The Forum Stresshead!!!

Well its getting close to the time of year I absolutely dread Halloween and November 5th. Well it doesnt even stop there as the blasted fireworks seem to go on forever

Its the time of year where there is absolutely no dealing with the forum stresshead at all......and no Im not talking about me.......Im talking about Marley!!

He just seems to get stressed out with all noises at the moment he is even stressed with the wind today and the fact our wheelie bin cleaner bloke didnt put the wheelie bin back in its exact spot on the drive!!!!!!

So I'm trying my very best to try and make things a little less stressful for him. Today I have started him on skullcap and valeria ( he got stressed taking them ......he hates them it took me 9 attempts to get them down him and just when I thought he had swallowed them he spat them out again and again and again!! ) I have ordered a double noise cd with fireworks, thunder. gun shots etc, to sit with him and try to get him used to that and I have ordered 2 DAP plug ins and the spray..........if all that fails Im going to have to see Neil for something stronger as he works himself up into a right state but I dont really want to go down that route if I can avoid it!!

Aww poor Marley and poor you :love: it is stressful to see a dog stressing :sadd:

Lets cross fingers that all the stuff works Jude


:san41: you got a wheely bin cleaner :eqwr: I've never heard of them :nhy:

yeah the wheelie bin cleaner man comes round every month and cleans the bin and disinfects it for £3, he has an adapted clapped out transit van with pressure hose etc!! Its just he didnt put the bin back where it goes he left in in the middle of the drive and Marley had a hissy fit!!! He was jumping around and dancing about growling and barking with his hackles up, the neighbour was laughing at me trying to reason with him!! I was saying FGS marley its the same bloody bin that is there every flaming day its just not in the same place!!!

he stresses so much Sandra it really is sad to see, I dont make a big deal over it as I know it can make them worse but a plane flew over yesterday and it was a low droning sound Marley looked with sheer panic on his face and wedged himsef between the window sill and the sofa with his head in the corner he thought it was thunder

Aww that's awful hun :cwyy: I wish they could talk and we ould make them understand

Bryn is a worrier but as bad as poor Marley :nhy: he hates the re-cycling cans bag, he wouldn't go in the crate to eat today as I had the bed in the washing machine and he could hear the metal under his feet, I had to put another bed in before he would go in it, he hates black bin bags being taken in and out :2431: but he is generally Ok with most other things but Ellie couldn't care less :nhy: if something does frighten her she always goes back and sniffs it and then it doesn't bother her again

awww bless him hun XX

from a training point of view how do you react wen marley stresses??

also try like you said not to use meds from the vet as a lot can actually make the dog seem fine wen in fact he is trapped inside himslef unable to react but very aware of what is going on around him. xx

DAP's are great tho hun x

Good point abpout them being trapped Fazza would be horrid to think they were really scared inside but not able to show it :sadd:

seen many cases where drugs have been used in everyday life with very nervous dogs and they are just wreaks really. but a lot of pills do this traps the dog inside their own body its awful really is.

having been on odd meds myself through out my life i know how they feel i had bad reactions to one set and the room would just spin but i couldnt move i would just sit there and feel odd lol not nice at all x

Aww hun that sounds really awful :love:

was funny at first lol cos i was young but thats how the dogs feel with some drugs not nice thats why i would try and stay away from certain ones

I try to distract him Farah as much as I can but he usually goes under the table or into his crate til he feels safe to come out. I dont make a fuss to reassure him as I have always read that this can make him worse. I just hate seeing him so stressed and fireworks are his worst nightmare, I will try anything to help him

what i would do hun if he was mine is actually do nothing. you trying to distract him may also re-enforce the behaviour.

you ignoring the behaviour helps him deal with it better, you remain calm and assertive and he will look to you as a leader.

i had the same prob wen i rescued Xena hun come fireworks night she was fine tho as we bought the CD's and anything that spooked her we acted in- different as do my pack, so she then learns to recover from it quicker and learn to deal with it and not react.

does that make sence hun x

having suffered extremly from Phobias hun i feel ignoring is one of the best ways. one of my phobias stopped me living my life for many yrs untill i got paddy.

ppl would try and help me, this made me worse, they would get mad, i got worse lol they let me deal with it in my own way and im more or less getting there

ignoring sounds awful but its not none of mine fear anything not because of the breeding as i have two muttz, because of the way i am around them how i deal with things ect

sorry the forums playing up hence two posts lol xx

Thanks Farah I'll try anything hun

The forum is playing up for me too dont know why

really its been dead weired with me today

put your cd on low at first and go about doing what ever around the house ignore marleys behaviour. xena hated the storm part and panicked loads i ignored her and she was fine the other dogs helped.

each day increase the volume. i actually walk my dogs wen fireworks are going off they love but it may be a step too far at the mo for the poor chap

Awwww good luck Judes.

I find ignoring things helps too, the girls dont care about fireworks at all. Dont know about Stan yet but I will be doing the usual routine of acting like everything is normal and they arent even there. Last year, we walked across the park and some people set off fireworks right near me which made me jump but Mimi didnt bother at all, Maggie went to bark and get excited but I just told her to stop and carried on walking. She never bothered after that :love:

aww poor marley...i should imagine you dont want kala picking up on the behaviour either hun.... fred used to be the same, he would panic and stress over silly things... in the end i gave up trying to distract him, i acted like he wasnt even there,and there was nothing happening, now hes 99% better ...

although yesterday we went out and it was really windy, the leaves and bags etc were swirling all around him, he didnt like that much,he even barked at a trampy looking man who was kicking through the leaves as he walked past :2431: ..... i just carried on and ignored him (fred thats it, not the man) ....

let us know how marley gets on hun,and give my boy a kiss.... it must be awful for you to see him like that :love: :love: ....