Thursday, November 05, 2009

The more I see of George ...

the more certain I am that he has deep psychological scarring.

Regular readers may remember that some time ago I took George to a doggy therapist. She diagnosed anxiety as the root of his problem and suggested some remedies and aids. As these have worked I'm pretty sure she was right in her diagnosis.

He is a very intelligent dog (honest he is) and sensitive. He is suspicious of anything that is where it shouldn't be e.g. a plastic bag on the road, and that's fair enough: he's being fashionably green. The real problem comes when I take him out for a walk, or rather, when I decide that we're going to walk somewhere that requires we drive there first.

You see the car is parked out the front and George doesn't like going out of the front gate with me: the minute I head down the front path, he sits down. I have to bribe him with a treat, and then to get him in the car involves another treat. (Bear in mind that car trips to the vet, which he might consider unpleasant, are far outnumbered by trips to nice walky places.)

He'll go out of the front gate with Husband and he's more than happy to go out on his own, but with me: not likely!

Incidentally it's not me as such that is the subject of his objection: he'll come out of the back gate quite happily with me. It's just me and the front gate that are linked in his deep subconscious with some nameless terror.

Like I said, he needs help. Loopy dog.
xx

6 comments:

Anna said...

Hypnotherapy, I reckon. Dangle a watch in front of him and tell him a happy story about the fun times that wait beyond the gate.

Dragonstar said...

Poor baby!

Leslie: said...

Well, I think you've nailed it - the trips to the vet far outnumber the trips to nice walkie places. He's a smart dog, no doubt about it. :D

Morning Glories in Round Rock said...

He is probably remembering going to the vet for "the Big Snip". Enough to terrify anyone! Poor baby.

Katney said...

Our Babe (RIP) loved trips to the vet. It was strange. When we exited the freeway and turned down the road toward his office, she would get very excited. We think it might have been that when she was a pup, she had an unfortunate encounter with a car bumper, and the vet fixed her and was kind and healing.

@WR15 said...

Our Goldie also loves the vet. Until recently (he is over 100 in dog years now) if we walked past the vets he would try to pull me in. He also liked kennels. When we lived a normal life in a town, he would go into kennels when we went on holiday. He would drag me in and happily trot off to his pen. (I think they spoilt him with better food than we did)

A few years back he started suffering from anxiety. If left alone he would remove the door handles, the architrave (wood surround) even the skirting board. Now that he is so old, and very frail, he is aloud to sleep next to my bed. Some nights I have to carry him up the stairs.

He is still happy, and will still escape, steal and chew anything but we forgive him as he has been so much fun and I know he won't be here much longer. :(