From the Styx by Peggy Tibbetts

This is Part 4 in the Crazy Bitch series about our Akbash/Lab mix Venus. She has Canine Compulsive Disorder (CCD) with aggression.

Previous episodes:

Part 1: Tale of Two Dogs

Part 2: Dog BombPart 3: Sick Puppy

Torn Between Two Dogs

With 2 dogs it’s easy to slip into the 2-headed dog syndrome. They go everywhere and do everything together. That’s how it was with Zeus and Venus for two years. 

Then after Venus’s meltdown, Zeus didn’t want to have anything to do with that crazy bitch anymore. Who could blame him? He was 5 years old when we adopted Venus. He has always been his own dog. By ignoring her, he declared his independence.

However Tod and I could not maintain the Chinese-fire-drill-with-dogs lifestyle. We had to find a way to gradually bring them together, while respecting Zeus’s demand for his own personal space. Maybe if we helped him define that space, then Venus would respect it, too.

That’s where we were at on Saturday, November 8. After only 4 days on Clomipramine, Venus had calmed down – a little. It was time to move forward – in baby steps.

But how?

Dogland had always been a neutral zone for them. Since Venus had to be on the leash, she would be completely under control. Plus their neighborhood leash walks were going well.

We had a wire barrier for the back of Jeep to separate the back seat from the rear section but we hadn’t used it in two years so it was stored away. Venus and Zeus always rode in the rear section together. Tod found the barrier and put it up. I laid a dog rug in the back seat for Venus. We loaded her first.

Then came Zeus. He checked out the new arrangement. He knew we were going to Dogland and Venus was coming along. He also knew the barrier would keep them apart. He signaled his approval by climbing in the rear section. As we hoped, Dogland was just a walk in the park for them. The healing began.

We kept Venus on the leash at all times because she was still anxious and unpredictable around other dogs. During those first few visits to the park with her after the attack, I realized that her anxiety around other dogs made me nervous. I knew I needed to get over it.

The following Tuesday (November 11) while walking the dogs by myself at Dogland I thought about why Venus made me nervous. It was simple. Her unpredictability. How she could morph from happy-slappy dog into crazy bitch in a split second. 

Venus stopped and sniffed a patch of weeds. Zeus walked over to her and sniffed, too. Then she sniffed his neck. I tensed up. That’s when it hit me. Whenever she attacked Zeus, she always went for the same spot on his neck, behind his right ear. I pulled her away from him and kept walking.

If only I could put body armor on him. Doggie Kevlar. The universe responded with a vision of a studded leather dog collar. Eureka!

Tod just happened to be in Grand Junction that morning so I called him and told him about my vision. He said he’d pick one up at Petsmart. When he came home for lunch with the extra large spiked collar, I had to laugh.

“That is so not Zeus,” I said. “I guess I’m doing this more for me. So I know he’s safe.”

“Well if Venus tries to sink her teeth into that, she’s going to get a mouthful of metal,” Tod said.

I showed Zeus the shiny new collar and let him sniff it. Then he stuck his nose through it and slipped it on, all by himself. The look he gave me could only be described as satisfaction. Maybe the vision had come from him. Sort of like a Malamute mind meld. Who can say?

I noticed the fur was matted on his neck where Venus had bit him. I had been pouring colloidal silver onto the wound area but otherwise had left it alone to heal. I took off the collar and removed the dead fur from this neck, exposing bare skin. About a dozen tiny cuts were all that remained. Not a single puncture wound. It looked as though Venus had chewed on his neck, much like she had chewed on her leg. Likewise my wounds were healing and weren’t punctures either. Her teeth had only grazed my leg.

The discovery of the chewing wounds on Zeus’s neck was significant to us. It meant that out of sheer anxiety she had pinned Zeus down and chewed on his neck. More proof that she didn’t want to kill him. Her aggression was a manifestation of her anxiety. She chewed up dog toys. She chewed on herself. She chewed on Zeus. More puzzle pieces.

As I mentioned, I had talked to some of my Dogland friends about Venus’s illness. Later that same afternoon one of those fine and gifted friends came to the rescue. Becky called and said she’d like to come over and do a crystal healing on Venus.

Becky arrived with her suitcase full of powerful BioGenesis crystals. Zeus stayed outside. Indoors I played new age music on the radio. Venus danced around Becky and me as I explained how the dance ritual was all part of her anxiety.

Becky and I sat on the carpet. She took out the colored wheels and laid them out. I tried to get Venus to sit down near them but she ignored me. Becky held up the flame crystal and waved it around Venus several times. Within seconds, Venus slumped to the floor and lay on the wheels. She rolled over on her back between us as Becky waved the flame crystal over her. Soon after she began sneezing – over and over. It was comical. She must have sneezed a couple dozen times at least, as though the negative energy was releasing through her nose. Fascinating. Within 15 minutes, she became completely relaxed, even serene. Serene and Venus were not two words I would normally use in the same sentence. But I liked the serene Venus.

Next we ventured out to the front porch. Zeus adores Becky. She had used the crystals to heal his back injury in September 2007. He sat up and stretched to absorb the healing energy of the flame crystal.

Becky laughed. “His energy seems just fine.”

That’s how it is with Zeus. Good energy.

Becky told me, “Email me a recent photo of Venus and I’ll keep it in the case to send her positive energy.

The next day a big screw up happened. When I gave Venus her morning pill, Tod said, “I already gave her a pill.”

OOPS!

That meant we had given her 100 mg of Clomipramine instead of 50 mg. A double dose. I panicked. But she was due to go up to 75 mg the next week. So I knew it wouldn’t kill her. She went to the office with Tod as usual, and slept most of the day. At Dogland she was totally lethargic.

“Well the 100 milligram dose doesn’t really calm her down. She just acts drugged,” I told Tod. “But she still has too much anxiety on the 50 milligram dose. Maybe 75 milligrams will be the magic number.”

Another Dogland friend, Karen S had advised me to get some pepper spray. She had worked with rescued dogs and aggressive dogs and said it works to break up a dog fight. So I bought some pepper spray, knowing full well that buying it was an admission that I might have to use it. Almost like I was expecting the worst.

But that wasn’t how I felt. In order to help Venus I had to stop feeling tense about her unpredictability. In order to lose the tension, I needed to take control. I looked on the spiked collar and the pepper spray as tools to help me control her aggression if she snapped again.

The rest of that week we saw some promising signs that Becky’s crystal healing and the Clomipramine had helped Venus. When she played with dog toys she didn’t destroy them like she usually did. When she played fetch she didn’t clamp down on the toy and refuse to give it up. She let go on command and sat and waited for me to toss it. On walks, Venus used any excuse to get close to Zeus and check out the new collar, then backed off respectfully.

We even started relaxing the separation rules indoors. After dinner we opened the gate. The problem was when she came upstairs, Zeus went downstairs. If she walked in a room, Zeus left the room. If she went outside, he came inside.

I took my signals from Zeus. He still didn’t trust her. So neither did we. Even though she was calmer at home, on walks her anxiety returned, especially with dogs she didn’t know. We were relieved that she had stopped attacking Zeus. But if we hadn’t controlled her on the leash at Dogland she would have attacked other dogs. The bomb was still ticking inside her.

I used positive affirmations and healing touch on her. I counted the days to November 18 when I could increase the dosage of Clomipramine from 50 mg to 75 mg. I still didn’t have a handle on the type of behavior modification needed to rehabilitate her. Everything I read recommended exercise. Okay. Venus was getting 4 walks a day. Obedience training was also recommended. But she was trained. When she wasn’t feeling anxious, she was obedient. I didn’t think taking her to obedience class so she could beat up on other dogs was much of a plan. Her issues were anxiety and aggression – not obedience.

And my greatest challenge was yet to come. The week of November 18, Tod would be in Chicago. Every month he spends a week in Chicago and I have always handled the dogs just fine without him. It was never an issue. That time felt much different. He was about to leave me alone with two dogs that didn’t really seem to like each other anymore.

Stay tuned for Part 5

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