Daisy's Thundershirt arrived today! I was so excited I took it out to show all my coworkers, explaining the theory (if babies like to be swaddled, why can't dogs?).
I should explain...I've been waiting with baited breath for this to come. We've had a rough few days.
Daisy has class on Mondays; yesterday was class number 5 of 6. With her stairs fears, we've been having trouble getting her outside at all, let alone to happily jump into a car to go to class. So yesterday was a bit of a catastrophe. Let's just say, Daisy is not allowed to try to drive ever again.
Once we made it safely to class, Daisy rose to the occasion and did almost all that was asked of her. Which is all well and good, but we must sound crazy because we're trying to explain that she won't budge at home, when she's gladly doing whatever we ask in class.
Thankfully, our dog trainer coach took the time to talk with us. I get so frustrated and give up when it doesn't come easily to Daisy. I've already admitted that I am not a very patient person. Spending 45 minutes to convince Daisy to come down stairs, only for her to refuse to go potty once outside is very frustrating. To that, our dog trainer said that if it's too frustrating for her or us, we should skip it. It's not going to help either one of us. So Daisy's getting one less (redundant) potty break. And I don't pull my hair out. So be it.
Imagine my surprise when Daisy went right downstairs last night after class. It only took 20 minutes to get her down stairs, outside to potty and then to relax and gaze at me before she got to go back inside. I was floored. And then this morning, she only took 10 minutes to get down the stairs (with both of us). When Matt got home from work today, he thought to entice her with cheese (yum!), which totally worked like magic. She was down the stairs in no time.
When I got home and put the Thundershirt on, she relaxed even more.
We took her downstairs with no fuss, out the door, and she went potty and we walked a bit. She was calm, cool and collected the entire time. Took treats outside (which she'd never done previously) and paid close attention to us.
Once inside, she relaxed immediately, even when our neighbor came home and Matt went downstairs to chat with him. Rather than barking or huffing, she nearly fell asleep. When I offered the option for her to go downstairs, she opted to go down and see Matt and our neighbor, rather than run into the other room. I went downstairs too, and she hung out with all of us for a good 15 minutes. Good thing she decided to join us - our neighbor gave her a delectable treat to nosh on. She ran up to one of the landings on the stairs and just laid down and settled in, like it was no big deal.
Consider me relieved. We have a glimmer of hope. The combination of all the games we're playing in the stairs, the Thundershirt and a lot of patience are starting to show signs of progress. Let's hope we keep moving in the right direction. Or else I'm going to need my own Thundershirt to keep me calm!