One of our favorite dogs in the world is Beans. Beans was rescued by Rebecca Mays and her family, and they’re his favorite people. The fact is, though, that he loves them so much that when he was first brought home, he was terrified when they would go out of his sight – even just to another room. His separation anxiety was one of the worst cases that we’ve ever seen. He acted out by chewing and scratching on his crate bars until he had sores and broken nails, with puddles of drool around the whole environment. He actually destroyed one crate, leaving us worried that he had ingested pieces of it. He would have terrible bathroom accidents, and he would pace and howl. His anxiety was especially bad bedtime.
Not even Rebecca’s strong dog whispering skills made a difference. Even on prescription medication, he would still pace and howl.
Looking for solutions, we found out about an NC State study testing a new treatment for separation anxiety. We signed Beans up as a candidate, then filled out lots of questionnaires and submitted video footage of Beans’ behavior, and he was accepted into the trial.
At the same time we started treatment, however, we started using Calming Care, a dietary probiotic supplement by Purina. The good news is that Beans is not acting out from his anxiety! In fact, we’re afraid that he calmed down so much that he was no longer eligible for the NC State study, and we were really enjoying watching the study unfold. Thankfully, they’ve allowed us to continue to be observers, just not participants. So it’s really a win, win.
We’ll keep our eye on the study, but if your dog is suffering from anxiety, we can already recommend Calming Care. Because sometimes, getting kicked out is a good thing!
