Dealing With Change

Bear had a true test of his coping skills this past weekend.  We had to go out of town unexpectedly for a family funeral, so our friend Aaron came to stay with the pets.  I was pretty worried about how this might affect Bear, thinking the stress of the new situation might cause him to backslide and lose some of the progress he's made.  Aaron is a very nice guy though, and Bear has met him several times, so we decided to give it a try.  We thought it would be good to see how he reacted to the changes.

Well, it turned out that we worried for nothing, Bear did great!  He barked at Aaron at first, but settled down quickly.  He ate well, interacted with Aaron, and was really just his normal self.  He did have one accident (at least I think it was only one, but Aaron might have been covering for him!) and he chewed one of my crocs.  All in all, I think that's pretty good considering that he's an anxious dog who was left in a new situation unexpectedly!  Yay Bear!

We've been using a pheromone spray called Adaptil that helps with dogs' stress, and it really seems to be helping.  I spray it on the dog beds and couches a few times a day, and I've noticed a difference in Bear already - I started using it a week ago.  He's a lot less jumpy and doesn't seem to be 'on alert' so much.  I know that it could also be due to the work we've been doing with him, but I think it's a combination of the two.  Ellis' annual birthday BBQ and board games extravaganza is this weekend, and there will be a house full of unfamiliar people, so I'm glad the spray is helping him, I don't want him to be too stressed out.  A nice big knuckle bone out in the yard with his best buddy Brody will help a lot too, I'm sure :)

We're trying to come up with a new name to call him - Bear was cute when he was a fuzzy little puppy, but it just doesn't really suit him any more.  We've narrowed it down to a few ideas: Murray, Trevor or Nigel.  What do you think?

They're inseparable :)