Generalized anxiety

[Boxergirl]

I wanted to post a video of Al, my boxer with behaviorist diagnosed generalized anxiety. Anxiety is misunderstood and dismissed by a lot of people, just like it is with humans. Al's going to turn 8 at the end of the month. I've heard repeatedly that I've coddled him and if I were more of a leader and had more of his trust he wouldn't be like this. None of that is true. It's a chemical imbalance. It's a real thing and no amount of tough love or being a leader will fix it. There was a time when what you see in the video was the norm. It was then that I evaluated his quality of life daily. He's much better now than he was, but sometimes these bad days just happen. Not nearly as often as they used to, but often enough that I'm looking into event meds to help him out.

I felt alone dealing with this for a long time. I blamed myself for having done something wrong, even though I knew I did everything right. I wanted to share this video so that others that may have a dog like Al know that they're not alone. There is help. Al is so much better than he used to be. With the help of anxiety meds he's been able to disengage from his anxiety enough to learn to turn to me for help when he needs it. Mostly.

In case anyone wonders, Al just had his senior check up. He's ridiculously skinny, weighing in at only 50lbs. You can see every bone in his body. He eats like a horse though. His senior blood panel came back excellent. He's testing borderline hypothyroid, but we're not doing anything about that now and will do a recheck in 6 months. Our vet and behaviorist believe that he just worries the food off. It's kind of embarrassing to take him in public and people are plenty vocal about how bad he looks. Anyway ... this is my boy. I spent the day snuggling with him and then his favorite girl came here after work and he had a nice nap with her. He's a very good boy and I love him lots. That's Roy at the end of the video. He was upset because Al was upset. Ella didn't care too much, lol.

 

[Bailey's Mom]

Your poor boy...what a sweety. You are a good mom to be so attentive to him and to take the time to understand and to treat his condition. I'm sure a lot of people have seen this in their pets or dogs they've known who show these extreme signs of anxiety. It's hard to watch...you just want to hold him and love him up. What does he do when you try to cuddle him when he's like this?

 

[Boxergirl]

When he's as bad as that, all he wants is to be close. He looks to us for support and we give it to him. That's one of the reasons I posted. You hear all the time not to reinforce fear or anxiety. I listened to a lot of bad advice and tried many things that not only didn't help him, but made him worse. I guarantee that no amount of affection or comfort is going to encourage him to behave like this more frequently. Just like comforting a person in the midst of a panic or anxiety attack is not reinforcing it. It's not a choice.

 

[Nik]

I wanted to post a video of Al, my boxer with behaviorist diagnosed generalized anxiety. Anxiety is misunderstood and dismissed by a lot of people, just like it is with humans. Al's going to turn 8 at the end of the month. I've heard repeatedly that I've coddled him and if I were more of a leader and had more of his trust he wouldn't be like this. None of that is true. It's a chemical imbalance. It's a real thing and no amount of tough love or being a leader will fix it. There was a time when what you see in the video was the norm. It was then that I evaluated his quality of life daily. He's much better now than he was, but sometimes these bad days just happen. Not nearly as often as they used to, but often enough that I'm looking into event meds to help him out.

I felt alone dealing with this for a long time. I blamed myself for having done something wrong, even though I knew I did everything right. I wanted to share this video so that others that may have a dog like Al know that they're not alone. There is help. Al is so much better than he used to be. With the help of anxiety meds he's been able to disengage from his anxiety enough to learn to turn to me for help when he needs it. Mostly.

In case anyone wonders, Al just had his senior check up. He's ridiculously skinny, weighing in at only 50lbs. You can see every bone in his body. He eats like a horse though. His senior blood panel came back excellent. He's testing borderline hypothyroid, but we're not doing anything about that now and will do a recheck in 6 months. Our vet and behaviorist believe that he just worries the food off. It's kind of embarrassing to take him in public and people are plenty vocal about how bad he looks. Anyway ... this is my boy. I spent the day snuggling with him and then his favorite girl came here after work and he had a nice nap with her. He's a very good boy and I love him lots. That's Roy at the end of the video. He was upset because Al was upset. Ella didn't care too much, lol.

Thank you for shating. Cerberus would hbe anxiety attacks like thi but they were all event triggered so once we learned all of his phobias (like he had a phobia of enclosed spaces so no crate training for him) we were mostly able to avoid the incidents.

We were very lucky with Cerberus that the anxiety wasnt generalized like with your Al.

I think people tend to forget or disregard mental health issues in both people and animals.

Al is lucky he has you to help him with it. And you are 100% right about providing comfort. With Cerberus if I didnt provide comfort during a panic attack it would go from shaking to hyperventilating to vomiting. Just being there, talking him through and petting his back usually helped.

 

[DennasMom]

You're amazing, Boxergirl!
I love your dogs and all your advice!

I also think the "don't reinforce anxiety" is thrown around too much and also misunderstood... it gets used too much, and humans don't always recognize when a dog is showing anxiety versus fear, or just general discomfort or distrust.

When a dog is shaking like your poor Al, there's a fine line between ignoring it so it will go away, and ignoring it to let the dog stew and get 'stuck' in fear.... So glad you kept at it and have been able to help your Al!