Bulldogs World

Well, little Margie is doing better. She still is terrified but by fewer things. We go for walks and she's learned that the sooner she does her business, the sooner she'll be going home, usually. We have gone longer walks but a lot are for 1/2 a block to about 4 blocks. She can be sneaky. If I don't take her home after a piddle, she's been know to fake a second piddle. (It's hard to tell at night.) ALSO, now that some of the snow is gone and there is some bare grass, it's clear that she prefers using the grass to do her business. She's still afraid of the back yard. There's still a lot of snow and ice out there, and we have airplanes flying over, sometimes at about 600 to 800 ft. It's noisy and she's terrified but I figure that a little exposure every day for a few minutes at a time. I hope this will help.

We've got her on prozac and it might (?) be helping.

We've been to the vet and she has ear and a nose wrinkle infection which we are treating. Apparently, she also has some tooth problems, so she may need surgery. We'll see if it's necessary. I hope not.

She has her three favorite places to stay; the living room couch, the upstairs TV room couch and the dog bed in my office. Everywhere else is scary. Sometimes, she seems frightened of David, who is very sweet to her.

She still doesn't drink much water, so I soak her food in a lot of water and she'll lap that. She doesn't like crunch food (maybe her teeth hurt) so the soaked food is her favorite. But, the other night, I got her come into the dining room and she ate a little bit of our food on her kibble. (Don't worry; vegetables and a little brown rice). But, she actually ATE while we watched, something she doesn't usually do.

We've gotten in contact with a dog trainer who specializes in timid dogs and we plan to hire her in a week or two.

She's a good dog....