Trapped. Life with an Anxious Dog

It can be difficult living with an anxious dog.  Having a dog with both separation anxiety and car anxiety makes it so at times we are trapped.  Vito's been doing pretty good with both but there are some days where he wakes up and life in general is stressful for him.  Unfortunately, Vito woke up on Thanksgiving morning with one of those bad days.

It can be hard to plan things with Vito.  One of his drugs needs to be given 1.5-2hrs before any car ride and another at least 1hr before.  This roughly translates into my wonderful husband stumbling out of bed at 6:30am each day and even 4:30am on agility trial days to give Vito his meds before going back to sleep.  But on mornings like yesterday Vito still wakes up eyes dilated and panting heavily.  Going into a car on one of those days is a disaster and leaving him home alone even worse.  Trapped.

People just don't understand.  Wait, why couldn't you come?  Your dog is on how many drugs?  Even the people that do kinda get it, I'm still looked at as the obsessive or over protective dog mom.

I try.  Sometimes sending him back to bed for a few minutes works.  Yesterday I also tried a stuffed Kong, and then when that failed I tried getting back in bed with him myself.  That worked, until we had to get back out of bed 15 minutes later.  Knowing he likely won't ever be able to left alone for the 8hrs we needed, I threw up my hands and decided to try the 2hr car ride anyway.  That failed miserably and after 20min I called for a ride and had Vito and my husband turn around to spend the rest of the day at home.

Today I'm thankful for my patient husband and for the wonderful blessings that Vito does bring to our lives.