly Na'ilah had a panic attack over me disappearing and leaving her alone in the car. Her whole system must have gone into adrenaline alert until her stomach started heaving and...
"She was abandoned in the desert," says Roz. "Of course she has separation anxiety."
She can overcome this problem with training, however, Roz assures me.
After all, in the first few days with us she would panic alone in the back yard and jump over the fence, but she doesn't do that any more. She panicked when left alone in a wire crate and broke out several times but no longer does. She sleeps in her crate with the door wide open and doesn't walk out.
On the other hand, she still panics when left alone in the bedroom and chews a hole through the door to get out.
Yes, this is definitely a dog with PTSD.
Things go much better than last week: we aren't the last to arrive, and there is no squirrel distracting Na'ilah. She performs "Touch" and "Sit" pretty well even though I have skimped on the "daily" practice.
After class we go on two errands while driving home.
As we pay for the four calibrachoa flowers in 4" pots--also called Million Bells--the cashier at Armstrong's Nursery offers Na'ilah dog treats... fun.
But Trader Joe's is more challenging. I have before never left Na'ilah alone in the car for even five minutes.
When I come out with two small bags of groceries, I see that she has vomited the entire contents of her stomach in a neat pile on a dog rug in the back of the car.
There it is, all completely undigested. Kibble from breakfast, chunks of hot dog from training in the morning, and various treats used during the class: bits of sliced turkey, little squares of jerkey, broken up salmon cookies.
I realize that dogs don't chew; they just (yes) wolf it down. Then their stomach holds food for a long time before digestion happens.
Clearly Na'ilah had a panic attack over me disappearing and leaving her alone in the car. Her whole system must have gone into adrenaline alert until her stomach started heaving and...
"She was abandoned in the desert," says Roz. "Of course she has separation anxiety."
She can overcome this problem with training, however, Roz assures me.
After all, in the first few days with us she would panic alone in the back yard and jump over the fence, but she doesn't do that any more. She panicked when left alone in a wire crate and broke out several times but no longer does. She sleeps in her crate with the door wide open and doesn't walk out.
On the other hand, she still panics when left alone in the bedroom and chews a hole through the door to get out.
Yes, this is definitely a dog with PTSD.
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