Sadie (Nevaeh 07-202) [1]

Sponsored by:

Adopted RAGOM dogs Benny 06-547 & Maggie 06-548

Robert Martin
"In honor of his parents, Robert and Sarah"

  From your buddy, Preston!

July 11, 2011

Welcome back to RAGOM, Sadie! Sadie (originally Nevaeh but she doesn’t seem to answer to that at all) originally came to RAGOM as part of the big North Dakota puppy mill rescue back in March 2007. She came in with a litter of puppies and was adopted out a few months after they were weaned. She’s now 8 years old, beautiful and sweet as can be.

Nevaeh/Sadie... 2007

Sadie was returned to RAGOM because she has storm and fireworks anxiety that her adoptive family didn’t feel they could help her with. After spending the last few weeks with Sadie, over the 4th of July holiday and some stormy weather, I give them credit for trying for as long as they did. Her anxiety is severe, much worse than the anxiety of my resident dog with storm anxiety. Once she hears fireworks or storms even at a distance, she becomes extremely agitated. She can’t be crated or baby gated in a room as she scratches and claws doors, baby gates and even the walls frantically trying to get out, only to try to go back to the same place and hide minutes later. She paces and cries and works herself into a state of complete panic, panting and her little heart just races. Even once the sound is removed, she can’t seem to get herself out of her panicked state for several hours. Her anxiety has progressed to the point that after about 6:00 PM she won’t go outside to potty, regardless of the weather. It seems as though she just doesn’t have the right coping skills when stressed to calm herself down. It makes us wonder what happened to her that frightened her so badly and got her started on this path.

We are trying several things to help Sadie. We’ve purchased something called a Thundershirt, which is like a swaddling wrap for dogs. We’ve used that and it seems to settle her down if she is just a little anxious but doesn’t do much once she gets ramped up. She looks super cute in it though, we'll try to get a photo for her next update. :-) We believe that medication is the best hope for Sadie at this point. We’re trying a daily medication that has been developed for dogs with separation anxiety. That isn’t Sadie’s issue but we are hoping that it will have a general calming effect on her and not allow her to get into the worked up state that she can’t get herself out of. However, that can take up to 4 weeks to get into their system, so we’re not sure how well it is working as of yet. We are also using an anti-anxiety drug as a supplement when she needs it. We try to give it to her before fireworks or storms start, but we can also give it to her when she is worked up to settle her down. We aren’t sure we have the right drug yet as our success with it has been hit and miss, but we do have a few options we can try. As with humans, different drugs work on different dogs for different reasons, so hopefully it is just a matter of finding the right one.

When she’s not in her panicked state, she’s a very sweet girl. She gets along well with our two resident goldens and is finally starting to play with them a bit. She will go into a crate with a little coaxing (when not in her panicked state) and quietly chew on a toy. She doesn’t respect baby gates, knocks them down, and when given free roam she chewed up a few things she shouldn’t have so she’s in the crate when we aren’t home. She does just fine with free roam at night. She’s completely housebroken and will chase a ball and bring it back. She is about 15 pounds overweight though, so she doesn’t have the energy to play for very long. Aside from her weight, she’s a healthy girl.

As a former puppy mill mama, Sadie needs a home with a physical fence, another large breed dog and no children under the age of 10. She would definitely do best in a quiet home with structure and without a lot of chaotic activity, as that seems to feed her anxiety. She will also need a home absolutely committed to keeping her on medication, likely for the rest of her life at least in the summer months, and someone who will take the time to do several levels of obedience training with her. We feel that some organized, positive motivational style obedience training will help her build some confidence that may help improve her general coping skills. She’s a very sweet girl and will be worth the effort. Stay tuned for updates on her progress.