Blitzen's October, November and December were mostly better than his previous few months. We see signs of some possible progress with medication. Too soon to say for sure, but things are looking more promising than they have in a while.

If you recall from his past couple of Bulletins, the months of July through September were somewhat rough.

One of the really challenging things about working with Blitzen is that he can do really well for several days or weeks or even a few months and then he can suddenly backslide. Some things seem to be going well, but others are not. Then those things change places.

Blitzen is challenging my skills as a trainer and behavior consultant. He also is a challenge for his pain vet and his behavior vet. He is truly a challenge for his entire team, and for Blitzen, it truly takes a team to help him with his issues. For some dogs, one person just cannot do it all.

So I never assume with Blitzen that anything is “in the past” or “fixed” and won't return at some point. I have to be very careful to keep the course and continue with management where needed and always be training.

So far, since our trip to Snow Mountain Ranch at the end of September, I have not had any problem putting on Blitzen's harness. As you might recall from past Bulletins, this has been an issue that comes and goes. He does well for a while then has a setback.

Now, that does not mean that I can just put his harness on. Still, to this day. I have a very carefully set up process that I use. So far, it's working well. But we are heavily structured with this process.

What does that look like?

We have a Harnessing Station. We put the harness on in the exact same location EVERY SINGLE TIME.

I am the one who puts the harness on. NO ONE else can put his harness on. Ed cannot put his harness on.

Ed cannot be anywhere near his Station when getting the harness on. No one but me can be near the Harnessing Station when it's time to put the harness on. Except for Zooka, as long as he's in his spot. But no other people can be in the area. Anyone else in the area makes Blitzen nervous.

His Harness Station is in the corner of the dog kitchen. (Yes, we have a dog kitchen separate from our own kitchen, where we prepare dog food, make our Peak Power Dog Treats, and store and handle food for boarding dogs.)

In the corner, I set up a stool.

Once the stool is set up, I hold out his harness just in front of the stool. Blitzen sticks his head through the harness.

After he places his head through the harness, he gets a couple of treats.

Let me repeat that so you didn't miss it. I do NOT put the harness over his head.

HE puts his own head through the harness. I do not place it over his head. It's his choice to begin the process. I do not force it. If he does not place his head in the harness on his own, the harness does not get put on him.

Next, I break up a bunch of tiny little treats. We use our Peak Power Dog Treats for this. I break up probably 20 of them. Tiny pieces.

I tell Blitzen to WAIT while I line up about 20 tiny treats on the stool. He waits while I place them all over the top of the stool. His face is literally a few inches from the treats. He waits patiently and does not try to take treats before I release him.

Then I say. . . Ready. . . GO!

When I say Go, he starts scarfing down the treats.

As he eats the treats, I carefully reach for one side of the harness underneath him and clip it in.

Then I carefully reach under on the other side and clip that side too.

I make sure that he has enough treats to keep him occupied while I hook both sides of the harness.

If he gets through the treats too fast, then I have to place more out before I finish hooking up the harness.

So, I say that I have had no problems putting on his harness since late September. So far. That's mostly true. I have been able to get his harness on him since late September would be slightly more accurate.

One day, I was putting his harness on and, as I was clipping the first clip on his back, he froze.

Darn it! Normally, once he freezes, there is no continuing from there. Normally, if he freezes, I have to stop what I am doing and be very careful in my movements.

This time, I stopped where I was and didn't move. But I tried to keep breathing normally and NOT hold my breath. (He can tell, I assure you.)

After a second or two (in these situations, one second feels like a LOT longer!) he went back to eating his treats. I was able to continue putting his harness on.

That does not seem like a big thing, but it really was for him. Once he gets worried, there used to be no recovering from it. Not in the moment.

This time, he was able to recover and not escalate. That's huge for him.

Mid-October, we had a couple of days again when Blitzen and Zooka nearly got into fights. Zooka normally is pretty darned tolerant of Blitzen's threats and shenanigans. But he seems to have days lately when he just has had it with his younger brother.

So, while Blitzen seems to be doing better with me, he his not always doing better with Zooka.

At the end of October, we dropped memantine from Blitzen's medications. He is still on Rimadyl and Amitriptyline, which we have been gradually increasing every two weeks.

We had a progress telemedicine appointment with Dr. Christensen at the end of October. We discussed that the Amitriptyline might be helping a bit, so we agreed to continue testing and increasing the dose.

We discussed again whether or not neutering Blitzen might help. We had discussed it before, and we both agreed that while there was a slight chance it could help, neither of us was convinced that it would make much impact and decided to hold off on it. We did discuss the possibility of it helping with his relationship with Zooka.

Neutering will help with a few things, one of those sometimes being aggression toward other males. If he showed aggression toward other males, then I would definitely be giving it a much bigger consideration. However, he is not aggressive toward other male dogs. This issue is really between Blitzen and Zooka. We have plenty of other male dogs stay with us for boarding. Some are younger, some are older. Really not an issue for Blitzen. So while I am still keeping neutering as an option, it's not something we feel will likely have any major impact at this point.

Through November and December, we have continued with his Rimadyl and increasing his Amitriptyline. We will be starting his highest dose by the end of December and then decide from there whether to continue with it, try something else, or add something else in.

It's hard to tell sometimes if medication is helping because, as I have said before, he can have spells where he does really well. But then he backslides. So it's hard to tell if the medication is helping or he's just going through a better phase.

November and December have been better from the standpoint of fewer reactions or outbursts. And generally more tolerant of some things that used to set him off in the past. But that's also because we've been at this for two years now. If you recall, Blitzen arrived at our house at the end of December 2020.

My sense is that the Rimadyl and Amitriptyline combo is helping him feel better and react less often to things that tend to set him off. He does not seem to be having the pain issues that he used to have. He does not seem to react as often to things. And he recovers better, generally. But he does still get upset about some things. There are still some things I cannot do with him.

Some of those things are better because we are so good at managing things at this point. We know what his triggers are. We know what upsets him and when and we do our best to provide a good safe reliable predictable routine for him. He does much better with a consistent and predictable routine.

So our two year anniversary with Blitzen is not where I was hoping we would be with him. I had high hopes that we would be MUCH farther along at this point. But I don't get to decide how quickly he progresses and what helps him or not. I have to work at his pace and take the time to test things (mostly medications, with him) to see what will or will not help him.

It definitely takes a lot of patience. Fortunately, for me and for Blitzen, I can be very patient. That doesn't mean I don't have my frustrations and days when I am not feeling terribly hopeful about things. But over the long haul, I tend to be very patient at sticking to it and getting the results I want. Some might call me stubborn in that regard. . .

Stay tuned for more Bulletins in 2023!