 Barked: Fri Nov 2, '12 12:54pm PST |
 | |  | | On October 20th, at 2am, while reading a book in bed, I heard Charlie banging in his kennel. But it wasn't the usual trying-to-get-comfy banging, it was uncontrolled, and it went on for a moment before I thought, "Shoot... He's having a seizure." So I jumped out of bed, waking up my fiance, opened the kennel door, to see him standing(barely), trying to fight it.
His whole body was stiff, his back arched, his muscles tense, his head unable to really turn or anything, but he managed to walk out of the kennel before he leaned on my fiance. Putting all his weight into my fiance gave him the room for us to let him gently lay on the ground instead of collapse there and hurt himself.
As per usual, I stroked him, but this time, I used a method I read about on the Canine Epilepsy website - Ocular Compression. It worked. As soon as I was gently putting pressure on his closed eyes, and my fiance was stroking him, he was pulled out of it. It was slow to happen, but I noticed the change immediately.
Now... Here's my problem. Charlie used to LOVELOVELOVE his crate. Now? Not so much... He goes in it at bedtime, and he cries and cries and cries for the first two hours or so. And doesn't stop. I put food and a chew toy in there, and even give him a treat - which I've always done for him. The first night he cried like that, I didn't make the connection, and figured he needed outside again, so I took him outside again. Second night, tried the same thing. He didn't NEED outside for a bathroom break at all. He WANTED out of his crate. So naturally, I set myself up for a failure with that and he's continued being anxious and crying, trying to get me to let him out since.
It's almost like he's scared of being locked in there now! Before, he was fine. Heck, he still goes IN without a fight, and he'll even go lay in there himself if the door is off... But it used to be that he'd sleep in there even when I didn't ask, that he enjoyed being in there, and now he just cries and cries... And I feel terrible...
Any suggestions would be great.. I might try doing some crate games with him, or try doing some crate-training all over again and see if that helps at all. It's his den, it's HIS space, and he's always loved that space as his and I feel terrible that he had a seizure start in it and got scared...  |  |  | |  |
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