It has been pouring off and on throughout the month.
Still, we go to the park nearly every day. If we don’t, Bowdu will sit right at my side and stare at me, guilting me from getting any work done. Bowpi, on the other hand, would probably hold her pee for 16 hours if it meant she didn’t have to step out in the rain.
27 March 2012
A summary, for those unable to view the video —
Bowdu: Hey. It’s raining. Bowpi: OMG OMG There is no escaaaaape!!! I give up. Me: Bowpi! I am calling you though I have nothing to offer you. Bowpi: Take me home you crazy bitch! Bowdu: Yup, still raining. Hey, look. There’s another weirdo who came to the park in the rain…
Even on unexpectedly sunny days, muddy pools remain, requiring me to keep my Basenji on levitate mode.
When other dogs are playing exuberantly in close vicinity, Bowdu has a tendency to interfere. This is what I mean when I say he’s a referee, or sometimes a killjoy.
1 February 2012
He’ll circle the group, barking or rooing. Sometimes he will dive in to make physical contact — a muzzle-jab to the side or a nip. Sometimes he looks pretty scary when he nips, but this is not aggression.
Sometimes he’ll leap right into the path of oncoming traffic as if to say STOP ALL THIS RUNNING!!
24 November 2011
He has a pretty wide soup can and is quick to grouch when others intrude upon his space with all their funnin’.
But I think as the video above shows, his grumping seldom amounts to much. As long as the other dog gets out of his space (or we get out of theirs), he’s fine a moment later. The vast majority of dogs we meet are well socialized and understand him clearly, though they might look at him askance for barking orders. I do not apologize when he makes such noises. Usually, I tell Bowdu, “It’s okay,” or “Let them play,” (especially if Bowpi’s involved) by which I mean you have no need to take this any further, and we keep walking. All he wants is his own space anyway, so I try to redirect his focus towards the path. Bowdu is the main reason I keep moving at the dog park; it’s not that I’m being cagey or uninterested in conversation, I’m just trying to keep my Shiba from getting bored enough to boss around other dogs.
A couple months ago at one of our parks, I lingered at the top of a hill while another couple of dogs were playing. Bad move on my part — Bowdu stepped in to referee, but in this case, one of the dogs was really pissed about the uninvited interloper and retaliated severely enough that my dog was hurt. While Bowdu was being a pushy brat, I think the other dog owner and I both agreed that the punishment was rather disproportionate to the offense. It was a little bit like ramming a car for honking their horn at you.
Personal information was exchanged on the spot — one of the very few times in hundreds of dog park visits that this was necessary. Ultimately, we didn’t need to see a vet, but I took the incident as a very real reminder that not everyone, especially not every dog, is going to be so forgiving of Bowdu’s intensity. And he’s not exactly shy about calling out dogs who far outweigh him.
29 January 2012
I think constantly about how to deal with Bowdu’s refereeing. Maybe we (dog and human) are responding appropriately, which is why that seemed like such an anomalous experience. The only surefire way to get him to stop doing this thing that comes so normally to him — and to many other dogs, as I’ve observed! — is to not go to dog parks. We did quit going to the little, fenced-in parks where Bowdu has nothing to do except mind other dogs. His tolerance for rambunctiousness seems directly correlated to acreage which, yanow, makes a lot of sense in human terms as well.
Bowdu wouldn’t be a Shiba if he wasn’t a bit incorrigible about some things… Since I’m never going to be able to train away his conviction in his own importance, I’ll just have to give his ego plenty of room to disperse.
Though I’m having trouble pulling myself back into a school year frame of mind, things have quickly gone back to normal for the Bows. Since the Doggy Daddy doesn’t drive, they missed out on their daily dog park visits while I was gone. However, both of their skin irritations improved steadily in my absence. Hmmm…
I hate to admit it, but it seems pretty clear that the outdoors that we all love so much does contribute to their allergic flareups.
So it’s some kind of trade-off. Quality of life versus perfect skin? As long as we can keep things in control, I think they’d rather have their visits to the dog parks.
20 August 2011
Here is a handsome pair of Whippet brothers whom we frequently run into. I love how prominent Bowpi’s ridge appears as she anticipates their approach.
A curious, gentle muzzle in her face…
They stand quite a bit taller than Bowpi, though they don’t seem that much bigger.
I think she was playing it safe this time, as she had gotten overzealous the last time she initiated play with another sighthound. Just a couple days ago, we ran into our Sloughi friend at another dog park. Bowpi was the one who actually goaded the Sloughi into a game of chase, but there’s no way she could have outrun the leggy young dog. She accidentally got trampled at one point, shrieking in fright.
(Warning: loud wind in the video — turn down your speakers if you find it as annoying as I do.)
Video taken 18 August 2011
As soon as Bowpi tapped out, the Sloughi diverted his attentions to a larger German Shepherd in the vicinity. Bowpi took a second to collect herself, but she went trotting off right after them again. She’s funny in that she gets overwhelmed easily, but rebounds quickly and will carry right on as if nothing happened.
I did a bit of exploring off the main freeway during this trip, which I’ll post about next week since it’s relevant to the subject of dogs. However, much of the trip retraced the route we last took on I-80. Of course, I had to stop at the rest station by the Bonneville Salt Flats, the site of Bowdu’s first off leash adventure.
Someone at the Utah Department of Transportation has a sense of humor, I think.
Yeah, you could take the posted sign at face value, and keep your pets in this 20′ x 20′ pen …
… or you can take a cue from everybody else and walk out onto the expansive salt flats with your pets.
Doooo it.
It’s okay.
Anyway, my lens filter was pretty dusty by the end of that trip (as evidenced in the above shots), but the bug-splattered car was even more disgusting. So one of the first things I did upon returning home was to drive through a car wash.
This was after they’d already expended some of their energy at the dog park, of course.
A recent hit in the House of Two Bows is The Honest Kitchen’s dehydrated dog food. A few weeks ago, we got a sample bag of Embark, the grain-free, turkey-based recipe.
It comes in powder form, so you just add warm water, mix it, and let it sit until it assumes the consistency of creamed spinach (most demos I’ve seen make it soupier, but I prefer it a little thicker). I found it surprisingly green for a formula that’s supposed to be a “complete” mix, including adequate amounts of meat. I felt better spicing it up with some raw ground turkey and fresh baked sweet potato. I also stirred in a little extra bone meal (to offset the boneless ground turkey) and fish oil.
All of it was inhaled, and every last whiff of food was licked out of the bowl.
So I recently got another 4 oz. box when we went to check out a new pet supply store.
Bowpi, who is normally a slowpoke eater, finished up in about a minute.
Video taken 22 May 2011
She almost sounds like she’s got some stuck in her throat … but no worries! Bowdu also appears to confirm that her bowl is extra extra clean at the end.
*burp*
Yeah, I think we’re going to have to pick up more of this.
This is fairly new behavior, as of this year (since the end of last summer, around when Bowdu started his thyroid meds).
Video taken 9 April 2011 (Apologies for the angle)
You might say this is just a scared dog, and dogs just get scared every now and then. But this has happened more than occasionally (at least once a month, sometimes two or three times), and Bowdu’s reactions often seem disproportionate to the magnitude of the apparent cause.
This was about 4 or 5 PM on a Saturday. That day was a bit windy, and the trees in the backyard had been rustling all afternoon. In addition, a low-flying plane had been circling for about an hour. I’m pretty sure it was the latter that pushed him overboard. Or under the table, as it were.
Buzzing objects in the sky must seem unusual and inexplicable to him. I can understand why Bowdu would find it unsettling.
It’s not the first time planes or helicopters have been abuzz in our neighborhood, though. And in his youth, Bowdu has never reacted so intensely to mere wind. Hell, he’s been through typhoons in Taiwan without so much as a whimper. We’ve been to Bay Area dog parks where we’ve just sat around watching airplanes take off and land. So I’m not sure why he’s now become so sensitive to atmospheric disturbances, over three years after we’ve moved into this house.
Bowpi, meanwhile, was snoring on the futon, dead to the world and to Bowdu’s anxiety.
I previously wondered if these episodes might have something to do with his fluctuating thyroxine levels, since these episodes typically occurred at night. They stopped for a while, then resumed sporadically. More recently, there have been a few shaking episodes during the daytime, as well.
Photo taken 13 March 2011
The Doggy Daddy’s approach is to let him have free run of the house. Let him pace as he pleases (he has no crate), let him hide under desks if that makes him feel more comfortable, let him go to the backyard to check out whatever is upsetting him if he wants to, but just leave him be, and don’t coddle him. Resume activity around the house as if nothing is out of the ordinary, and interact with him as normal.
Since most of my activity in the house is situated within the study den, and Bowdu comes to me for attention — assurance — I’m not sure what — I find it hard to proceed as normal during his nervous fits. I try to put him up on the futon or hold him like a human thunder shirt, because otherwise it’s really distracting having him walking under and out from the end table while I’m trying to work! I talk normally and occasionally to him. It doesn’t seem to make any difference in easing his shaking.
That particular episode lasted over an hour. After the plane stopped buzzing overhead, he eventually returned to normal.
Perhaps his threshold for the unfamiliar has just changed over the years, and has little to do with hormones, synthetic or otherwise. People’s personalities change; why shouldn’t dog personalities be volatile and susceptible to new triggers, as well?
We’ve never forced the Two Bows to physically interact, except for group walks or car rides. They’ve pretty much always been free to determine their own space in relation to each other, to be as close or as distant as mutually permitted.
But I think they’re learning.
Video from 8 March 2011
Haltingly. Awkwardly. They’re learning to speak each other’s [body] language.
I think we could all use a master decoder, though…
This post is about our experiences thus far with Soloxine, an inexpensive synthetic hormone currently manufactured and distributed by Virbac. Soloxine is one of the most popular name brands for Levothyroxine Sodium, designated specifically for veterinary (animal) use. Another brand for animals is Thyro-Tabs, which we have no experience with. Brand name L-thyroxine is apparently more effective than generics, and these two were the brands specifically recommended by Dr. Jean Dodds.
When Bowdu had his first thyroid panel done in August 2010, the results came back with his T4 levels below minimum, and his FT4 levels at 1 pmol/L within normal, at the bottom end of the reference range. My vet called it “borderline low,” but based on his concurrent clinical symptoms, I was ready to start him on thyroid supplementation immediately.
Once thyroid supplementation begins, it is usually expected that the dog is to remain on thyroid supplements for the rest of his life. Clinical signs of hypothyroidism, which clearly matched Bowdu’s physical condition, usually indicate that the thyroid has already been mostly destroyed by its own immune system. Long-term hormone replacement would result in the shutdown of any natural hormone production as well, which is why it is important to get an accurate diagnosis with both T4 and Free T4 panels, at the very least.
We began with one pill twice a day, at a dose of 0.2 mg based on his weight (at the time) of 33 pounds. Soloxine’s site recommends an initial dose of 0.1 mg per 10 pounds. Hemopet suggests 0.1 mg per 12 – 15 pounds, then adjusting the dosage as necessary according to follow-up bloodwork.
I had no hesitation about starting Bowdu on thyroid supplements, as I’d heard anecdotal accounts that they made a huge and immediate difference. I was also less concerned about this medication, given that thyroxine is supposed to be in his system anyway. However, as with all drugs, this one is not completely without side effects, though I think they were of minimal concern and far outweighed by benefits.
One of the more undesirable side effects that I would ascribe to the thyroid medication (though I don’t know for sure if this is the cause) is exhibited in this video:
Video taken 23 September 2010
About a week after Bowdu started thyroid supplementation and continuing for a couple months, he would exhibit bouts of confusion or just plain weird behavior. In this video, he’s still battling his raging allergies, as he had been all summer, which is why he’s in the cone. These episodes only happened at night, either right before or a few hours after his evening pill. He would get strangely clingy or antsy, and his tail would droop. He’d pant. He’d crawl into corners as if he was looking for something, or try to squeeze himself underneath endtables, or in this case, he’d poke at objects in corners of rooms, like this paper shredder that has always been there. Another time, he jumped up into bed, stepping all over my head in the process (he’s usually more conscious of personal space than that), moved from there to the nightstand, and pawed at the bedside lamp. When I pulled him towards me and held him, I could feel his body trembling.
The trembling was very similar to this video:
Video taken 29 August 2010
The above was taken when Bowdu appeared to be asleep. However, he was awake and very conscious in other episodes of shaking.
My only guess is that these were episodes of short-term thyrotoxicosis, or thyroid drug overdose. According to Soloxine’s drug information insert, the symptoms of thyrotoxicosis include: “polydipsia [increased thirst], polyuria [increased urination], polyphagia [increased appetite], reduced heat tolerance and hyperactivity or personality change.” The last bit seems overly generalized to me, and doesn’t adequately compare to even Wikipedia‘s description: “In excess, [thyroid hormone] both overstimulates metabolism and exacerbates the effect of the sympathetic nervous system, causing ‘speeding up’ of various body systems and symptoms resembling an overdose of epinephrine (adrenaline). These include fast heart beat and symptoms of palpitations, nervous system tremor such as of the hands and anxiety symptoms…”
As I understand it, thyroid hormones are normally secreted as necessary to keep overall levels stable. With synthetic supplementation, artificial “peaks and valleys” are created. While dosing twice a day (BID) as opposed to once every 24 hours (SID) creates more “stable” levels, no doubt the body still responds to the changing level of hormones. If Bowdu’s levels had been low for some time, it would stand to reason that these elevated thyroid levels would feel disorienting, even if they were being maintained at “normal” levels.
So for the sake of minimizing these shocks to his system, I thought it was important to keep Bowdu’s doses as close to 12 hours apart as possible. We’ve developed a pretty good system where he gets his medication first thing in the morning, about an hour before breakfast. Knowing that I have a hard time functioning before coffee, I’ve made things as easy as possible by preparing his marshmallow-wrapped morning dose in advance. A weekly round of morning pills rests conveniently on the nightstand; I don’t even have to be fully awake to pop one out of the case, lean over the edge of the bed to slip it to Bowdu, then hit the snooze bar.
The other half of the daily dose awaits in the kitchen, where it is offered in the evening, about 2-3 hours after dinner.
9 January 2011
Getting Bowdu used to his pills wasn’t hard, though it took a few tricks to turn it into routine. He has a bit of a sweet tooth, so we wrap his pill in a fat-free, but oh-so-sugary mini marshmallow. He also gets more interested if he sees me consuming something first, so at first I made a big show out of eating some marshmallows before offering him one. It also helped to lick the surface of the marshmallow I was offering him, so that it would become a little gooier, thus sticking more to his palate.
Marshmallows are also a great treat for catching in mid-air. Sometimes to liven up the routine of pilling, I’ll grab maybe three or four, one of them stuffed with Soloxine, and gently toss the treats for Bowdu to snap out of the air. When pilling becomes a game, the task is just easier.
About six weeks after he started taking Soloxine, we had a follow-up thyroid panel. Results were within normal range, as expected, so he remained on the same dosage. This will probably change over the years, but for now, we’ll maintain this regimen.
Also, the episodes of oddness depicted in these videos seem to have stopped for now. Something new may arise in the future. As for what came before, I can definitely say we’ve made progress when I compare the archives to his current state.
