Tuesday night was a hard night for Gustavo. There were zombies in the air. I guess this is what happens to him at election time.
He’s had a bad week in general. So stressed out one day that he couldn’t look at me, too worried and out of his head even to take a treat. Days like that, I keep him on a long rope for my sanity, even if it doesn’t help his any. He had a hard time practicing on Monday, the day before election day. Last night, we went to Power Paws and had a class. We ended after the polls had closed. I made sure he knew I voted, super early in the morning.
He could tell though, something was up. Otterpop felt great. She was bright and blustery and yelling at everyone. She smelled victory in the air. Some of her heroes, mean ladies with nice names like Meg and Carly, they went down. And she’ll have to put up with Governor Jerry Brown, whose aura smiles and never frowns. Otterpop didn’t care. She kept yelling and running and is looking towards the great state of Kentucky. Where they are letting the cannibals out of the box. Otterpop sees red.
I think this makes her run fast. She can have her views. I didn’t stop on the way up the mountain and get her any coffee, that’s for sure. She ran past more weave pole entrances than she ever had in her life last night. Just blindly blasting past them like a steamroller. I think that’s part of her manifesto. Just mow ’em down.
Gustavo though, all week he sensed it coming and now I know why he’s so scared. He’s been smelling the zombies. He has an idea what’s coming. He regressed this week to old school Gustavo, and last night was pretty bad. We had trouble in class with turns and him freaking out and holding his starts and getting into his poles. Him just bolting out to nowhere a couple times. Nancy Gyes is wise. She’ll help us. And I tried to tell him that our president, he’s not worried about any tea parties setting free the cannibals, leaking across the country until they catch us over here, on the edge of the sea.
But he gets these whiffs. You see him stick his nose up for a second in the air, and sniff. And it smells like flesh. They might be coming for him. So he just runs.
Have you considered Clomicalm for the little guy? I have a BCxCorgi who is a spazz and occasionally "leaves the room" on me, and it's really helped him — the root of his problem is also anxiety.
Deb
Remind Gustavo that his physical locale is going to buy him lots of time against the zombie march, and you Bay Area-ans have the best zombie fighting skills around (ex. new LG G. Newsom).
Us SoCA types have been getting whiffs of rotten Zombiedom for years (see Brian Bilbray, Duncan Hunter et al), but we are tough too.
We will all hone our zombie destroying tactics and be ready for the siege with our indisputable facts and wicked fast contacts and 24" weave poles. A new day will dawn. That is, if our Pres stops apologizing and starts kicking some zombie ass instead.
Or we could all defect up to British Columbia. There's oodles of agility up there.
Gustavo is right. It is scary.
I bet Canada is totally zombie free. I have NEVER heard of Canadian zombies.
I've never thought of putting Gustavo on drugs. Boy would I like to try to fix his zombies without that. You know who would probably like a drug with the word calm in it? Otterpop.
I have an aussie/catahoula leopard cross. He is terrorized by screaming banshees, not zombies. They terrorize him in his crate while he's in the car or at puppy class. They terrorize him whether or not the cover is on. He needs to prevent them from clinging to the crate cover by pulling the cover through the bars of his crate.
I recently purchased a Thundershirt. It's supposed to help dogs with excessive anxiety. It's his superhero costume for when he's faced with expelling the screaming banshees.
Like you, I really didn't want to turn to drugs. Do you have a holistic vet you can consult? I use some Bach Flower essences and Composure Soft Chews that really seem to help my sometimes worried, sometimes reactive dog. Composure Soft Chews are made by Vetri-Science. You can Google it and learn more. You might also ask around about Shen Calmer Chinese tea pills. And I'd also check into T-Touch massage if you haven't already tried that. I'm not very practiced in many of the movements, but I find that just doing ear work on my worrier seems to calm her and help her to focus. And the connection to her seems to help me, as well!
Good luck with the G-man. It's hard when you want to help them but don't know how….
Virginia in Texas (with Shine who loooves her flower essences. Think it has to do with the fact they are preserved in brandy?)