Meet Elsie the Spinone Italiano

Elsie's owners contacted us as she had started to become reactive on her walks. This was directed at both people and dogs. Being a big dog, they wanted to address this for her safety.

Assessment

During her assessment, Elsie was found to potentially have a persistent phantom pregnancy. Even though Elsie was spayed 3 months before her assessment, we still had the behavioural aspects of phantom pregnancy active. This was impacting Elsie's perception and the importance of controlling social interactions around her. Her reactions helped her to maintain a safe space around her.

Treatment plan

As we work on veterinary referrals we contact her vets after her assessment. With the help of her vets, we started medication to break the cycle of her persistent phantom pregnancy. We also started behavioural work directly for her reactions to allow Elsie to disengage from a trigger.

Ongoing

Following her medication, Elsie's social interactions and desire to interact were much improved. In turn with the help of her behavioural work to change her perceptions, Elsie's overall reactions were reduced. She will always require some help from her owners during walks, but it is much more manageable. Importantly Elsie is now a very happy girl while enjoying her walks with her owners.