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• Wake up ~7-8am
• Tablet (1x fluoexetine, hidden in banana or dog-friendly peanut butter)
• Breakfast ~8am, may occasionally reserve 1/3 of the allocated breakfast to use as treats during the walk.
• Walk (approx. 1 - 1.5 hrs) starting anytime between 8-10am. Return home, play if in the mood (tug) then lie down and sleep
• Dinner 6pm
• Walk between 9-11pm ... the later the better so it's quieter as is generally more nervous in the dark.
• Sleeps at ~11pm in variable locations (!)

Main meals:

• Twice per day (8am and 6pm), "Essential Foods", 100g each time. All food is grain-free, without meat derivatives
• OPTION 1: hand feeding (giving him kibble piece by piece whilst stroking him and being affectionate) and part trick training. Important not to trick train too much as can stress out. We aim to do 3-5 minutes of trick training, starting and ending with an easy trick (e.g. sit, down, high five).
• OPTION 2: feed meal through Kong wobbler, very commonly use at home.
• OPTION 3: feed meal through structured walk if out early enough to coincide with breakfast time.
• OPTION 4: give it for 'free' in a bowl. Useful if he has had a particularly stressful day recently. The downside is he will eat this meal within one minute if this method is used!

Treats:

• Home - carrot cube chunks, kibble, radishes, banana, peanut butter
• On walks - kibble, once this runs out then meat pate or cheese

Long lasting chews

• He needs supervision whilst chewing in case he chokes (never happened before) and access to water afterwards.
• Can take 30-60 minutes to get through and will calm down. One per day as required.

• Usually goes twice per day and can last 10-12 hours comfortably without problem. Well toilet trained.
• In desperate scenarios (has happened when unwell once) will whine AND go to the door with scraping at the door

• Likes to tug strongly with rope toy
• Likes to chase plastic bags, balls, and other fast moving objects around the home, then takes it into a corner waiting for you to re-engage.
• Note may need to be 'activated' - two people encouragingly play with each other and invite him to join to get him involved.

Sleeps most of the day and at night sleeps in our bed/the sofa/his crate. N.B. Important that the doors are not shut in the room he is in, generally speaking especially at night.

Very noise sensitive to the following:

• Thunder and fireworks are the absolute worst thing for him and make him run around and bark. Currently working on saying "thunder" when it occurs, and throwing treats down

The following are no longer a problem:

• Plane noises. If nervous and hears plane --> "good plane" --> looks at us & gets treat
• Other dogs barking outdoors but fairly rare. If hears dog --> "good dog" --> looks at us & gets treat
• Fixation on outdoors e.g. out of the window --> "good alert" --> looks to us for treat.
• Postman --> once post is through the door, ask him to 'fetch the post', he does it for a treat.

Triggers outside include:

• (1) Bigger dogs / confrontational dogs --> Calmly say "Look at that dog", he should look, enthusiastically then say "yes!", he turns back to accept a treat. On walks, when on a short normal lead, he MUST NOT be allowed to sniff or go near other dogs. Keep maximal distance, crossing roads/changing direction where possible.
• (2) Bicycles --> Calmly say "Look at that cycle", he should look, enthusiastically then say "yes!", he turns back to accept a treat.

Walking on residential roads

• Would discourage from walking without explicit guidance.
• We use the canny collar, walk him on our left, and keep the lead short.
• First mode of walking is using the command 'heel', he should be by or near our side and not pulling.
• The second mode of walking on residential roads is to give him the full length of the lead when he's going to the toilet or wanting to sniff, we use the command 'go sniff!' (majority of the time we use this manner of walking).

Walking in green areas: much easier!

• In open spaces he is MUCH calmer, and not triggered by things that upset him as he feels free and not restrained by a short lead.
• We use relatively quiet green spaces (e.g. Wimbledon Common, Richmond park). We walk him on the yellow 5m lead. We would tend to let him guide and explore in the world, and reward him each time he looks back at us, with a "good boy" or even a treat. He tends not to pull.
• When on long lead, can sniff a dog for a maximum of 3seconds before we move on using "Avon come!" and tugging the lead and he will follow. Any longer and both dogs may end up fighting so we just move on. Getting much more at ease with others.

Playing in the park: avoid unless we have given instruction

• In the park, we use the green harness, to which we attach the 5 metre lead.
  • He does not yet have 100% recall (i.e. not guaranteed to come back if called)
  • He used to play chase the ball for 2-3 throws then run off in the distance to chase squirrels for the next 30-60 minutes - now resolved! He will chase the ball endlessly and is much more focussed on the play session.
  • Avon doesn't like other dogs coming up to him. He does not want to meet dogs and wants to only play with you and chase the ball. If a large dog comes up this can feel intimidating for him, hence he may become defensive and get stressed. We use a three second rule with dogs. He can sniff for 3s then we say "Avon come" (the recall phrase) whilst being prepared to tug towards us on the long lead to remove him from that situation.
• Recommend watching this video to learn how to generally use a long lead. We throw all of it on the ground, and throw the ball a fair distance, but need to be prepared to potentially run up to the end in case we need to intervene (e.g. running away - rare, dog running towards him - more common)

Playing style:

• He enjoys running for the ball obsessively. His fetch is not 100% and he will tend to come back half the distance and drop it. He will want you to then come up there to then throw again. If he's dropped the ball and you want him to come to you, provided you are not TOO far, you can try saying 'touch' whilst holding your palm out by your knee, and he will run to touch the palm which is excellent behaviour and will accordingly by rewarded by you going to the ball and chucking it again!
• We incorporate some obedience when playing outdoors. Before the next throw we may ask him to sit (finger moving up to the sky, with a "sit"), or spin counterclockwise, or do the "middle" trick - the reward for the behaviour being a throw and a chase.
• He can play in the park forever but we limit this to 1 hour at a max. He needs water in a bowl during longer play sessions.

Note: we generally use positive reinforcement approaches. We would try our very best not to resort to using the following negative commands, as much as possible, especially with this sensitive dog.

• A gentle 'no' to discourage a bad behaviour - "uh-uh"
• A firm 'no' if he does something seriously bad - "NO." in a sharp and assertive manner.
• "Get off" if somewhere he should not be.

Not allowed to...

• Bark more than 1-2 times without consequence when inside. See troubleshooting.
• Get on the window sill. Used to look out and bark at dogs.
• Steal food. If food dropped whilst preparing in kitchen, has been trained to look at you and only proceed to eating if you say: 'yes get it, good boy'

Sept 2021 - current: Fluoexetine hidden in banana or dog safe peanut butter. 20mg morning, 10mg evening.

May - Sept 2021 (no longer takes): Calming tablets (tryptophan based) 1 tablet with breakfast + 1 tablet at dinner. Valerian Root tablets: 2 tablets at breakfast + 2 tablets at dinner.

• We walk him 3-4 times a day now because his medication makes him thirstier and also needing to urinate more frequently. We typically go at (rough times): 8am, 2pm, 6pm, 10pm (before he goes to bed so that he doesn't need to go overnight).
• He pees for about 2-2.5 minutes in total at each outing
• Keep an ear out just in case he asks to go once more (he'll scratch the door), but generally if he gets the 3-4 walks, he never needs to go overnight.

Ensure water bowl is full at all times given the above.

Food (all boxes are labeled; everything to be kept in the fridge):

• First dinner (6pm)

• Second dinner (as late as possible, before the last toilet break)

• Breakfast (any time before the 1st walk)

• Treats: as required

• Give each meal in the feeding metal bowl. Fluff it up a bit with the fork so it's not stuck to the sides too much.

• Keep the bowl out with any leftovers, he'll likely finish them later.

• Sometimes need to hand feed him small amounts to get him to eat (rare).

• Worst case scenario - if doesn't want meal, leave it out or try handfeeding it. If more than one meal missed give him rice and chicken to replace the meal.

• Three times a day.
• Have provided instructions in the small purple box (8pm, 8am are the doses relevant to you).
• When we get to you, I'll demonstrate how to give the medication. Useful video.
• After the medication, praise and give treats. Typically get him to sit, have treats by my side so he knows they are coming, deliver the meds then praise with treats.

• Bit more lethargic than usual when in the home and out on walks. However we still take him on walks to the Heath for over one hour, and to the park to play with the ball.
• He can sometimes pant out of the blue. This is a side effect of one of the meds (steroid). If panting and pacing around, it once meant he needed to pee.
• Still has appetite, and is eating 3 meals (or most of each of the 3 meals) each day. He particularly enjoys eating the rice + chicken meal.

• If Avon suddenly deteriorates he will need to be taken to the vet, likely to be euthanised given the prognosis of his underlying diagnosis.
• The 24 hr vet is Stone Lion in Wimbledon, and in-hours it is the Godard vet in Putney (020 8788 8224) - both know him well.
• To take him you can either take Uber (click the pet option) or use Steve (07961952379 or 07940360936). Obviously we will reimburse you in the unlikely event you need to do this.

Goddard Veterinary Group Putney 153 Lower Richmond Rd, London SW15 1EZ 020 8788 8224