Arsenal

Meggie enjoying a marrow bone

In preparing for Meggie's strict activity confinement during heartworm treatment, I've collected a veritable armament of enrichment chews, toys, and other calming aids.

Pearls:

• Ready for Meggie's exercise restriction during heartworm treatment with tranquil clicker education, enrichment chews, toys, and calming aids. 

• Started Meggie on Purina's B. longum probiotic supplement, known to support calm behavior.

• Using a pheromone diffuser kit with dog appeasing pheromones (DAP) to promote calmness during stressful events.

• Added a DAP collar for Meggie when crated alone for additional pheromone support.

• Installed a Petcube camera providing visual and auditory monitoring.

• Stocked up on long-lasting toys and chews, including qwizl, benebone holders, and a Woof pupcicle kit complete with magnesium-containing calming treats. 

• Beef knees and dehydrated marrow bones are my current favorite indoor-use long-lasting chew.

• Open to occasional use of the not-so-secret-weapon prescription trazodone provided by Meggie's veterinarian.

Meggie is continuing calm clicker training, a great way to occupy her mind while less physically active. Meggie's auto sits are almost perfect and her downs and settles are coming along brilliantly.

Since we know that the gut and microbiome are important regulators of mood and well-being, Meggie started a probiotic supplement from her first day with us. Recently I updated to Purina's version of Bifidobacterium longum which is touted to support calm behavior. 

Probiotic supplement

There's been compelling peer-reviewed science that dog appeasing pheromone (DAP) reduces anxiety.  Dr. Young Mee Kim et al. reported in The Canadian Veterinary Journal, "There was overall amelioration of the signs of anxiety in the DAP-treated dogs, and marked decreases were noted in elimination, excessive licking, and pacing." These and other results suggest that using DAP decreases separation anxiety, distress, and fear, and facilitates recovery from surgery, injury, or illness. 

DAP has shown promise in promoting calmness in dogs by mimicking a mother dog's natural nursing pheromones, so I ordered a pheromone diffuser kit that dispenses DAP. I plug it in during Meggie's most challenging stress events which is when she's crated on her own.

DAP diffuser

For additional pheromone support, I put a DAP collar on Meggie while she is crated alone.

DAP collars

To surveil if my calming aids are functioning or not, I set up this closed circuit monitor that allows me to see and hear (and even speak to, though I don't do that) Meggie while I am away. I love the functionality of the Petcube camera since it allows me to zoom in and clearly see what's going on, as well as hear any vocalizations or anything going on in her environment while I'm away. 

Gunner photobombing the Petcube camera

In addition to tech, I've laid by a goodsome supply of long-lasting toys and chews. The qwizl treat holder arrived today. Meggie likes it, but Rosco loves it.

Qwizl toy

Serendipitously our local Hollywood feed store has a buy one get one half off promotional on their bully sticks and beef esophaguses, so I ordered a 30-count bag of each. I already have two Benebone bully stick holders, a perennial favorite of all my pups. 

Jackie interested in the esophaguses and bully sticks

Benebone bully stick holder

I have high hopes for this Woof pupsicle kit, and to get started I ordered the pre-made pupsicle calming treats with calming ingredients passion flower, thiamine, tryptophan, dried hops, and most importantly magnesium. 

Tranquilizing magnesium helps ease muscle stiffness from the heartwormacide injection administered deep into Meggie's lower back muscles.    

Woof pupsicle kit

After unboxing the pupsicle: it's a huge hit! At first I filled it with peanut butter and Meggie couldn't care less. So I gave it to Jackie instead (who loves peanut butter) and Jackie made short work of cleaning it out. 

When I put in one of the pre-made calming pops Meggie is enthralled. This is by far the most engaged I've seen her with an inanimate chew toy. Plus I love that it has calming ingredients. 

Meggie calm and engaged with her pupsicle

 

The king of stuffable enrichment is the Kong, of which I have blue, red, pink, and purple varieties, as well as some knock-off brands in interesting shapes like pineapples or T-rexes. 

Variety of stuffable toys

Though the almighty Kong has been with me through decades of educating dogs to learn to quietly settle on their own, my recent favorite is the toppl toy. It comes in sizes large enough to place an entire meal in one toy. It's adjustable to be incredibly easy for recent shell-shocked rescues or dogs that just aren't that food-motivated yet, to challenging enough to last a good long time inside a crate. 

I love that the toppl functions as a bully or esophagus holder, and can be left open or combined to make a closed egg puzzle. The recipe possibilities are endless; I've filled them with bone broth, tossed in healthy toppers like fruit, treats, or mushrooms, and frozen them for an extra-long-lasting treat. The toppl is much easier to clean than the Kong.

Toppl toy

While I love offering frozen raw marrow bones outdoors during the warmer months, they're too messy and unsafe for indoor use. A recent find is smoked beef knees from Winco, and dehydrated marrow bones from our local Russell feed store. 

Gross beef knees; the dogs love 'em

Since they are not technically raw, they are perfect for indoor use and the dogs stay absolutely focused on them for however long I allow them to chew. A single knee or marrow bone lasts my border collies at least a couple hours total chew time, and at less than a few dollars each they're one of my favorite go-to chews. 

So yeah, we're ready to beat the boredom of strict activity reduction over the next eight weeks. I am not above occasionally using the prescription trazodone that Meggie's veterinarian dispensed, since establishing calm behavior is a strategy of multiple approaches.