Dr. Rocket and Mr. Miserable

What I learned on the first day of  Video Dog Spy 2015

1. Rocket sleeps a lot. A lot. Like almost all day. He was awake ad alert briefly after I left. He played with his peanut butter toy and then stands in the window then retired to one end of his futon. He sleeps on his toys. Any toy that is not on the futon is not a toy of his. He is awakes  briefly ever few hours and he either watches TV or looks out the window, never leaving the futon.

2. In the afternoon he wakes up more fully more often and at 3pm and leaves his futon to go stand by the door. He stands in the window for five minutes and then stands by the door for ten minutes and then goes back to the futon, but the other end of the futon. He is more alert in the afternoon.

3. He plays with his frozen toys as I am leaving and plays with them for 10-15 minutes. He is doing exactly as the books say he will.

This was great. I was thrilled with the results. He was calm, he was collected and seemed to be displaying no signs of stress or anxiety. I wanted him to spend the day relaxed and happy and he was just that. This dog is not an anxious mess! He's doing great! Everything  we're doing is working!

 And then I went out in the early evening and left him at home.

1. He scratched hysterically at the door, barked and tried to climb the wall. He was on his back legs a lot. He turned off the light and the fan while he was wildly scraping at the door to get out. He paced all of the room and appeared to be very upset and frightened. He was in almost constant motion.

2. He also turned off his TV. He paced back and forth while panting and drooling heavily. He slid his food dish across the floor and didn't eat any of it. He dumped his empty water bowl over and wet on some old carpet. He kept these behaviors up for forty-five minutes. He finally went back to the futon and lay on it panting until I came home.

3. He was exhausted ans stressed out and miserable.


I was very unhappy with the results. He was hyperactive and miserable and clearly about out of his mind with fear and anxiety the whole time I was gone. It was painful for me to watch and torturous for him. He is an anxious mess. He's doing badly. Nothing we are doing is working.