Red, White, & Boo!

Hey everyone! We hope you had a happy 4th if you’re in the U.S.! If you’re not in the U.S., we hope you’ve had a great week!

We have several more updates for you this week, including how the dogs reacted to fireworks, Boo going to the vet for his annual check up, and Hannah’s dad trying to befriend Pence.

Let’s dive in!

Fireworks are Frightening

Fireworks have been going off in our neighborhood for weeks now, almost every night starting around sunset and sometimes until 2am. I’m sure Pence was not aware this would be a thing when she moved to Indiana last year. Every time one went off, Pence immediately started shaking and pacing around. Nothing seems to help calm her down ugh.

We figured on the 4th would have even more fireworks, so Hannah decided to take Pence to her dads house out in the country for the evening. She seemed calmer and was definitely fighting off sleep.

Around 11:30pm, they returned home. Apparently, the local city fireworks had just ended and everyone went home to begin shooting off their personal fireworks after that. Ugh.

Pence was terrified, looking for places to hide in the house. Boo tends to hide in Hannah’s closet during storms, so we thought maybe that would be a good place for Pence. We cleared out a spot in the closet (please excuse the mess lol) and put Pence’s bed in there to let her know it was a spot for her. She immediately sat in the bed.

She was still shaking and panting, so Hannah put two machines that give off white noise by her in the closet to try and drown out the noise. Hannah then decided to wrap Pence in her blankie to see if that helped. And it seemed like it did! Pence stopped panting and shaking.

She eventually laid down and closed her eyes! She still didn’t want to put her head down, but she seemed better for sure. Eventually, Hannah fell asleep and hopefully Pence got some sleep too.

As for Boo’s 4th of July, he went to our family cookout! He’s been many times and is a pro with running off leash and being around all the food and people. Because there was the potential for rain and a lot of new people around, we didn’t think it would be the best opportunity for Pence. If it did rain and she needed to go in the house, she would’ve shed a bunch of hair from being anxious and occasionally she has nervous peed inside a new place. My grandma would not have been happy about that lol.

Boo enjoyed free running and getting lots of snackies at the cookout. He got his favorite watermelon, some chips, and a little bit of hamburger. Oh and he may have stolen a chicken wing as well.

Boo has actually done surprisingly well with fireworks lately! He hasn’t been too scared of them except when he’s outside and a close, loud firework goes off. He could care less about distance, smaller booms.

Even on the 4th, when fireworks were constant in Beth’s neighborhood, Boo just napped in the closet.

Boo’s Annual Check-up

Another update on Boo…he went to the vet for his annual check up a few days ago!

If you remember what happened with him last year at the vet, it was CHAOTIC. We were hoping to make it easier on him this year by getting his vaccines done somewhere else. If you remember one of our recent newsletters, we gave him a trazodone and he did FANTASTIC with his vaccines!

We were hoping the same would happen for his vet appointment. The vet wanted him to take more anxiety medication before his appointment, which was several pills worth. Since Boo was at Beth’s house, she gave him the medication a couple hours before heading to the vet.

As always, the vet requested a fecal sample. Boo did his business on a walk, and JT went to collect the sample. However, Boo made it a tad difficult. Whenever he goes number two, he usually uses his back legs to kick the grass like he’s trying to cover it up or spread his scent.

This particular time, instead of kicking the grass, Boo kicked his poop and sent it flying through the air (LOL!). JT had to go searching for it and pick it up incase he didn’t go again before his appointment.

The anxiety meds kicked in pretty well. Boo was very sleepy and a little wobbly. We thought that would be a good time to try and cut his nails and trim the fur between his paw pads. At the sight of the trimmer, Boo completely flipped out, squealed, and ran away.

When they got to the vet, we were glad to find out that he would be seeing a female vet. He does better with females in general. Last year he saw a couple male vets and Boo was not a fan. They still had to muzzle him since he was so scared. They put a blanket over his head which seemed to calm him down a little, and drew his blood from a back leg instead of a front leg where he could see it.

Beth said “he was a good boy after initial flailing. I think he may have bruised my jaw bone lol”.

Boo’s heartworm test came back negative, which we figured it would. His lyme test came back positive, again. If you remember, he was positive for lyme last year, and the vet wasn’t sure if it would be an acute case or a chronic case, so he prescribed 60 days of doxy last year.

Obviously, that did not fix the situation as he is still positive for lyme. However, the good news is he is still not exhibiting any symptoms, so they don’t seem concerned.

The vet said overall he is in perfect condition and his heart sounds very strong! He was given plenty of spray cheese to be coaxed into making friends with the vet and the vet tech. So I guess we’ll have to get some of that now lol.

Making Friends is Hard

We have a few trips coming up that we won’t be able to take the dogs on. We’ve been trying to get Pence to befriend Hannah’s dad so that he can watch her while we’re gone. We’ve slowly been building things up.

Hannah took Pence over to her dads a few different times for a few hours to get her more used to the house. She brought her crate and bed so that she had a familiar spot to lay in if she wanted.

Each time, Hannah left for a little bit to see how Pence would do alone with her dad. At first, Pence would pace around or sit on the other side of the room shaking. It was also storming, unfortunately, so we aren’t sure if she was more anxious being at his house or because of the thunder. She refused to lay her head down and sleep no matter how tired she was.

But eventually, Pence would inch her way closer to Hannah’s dad. The last time, she willingly laid on the couch next to him for pets! So I think things are moving in the right direction.

Those are all the updates and events from the past week, we hope you enjoyed them! As always, if you have any questions you’d like us to answer, feel free to drop them in the comments or reply to the email! Have a great weekend, everyone!