Wednesday, July 14, 2010
a light bulb goes off.....
Emotions in dogs are a lot like humans. They can be happy, mad, anxious, scared, loving and....depressed. Now we know that we have seen this in Toby and have been very worried, as anyone keeping up with this blog knows. But a funny thing happened during the 'pill' event that has kept us wondering...and thinking! As I said in yesterdays blog, we decided to take Toby on an experimental walk. The reason being is during the 'pill event' my husband pointed something out that Toby was doing. While waiting for the hydrogen Peroxide to bring the pill up and out of Toby's tummy, Toby started walking around Linet's yard...exploring. Again: he was WALKING AROUND LINET'S YARD. That morning I had blogged that I was so scared for him as he wasn't able to walk...he was swaying and losing his balance etc. BUT THEN, given a new place, some other doggy scents...a new VIEW so to speak, he became MOBILE and was walking almost completely normal. Sooo we started analyzing this. Could it BE that Toby is faking? NO. A dog doesn't have that capability. So, could it be that he is just so depressed that he doesn't CARE to walk..to TRY? I mean- one day up and about, the next day darn near crippled. Well yesterday evening we decided to try our theory. We took him too far, he even stepped up a curb and right back down before we even THOUGHT: STEP! We've been warned NO STEPS and there it was, disguised. I later added a foot note to the last blog entry that it was a mistake! We were devastated as we just KNEW we hurt him. But later, he started walking a bit better. Today we tried again. Once again this morning and all day long he hasn't been walking very well. As soon as we opened the gate for his walk- he pulled my husband along! He still didn't get far before wearing out- but he was only taken one house and their yard width and back home. He is sooo HAPPY about these little walks that it is very very obvious that we just MAY have found the answer. As my son Ryan pointed out "he needs some physical rehabilitation". After all, 4 WEEKS lying around...who wouldn't? With our Vets blessing, (Dr. Clark of "Critters Care") we are about to embark on just what Ryan suggested! And I truly believe, especially after his eager response both days, that this just may be what he needs now. Nothing else makes sense!
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whoo hoo! Go Toby! But I beg to differ - dogs CAN fake! We had a dog - Socci - who got his shots and then gimped around like he hurt - except if he didn't know we were watching! Then he was fine. The minute he realized that we were watching - he was limping! Little stinker did this for about a week! We finally told him to quite faking and behave and bang - no more limping! But you are probably right - he needs to get some exercise and get moving around.....
ReplyDeleteYou are the second person who has told me this! Kay, who rescues dogs said the same thing- that they can TO fake! Verrry interesting!! Well, I HOPE that is the case he realizes that we are now changing the routine. I hope that it helps him and doesn't work against him. Maybe I should TELL him that if we think it's not working it will STOP! no more walks! but yeah, I do think that it might be a combination of things- depression so he doesn't CARE that he isn't 'working the butt area.' We are going to monitor this closely!
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