Depressed Puppy

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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!

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6 Replies to “Depressed Puppy”

  1. I was hoping that he would be improving by now. Wish we could help. Hang in there. It sounds like you are on the right track.
    Love,
    Mom2

    1. We were hoping but no luck last night. He decided to stay up the whole night! Hope you guys are doing well.

  2. I’m sad to read of your problems with Cyber. If all else fails, there are drugs that can help dogs. I once had to put my dog DeDe on Prozac. It’s not ideal, but it helped.

    1. Hello, Thank you for stopping by and for your kind concern. We didn’t have the repeat we were looking for last night. For whatever reason, Cyber’s anxiety was through the roof and he didn’t sleep the whole night…sigh. Up to this point, we haven’t considered medications such as Prozac but we might just have to look into it. Thanks for your advice. :D

      Chris

  3. Oh no, I’m so sorry to hear about your being sleep deprived. Are you and Keith considering to get a new “buddy” / playmate for Cyber? Maybe that’ll help, no? I’m not an expert but I think he’s ” lonely”.

    And BTW, Cyber looks really handsome at 13 and a half years old :-D

    P/S Welcome back, Chris! ;-)

    1. We are considering getting another dog but we’re not entirely sure if we’re going that route yet for various other reasons…it is definitely in the back of our mind.

      Thanks for the compliment. He does get a lot of that for sure, whenever we take him out. :D

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