On his way back home

It is with great joy that I can share that Langley seems to be on his way back from the brink. After 5 days of total disconnect with his surrounding and reality he played tug with me for about 30 seconds last night, and then actually threw me a "sit" when I wasn't letting him have his way to jump the gate and kept blocking him.  This was huge because rather than a toy interaction this was him communicating to me that "hey, look, I'm being calm.  Can I have my way now?" This is something I taught him when he first got here and that he was quite good at before his breakdown.  So he was reaching out with something he knew I responded to - dog to human communication. YES!!!!

After that we played tug for a bit and then he even responded to cues for "sit" and "down" for treats.  Then  he slept through the night.  A first in about 2 weeks.  And best was he didn't wake up in that frenzied anxiety that I have gotten used to seeing.  He was circling a bit and whining but not panicked. 

Langley, intent on his Kong while lying next to the sliding door

He had his Ace-promezine and fluoxetine before breakfast since he has a few physical injuries from the last few days and I need to keep him safe, but we skipped the Xanax this morning since he didn't seem as anxious and wasn't trying to escape the kitchen to get to the door.  After breakfast he was crated while I met with a friend for a few hours. 

When I came back I had lunch and during that time he actually tried to engage Frodo in play.  Frodo was having none of it and Langley, as per usual didn't listen to Frodo and I had to intervene, but still, progress! 

Then the most exciting thing - I decided to take him in the living room and drop his leash and see what he would do.  Of course he first went to the sliding door, however, when I offered him the half finished Kong out of his crate he turned away from the door, lay down, and started working on his Kong!  He was lying there working on it for about 3 minutes before he remembered that the door was there and got up to go look outside.

So while for most dogs these are tiny little everyday things, when a dog has been in a pretty much psychotic breakdown for 5 days, for this to all happen just 12 hours from very abnormal behavior is epic.

He may still have a long road ahead of him to get back to "normal" I feel like there is hope now.  The first step was to break through the anxiety and find our Langley, and that has now happened.  Next step is I'm borrowing a bunch of different puzzle toys to use with him since food is and always has been a huge motivator for him.  The goal is to have new and exciting fun things so I can keep him distracted from the compulsions as much as possible so his brain can continue to reset and the meds can do their work.