Lulu went from being scared of everything, all the time, to gaining some confidence in her safe places. She went from being a shy, sad, scared, unsure dog to becoming the most goofy and excitable girl, in her safe places. When she is at home, Lulu makes us laugh with her goofiness, all the time. A mention of a bone or a walk and she almost jumps out of her skin she is so excited. If she hears one of our vehicles coming down the street, she will go from a deep sleep to bouncing down the stairs, like she wasn’t even sleeping. Her anxiety is, still, very present. It still gets the best of her. I am not really sure when Lulu sleeps. I see her sleeping all the time but you could whisper one of her trigger words and she will jump up, fully aware, the instant you whisper the word. If any of the people in the house go to the washroom in the middle of the night, Lulu is with you. Lulu is, literally, always aware of her surroundings. Always.
Lulu’s confidence has gotten her into some trouble though. She gets over excited and forgets to watch what she is doing. We came home one day to find a very scared and worried Lulu. She appeared to have been very stressed about something. She was acting like she did when we first got her. She was cowering and running from us. She refused to go upstairs or even near the stairs. We had no idea what was going on. I started to look around the house, inside and out. The way Lulu was acting it seemed like someone broke into our house and hit her. I found no clues in my house investigation.
However, I did notice that I hadn’t put our runner rug back at the bottom of the stairs. I had steam cleaned the runner rug and left it on the deck to dry in the sun. This runner rug had always been at the bottom of the stairs. Lulu used it to slow herself down when she came barreling down the stairs at the sound of her people coming home. The stairs are carpet and the floor at the bottom is hardwood. I have seen Lulu come barreling down the stairs, with the carpet there, and still go sliding on the hardwood. She knows it’s going to happen but does it anyways.
Our best guess at what happened to Lulu that day, is that she came barreling down the stairs and either fell or slid into our kitchen island. Either way, she had scared herself and she wasn’t getting over it.
We finally got Lulu onto the couch and she let us cuddle her but she was clearly still freaking out about whatever happened while we were gone. I wanted to sit with Lulu until she was feeling better but hours had gone by and I couldn’t sit on the couch with her forever.
I decided to use our Canine Coddler Weighted Blanket. I had used it before but not for such a stressful time. I usually put it on Lulu when she is having bad dreams. It calms her body and she stops having dreams that I have to wake her up from. Her restlessness disappeared when I used the blanket on her at night.
The Canine Coddler weighted blanket is designed to be warm and to provide gentle pressure to a dog, mimicking the feeling of being held. The sensation has a positive effect on our dog's moods while reducing stress and anxiety.
Once I got Lulu on the couch and wrapped her in her Canine Coddler weighted blanket, she started to calm down. She immediately looked more at ease.
Lulu spent the rest of the day and evening on the couch under her weighted blanket. We had to take the blanket off of her to get her to get up for food or water or to go to the bathroom. As soon as she was done she went right back to her spot on the couch.
When we went to bed that night, we had quite the job getting Lulu upstairs. She was still afraid of the stairs. But if we didn’t get her upstairs, while we slept, she would sit downstairs crying to come upstairs for the whole night.
Once she was upstairs and in our bed, we wrapped her in her Canine Coddler weighted blanket. She was till sleeping in it in the morning. She loved it and it really helped her that day.
It took Lulu a few days to work up the confidence to go up and down the stairs without any support from her people. She slowly gained back her confidence on the stairs. She comes barreling down them again, like nothing ever happened.
After that day, I realized how much the blanket really worked for Lulu and it became a constant in our household. It sits on the back of our couch and is used almost daily. It made such a huge difference in Lulu’s life. I don’t know how we lived without it.