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As others have mentioned, talk to your vet about anti-anxiety meds to help calm his brain while you work on behavior modification. I have a high-drive girl who has benefited greatly from them. I would work on teaching impulse control, play mat and crate games. Another thing to help when the weather is nasty out is a flirt pole, it really helps us burn off energy in a short amount of time, and work on her impulse control at the same time. For instance, she has to do a command before being released to the toy, sometimes it's as simple as a sit or a down, other times she has to run to her crate in another room and wait to be released. Bett can also be ball/frisbee obsessed. Those toys are put away unless I am actively playing with her. If I left them out, she would be focused and aroused on them the entire day. Check out 101 things to do with a box - when Bett was younger, that would really mentally tire her out. Good luck, and remember he's an adolescent.

I love Chewy.com. I'm sorry to hear this news. On one occasion they sent me multiples of an item I ordered one of, and when I reached out, they said i could keep them, and asked if I would donate them, which I did. I've always been pleased with them.

Hi, My dog had a grade 3/4 heart murmur. It turned out for her it was a PDA, and since repaired. Before surgery, the cardiologist gave us the following nutrition recommendations (these are for patients with early/mild heart failure): Diet of less than 80 mg of sodium per 100kCal of food. Avoid kidney diets unless kidney disease warrants protein restriction Fish oil supplements (Omega-3, avoid cod liver oil and flax seed and producst with Vit A and/or D) Tufts has some information on their page: http://vet.tufts.edu/heartsmart/diet/reduced-sodium-diet-and-treat-lists-for-pets-with-heart-disease/ I was able to contact the manufacturer of the kibble I was feeding and got the sodium content from them, and was happy it was in the limits. The Tufts list is pretty limited. Hope this helps!

I had a really hard time with my last dog when I had to give him Tramadol, other pills he was okay with. I tried wrapping in raw chicken, bread, anything else he would scarf pills down with. Vet suggested salmon flavored cream cheese - it worked. I also will give my pills as if I'm giving a treat for a behavior, so it's not "pill time" I approach it the same as giving any treat so they are less likely to wise up.

Yay! I love this post! Bett is a reactive girl and we are slowly seeing progress... i wish i knew back when I first go her what I know now. I can feel guilty that I forced her into situations that she wasn't ready for and I caused her reactivity. The more I read, the more I think it might be just her. ;-) Thank you for sharing your story, it give me hope that someday I'll have a 'dog'

You might want to try a calming cap (I think they are called ThunderCaps now). They can see through it, but it helps block some visual stimulation. It is really helping us during walks.

He was fine. The splat on the ground scared me to bits.

My 15-year-old senior decided to jump off the top of the dog walk. No more agility for him.

Hero's latest workup was the first time his specific gravity was low; when scheduling the appointment I asked the tech if the sample needed to be first thing and she said not this time around. Speaking with the vet later I should have gone with my gut - she said it does make a difference, taking a random sample can vary the results depending on how much they drank during the day, and suggested I drop off another sample to get a true reading. Over the last four years Hero's numbers have gone up and down, but stayed pretty stable. His creatinine was at 1.9 at one point, and then dropped to 1.6 a year ago, and his BUN has been trending downward, so try to keep as optimistic as possible if you can, I know it's hard. 4 years ago I wouldn't have believed my guy would still be around. Best of luck next week.

I read somewhere along the line that dogs that are feed a raw diet tend to have a higher BUN. Couple vets have also told me that it's the creatinine & urine specific gravity numbers that are the most important. Was the urine sample the first of the day? - that also makes a difference.

He was borderline before the NSAID, but at 15+ years of age we felt it was worth for a quality of life standpoint, especially since some of his kidney #s were normal, and to check blood work prior to continuing the intial trial. We had him on a relatively lower dose, too. He's on tramadol now, which won't have adverse affects and he's got a swing back in his step.

I'm sorry to hear this too, was just talking to my vet yesterday about my old dog's number - he has chronic kidney disease and his number rose this past 6 months. She said she really hates telling people their dog has kidney disease. I was going to tell you about the yahoo group, but I see Sue R already did. It's a wealth of information. They have a Facebook group too, but not nearly as informative. There are also people dealing with pancreatitis there. Loads of recipes. My guy had slightly elevated numbers for the past 4 years, I did do the diet for a while, but his numbers stayed stable, so I stopped. I'm going to have to start up again. We put him on an NSAID, and I suspect that may have contributed to the rise (he's off now). I do believe that steroids can have a negative affect on the kidney's as well. Did they tell you what stage he is? If you join the yahoo group, have the blood/urine work info handy, the diet is dependent on the levels - the moderators can tell you what stage based on the creatinine/BUN/specific gravity of the urine. My vet said she puts them on fluids at level 3. She also recommended a renal supplement by VetScience. Definitely stop feeding bones, too much phosphorus, but you will need to make sure he gets calcium in his diet. Dogaware.com has a loads of info on it, also. It's a scary diagnosis for sure. I wish you the best.

I know of a working dog that came into rescue and was adopted out to be a goose dog. He's now living and working in NYC. The adopter had a trainer to train him on geese.

Thank you for sharing your story. Bett was prescribed Prozac after a consultation with a Vet Behaviorist. Personally, I never saw much change, especially not anything like you are describing. I've read similar stories to yours. She's been on it for 6 months now. We doubled up the dosage and still no dramatic change. I continued with all her training, and have never been sure whether it was the the training and/or the drugs that have brought on the improvement. Since then I have reduced the Prozac back to the initial levels, and there was no adverse affect. The behaviorist thinks the Prozac is making a difference, I'm still not so sure. In fact, I'm tempted to wean her off it to see if there is any change. I enrolled her in a Reactive Dog class and it was a bit much for her, so the behaviorist prescribed Trazodone for situational use. There I saw a difference. We have discussed switching meds for her once her PDA has been repaired; there is a drug used to help with more impulse control, can't remember the name. I do think behavior meds are a good thing, as long as owners know that they must be used in conjunction with training and that they aren't a magic pill.

Another thing that has helped us is Dr. Karen Overall's Relaxation Protocol, it's long and can be tedious at times, but it really helps. You may have what is considered a "Frustrated Greeter" if he is fine off leash with other dogs and people. Then you need to train him proper behaviors, starting with no distractions, working up to larger ones. My girl is great with dogs off leash, but put a leash on her and she'll go bonkers even when she sees a stuffed dog.