I was looking over my blog and it occured to me that perhaps some of you out there (is there really anybody out there?) might be wondering what happened with the Girl Dog and her neurotic night waking.
I didn't take her to the kennel. We started reinforcing her training right away and that helped some. We changed how we feed her (moistening her food to make it easier for her to digest, and splitting her meals). The holistic vet prescribed Chinese herbal medicine for her, and she's been taking that for 5 weeks.
Between the training and the herbs she is doing far better. She has stopped night waking for the most part, and can be settled down with about 1 minute of training reinforcement.
Her hips are still bothering her, especially the left hip which isn't the one that had significant dysplasia 2 years ago. I have to decide if I can afford acupuncture or chiropractic for her. She does use the egg crate foam bed I cobbled together for her, and the doubled bed she uses in our bedroom. I think she's just having a tough time with the cold.
She barks too much - that's a different problem. The neighbors are outside a lot and after 3 years she's yet to desensitize to them. Their dogs bark too. I try to manage it by keeping her inside when I am home. When it gets a little warmer and drier I am going to try spending more time with her outside so I can correct her as soon as she barks, and hopefully get her to start ignoring the neighbors.
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