This April, at the age of 2 1/2, our dog was diagnosed with auto immune encephalitis of the vestibular region of her brain. Any suggestions on regaining her confidence?

Question

I have written to you about dog on dog aggression and your advice and video were quite helpful and effective. My dog will now sit quietly, off lead, and allow a dog to pass her by without twitching.

Unfortunately, this April, at the age of 2 1/2, she was diagnosed with auto immune encephalitis of the vestibular region of her brain. Since she was in excellent physical condition, young, and of a breed with immense stamina and ability to try, (American Pit Bull Terrier), we decided to attempt to heal her. 6 months later, we have made progress. She can walk. She can go up and down the stairs. We have re-introduced her to the boat. Unfortunatley, she has recently become very unsure of herself. She is physically not fully recovered. We cannot give her as much exercise as we would like since she rapidly loses equilibrium with exertion. When she does try to push it, she ends up falling, sometimes quite hard.

She bears a number of new scars from falling into or out of things. I think this has started to affect her since she is no longer willing to try to jump. For instance into the car or truck. She has also become fearful when in areas where she has fallen repeatedly before. Finally, we can no longer use the leash since she tenses up so much, (we used it to keep her from falling over completely a time or two), as soon as she gets even a slight tug, she just collapses.

If you have any idea on what I could do to help her regain confidence, while still not pushing her too hard physically, I would appreciate any suggestions. She has just turned three and I fear if we cannot get her mind to progress with her body, we may have to put her down. I just do not know how to tell a dog she is doing it to herself. When she relaxes, none of this is an issue, though she still falls. Physically, we may have up to another 6 months before she is off of the meds.

Accepted Answer

I wouldn't be asking this dog to do anything she seems uncomfortable with, due to her medical issues. I think in cases where dogs have a serious medical challenge like this, you need to listen to what she is trying to tell you (which is that she is uncomfortable physically in certain situations) To have unrealistic expectations is unfair to her. I would use food and positive motivation to help her regain some confidence.

Read the article I wrote titled Training With Markers. There are three phases of training, the learning phase, the distraction phase and the correction phase. We use markers to introduce our dogs to the LEARNING PHASE of training or to build confidence in a dog who needs it.

I would also see if you can get this dog under the care of a homeopath as in our experience autoimmune disease is usually triggered by vaccines. I would NEVER vaccinate this dog again, for any reason. Here is a list of holistic vets by state.

For information on vaccinations and the problems they cause please read our vaccinosis article.

I would also recommend these 2 books, Shock to the System and Vaccine Guide for Dogs & Cats.

One final thought I had is some type of harness, so you could help steady her if she loses her balance. Maybe something like this? 2-Inch Polyweb Tracking Harness