Depressed Puppy

Although Cyber is thirteen and a half years old, he’ll always be our “puppy.” He’s the youngest of our three dogs and had never been without another dog his entire life until the day we had to let Darwin go. Since then, he has turned into a depressed and highly anxious pup. He paces around our bed at night, panting, whining, and sometimes howling. When we try to ignore him, he nudges us with his nose and demands attention. We’ve tried a pheromone collar, pheromone plug-in, Thundershirt, and even mild sedative but nothing works. So you can imagine how sleep deprived Keith and I are currently, at best, we get 2 to 3 hours sleep at night and at worst, we don’t get any sleep at all. And this has been going on for over a month now…..sigh. Not only that, he has become a destructive pup as well at times when we have to leave him alone in the house during the day. One day, I came home to find that he had pull out a plug from the wall and chewed it up into tiny pieces…both the plastic and metal parts, yikes! Where did our carefree, happy pup go? We are currently trying to “teach/train” him to rest and sleep in his bed (in our bedroom) at night and that pacing, panting in our faces, and whining to keep us awake are not acceptable. Finally, last night, he actually let us sleep for more than three hours in a stretch. :D We’re not sure if it’s just a fluke or if he’s finally coming around…slowly? We’re hoping for a repeat tonight…wish us luck!

P.S. I apologize for not updating my blog lately but I am extremely sleep-deprived and am feeling exhausted most days. Hopefully, time will heal Cyber’s heart and our schedule will eventually return to normal. In the meantime, we are all hanging in there.

P.P.S. We would also like to wish everyone a wonderful summer filled with lots of fun and exciting things. Enjoy the season!