We have some new neighbours. Not attached to the house but just on the other side of the front fence.
Our new neighbours have two big dogs with big dog barks. They seem to be pretty well-behaved. They don't bark a lot but when they do, it sounds very very close! Obviously, George is not a fan.
Although I knew George had been a bit more reactive at home recently, I was shocked when I looked at the total reactions for last week. It was nearly twice as much as the previous week.
The stats were bad across the board. Reactions lasted longer and he got less rest.
Obviously the new neighbours would have an impact. To be honest, he seemed to be regressing even before they moved in.
He is now completely weaned off the Fluoxetine and has just started the Sertraline. The Sertraline has a similar loading period to Fluoxetine (6-8 weeks) although the VB advised we may see improvements sooner as both medications work in similar ways.
I think the Gabapentin, Clonidine and Loxicom are helping but he doesn't have that underlying SSRI support at the moment.
A neighbour also popped round briefly this week and George was unsettled for quite some time afterwards. After a visit, he expects every noise outside to be somebody coming in.
So we've done lots of work this week on reinforcing calm at home. I am carrying kibble or possyum around with me and frequently rewarding calm behaviours.
Now that his appetite has improved (hooray!), we are back to using snuffle mats and snuffle balls regularly.
He's been doing OK but still struggles (understandably) with the big dog barks. But sometimes he looks at me when there is a noise instead of reacting which is fantastic.
The poor guy also had an overnight in daycare. They said he was fine when out and about with the others but a bit stressed when in the kennel. Which didn't really surprise me.
When he went in next for the day, he seemed stressed at pick-up. I don't know whether he thought I wasn’t coming back to get him. He had clearly been panting excessively.
Unfortunately we bumped into the neighbours on our return. I was worried he was going to pass out from hyperventilating.
Luckily the Easter break is nearly upon us. We need some extra rest days and a mini stress holiday I think.