IF MAGGIE CAN, ANY DOG CAN : Fireworks, Melatonin, Surprise

IF MAGGIE CAN, ANY DOG CAN : Fireworks, Melatonin, Surprise!

This article was originally written in ~1998by Helix Fairweather

Every year the Rainier Agility Team in Washington state holds a fabulous

3-day agility trial over the Fourth of July weekend. Almost everyone camps

on the grounds. It's a shared ASCA trial accompanied by herding events,

conformation (for Aussies) and obedience trials. I have always wanted to

go to these trials but could never dare risk it – I have a Beardie

(Maggie) who is terrified of loud noises, particularly thunderstorms and

fireworks and fireworks are legal in the state of Washington. Maggie is

also panicked by much of normal life and her typical reaction is to run

off in fear. Fireworks, camping, agility trial, out of town – a

recipe for potential disaster. I've always chosen to stay home that

weekend.

Linda Aronson, a gracious Beardie owner who is also a veterinarian and

behaviorist, suggested using melatonin for Maggie's noise sensitivity and

kindly sent me a paper she had written for a veterinary medical journal

on a case study she did regarding a fearful, spayed female mixed breed and

how melatonin helped her. (July 1, 1999, Journal of the AVMA) Knowing how

terrified of loud noises Maggie is, I was suspicious – I just couldn't

bear to think of her slipping out through fright and getting killed on

the highway. An agility friend offered to have Maggie, Brady and I stay in

her motel room on the night of the 4th so Maggie would be indoors; we would

turn the TV and the fan on and close out the world – at least I had a Plan

B! During the deliberations about entering this trial, a Beardie friend

had an opportunity, quite unexpectedly, to field test the melatonin with

her noise sensitive Beardie and she reported very successful results.

Fully prepared to turn right around and head for home if Maggie were in

trouble, I entered the trial .

I live on a rural lane where there are no kids, no teens, no neighborhood

fireworks. The previous year, 1998, on July 3, I went to a movie in the

afternoon and, without thinking about it being close to the 4th, I left

Maggie uncrated. I came home to find the carpet ripped up in front of the

back door, the molding on the door chewed, the wall paneling scarred with

deep tooth marks. Yes, the damage is something, but what gripped my heart

was reading the intensity of her fear in the depth of those tooth marks. I

called my landlady and sure enough, there had been some fireworks down the

road. So I had plenty to worry about for this agility trial!

The trial is held in a wonderful woodsy setting, a small county

fairgrounds. The park closes as dusk, no one is in the park hanging out,

only those connected with the event who are staying there. The park is

well patrolled and no fireworks are allowed. However, in Washington state,

there are all kinds of things that are legal that are not legal in other

states. I couldn't begin to tell you what they are as I despise fireworks

myself. So no fireworks in the park, but there were plenty in the

surrounding fields and neighborhoods. We were there for 3 nights, Friday,

Saturday and Sunday (the 4th). And here's the story of what took place:

Friday, Night #1

A few poppers started going off in the distance, not much, occasional

stuff. I gave Maggie a melatonin and put her in her hard crate in the

tent. I quickly realized that Maggie, through her lifetime of fearful

responses to even non- threatening situations, knows how to deal with

things like this, curl up in a ball, facing the back of the crate and shut

out the world. The noises escalated, with bigger booms, Maggie remained

quiet and calm in her crate, yet facing the back, which was just fine with

me. If she does only this, we're in great shape! Given Maggie's history, I

am an incredible fanatic about observing every nuance of her behavior and,

in this highly experimental situation, I was very vigilant.

But she was calm enough, given the circumstances, so I laid on my bed to

read my science fiction novel. So far so good. What I failed to notice was

Brady's (my other Beardie's) behavior!!! Brady's pretty normal, takes

things in stride, doesn't get too upset. With all the thunderstorms when

we lived in New Mexico, once in a while, she'd come to me with a 'Mom, can

you make it stop?' kind of look but not real high anxiety – so I never

expected Brady would have a problem, nor was I watching for any. When I

finally tuned in, she'd been unable to settle, pacing, pawing at my

shoulder, getting more and more agitated. Boy! Did I feel like a big

dummy! So I gave her a melatonin. This did not seem to kick in, or the

fireworks had been going too strongly by that time, as her agitation got

worse and worse. (Checking later with Linda Aronson, she confirmed that

Brady's fear was probably too well established by that time for the

melatonin to help). I only had one hard crate with me so I put Brady in

the cab of the pickup (evening and quite cold actually so that was fine).

I checked on her after a few minutes and she was settled and fairly

relaxed.

What an odd evening for me! I'm used to not having the companionship of

Maggie from time to time but I'm definitely NOT used to having NO DOGS! I

had no idea I could miss Brady that much. It was very empty in my tent.

After about an hour I tried to get Brady out of the truck, NO WAY! she

would not budge. She also would not take treats!!! (This is a first for

this girl.) So there she stayed. Later I brought her food to her and she

ate in the truck but would not come out. I could have forced her out or

lifted her out but I really didn't want to add to her stress. She was

fairly calm in the truck and I left her there (no post-dinner potty or

poop!). During the middle of the night, I got up and brought her into the

tent and she came willingly from the truck.

Saturday Night #2

Brady and Maggie both had melatonin early on as there were even more

fireworks than the previous night I finally got the picture that I have

TWO stressed Beardies to deal with. Our Grand Experiment loses a little

bit in continuity here due to an unforeseen event. A club member tore her

calf muscle and had to be taken to Urgent Care. I took on the task of

feeding and caring for three dogs I barely knew who were already quite

worried about their mum, three dogs I had no clue as to their fireworks

behavior - two Corgis and a Border Collie. So the Beardies had their

melatonin, Maggie in her crate, Brady back to the truck (still cool

weather). After feeding and walking the other dogs, I returned to the

tent, tethered my dogs on lines within the tent with the door open (a

brave move on my part) and settled down to read. And lo and behold! I had

two settled, relaxed Beardies just lounging on the floor!! Fireworks were

popping from all directions, firecrackers, cherry bombs, some M80's I'm

sure. This was surely a miracle to behold! And I was very, very pleased.

[NOTE TO SELF AND OTHER TRIALLERS: Have someone else feed and walk your

dogs occasionally. Just in case you do get injured - that way they are

prepared that it might happen and it's just one of those things.]

Sunday Night #3 (The Fourth of July)

The fireworks activity was really rockin' and rollin' by now. There was a

constant barrage of heavy artillery from all directions. It really sounded

like a war zone. There was never a moment of quiet. Previous nights there

had been lulls between things. Not so on the Fourth! And the girls? They

spent the evening snoozing on the floor of the tent – BOTH OF THEM!! Not

one jump, twitch, flinch, pace, drool, paw-clawing, not shut down faced

into a corner. They just hung out like their normal selves. I really

wish I had the way to convey what a miracle this was! (It brings tears

every time I think about how beautiful that was – seeing them fully

relaxed in the presence of that awful barrage of fireworks.)

Being of the experimental nature, I thought I'd try a few more things.

Maggie's traveling mode is to not eat for the first day (some times two)

when we are out of town. I will usually put her bowl in her crate with her

and I'll hear her eating in the middle of the night by the second or third

night. She ate the first night! but she had to wait until the middle of

the night. On this, the third night, I fed her early during this huge

barrage of slammers (I think there were professional fireworks in there

too). I placed her bowl on the floor of the tent, released her to eat and

she ATE IT!!! Maggie ate her food while the whole world outside was full

of incredibly loud boomers. That scene is forever etched on my brain. No

one could have ever convinced me I would ever see that happen!

Well, I just had to take this one step farther. So, with both girls on

leash, we walked the whole fairgrounds. Two totally relaxed, heads-up,

checking-things-out Beardie girls taking a walk in the middle of this

intense barrage of popping, booming, cracking, whistling, etc. I'm sure

everyone thought I was a nutcase – I stopped everyone I ran into to show

off my girls – look at these dogs!! They would normally be basket cases but

melatonin has done wonders. Look at this! These dogs couldn't handle this

normally but look what melatonin does!! I was just bursting I was so

thrilled to see this transformation.

I think the biggest reason I had such incredibly good results is that I

had the good fortune to have the 'horror' repeated three days in a row and

that the girls had a great opportunity to habituate. Who would have ever

thought that this would be such a wonderful success!! Even now as I write

this, I'm so touched by how they did. Sure they had help, but with that

help, they did a great job of learning how to cope. I'd like to offer

our experiment and it's results to help any other dogs with fear-based

problems.

From Dr. Aronson:

For adult Beardies the dose is one 3mg tablet. Give it when the

dog first appears agitated, or if you have to go out and there is a

forecast of thunderstorms or fireworks might be expected. It also works

for wind storms. The dog in the article Helix referred to was afraid of

songbirds (so badly the owners had thought about putting her down as her

quality of life was awful) and thunderstorms. Dogs do not seem sleepy,

just relaxed, they hear the noises and they don't bother them. You can

repeat up to three times a day as needed. I have used melatonin with

immune compromised (autoimmune) dogs and there have been no problems. The

packaging states that you shouldn't use with MAO-inhibitors, again I've

not had a problem with drug interactions. To date the only side-effect

has been an obedience dog who lay down between exercises in class, but he

may just have been more relaxed than his usual hypercharged self - he was

a cocker. So far I think all the Beardies we have used melatonin with

have responded although they may not be 100% worry-free they are a lot

better. There have been few failures with other breeds too and melatonin

seems to work better than it does in people. I don't think puppies should

need melatonin. If you have a dog of less than 25 lbs I'd use 1/2 the

dose (1.5mg). For dogs over 100 lbs, the 3mg dose is usually sufficient,

but we have used 6mg safely in some of these who seemed to need a little

more. Use the tablets not the capsules, dog's shorter gastro-intestinal

tracts may not dissolve them quickly enough. Check the dose of each

tablet on the bottle. There's been a move to lower human doses. However,

this dose is very safe - the LD 50 (dose that kills 50% of a group of

rats) was >700 mg/kg!! Melatonin is available over the counter in health

food stores and drug stores in the US, but it is not available in Canada,

continental Europe nor the UK.

Since I first shared the story of Maggie's fireworks miracle, I have been

deluged with people asking me if melatonin will work with light

sensitivity, crowded conditions and over-stimulus, car and motorcycle

frenzy. I'm not a vet – I have no idea. I'm veryinterested in what you try and

what results you have (my interestis curiosity). Dr. Aronson has a more

scientific interest in your results. You may write her at .

Helix Fairweather,