We had an interesting experience today. I started Temba on his new medication (started with 1/4 tablet trazodone = 25 mg, as recommended). I gave him the medication about 1 1/2 hours before we went on a walk (0.8 mile loop). He seemed to do okay for most of the walk and readily accepted treats as distractions whereas he usually would not. Near the end of the walk there was a horse standing near the back of a trailer apparently waiting to be hooked up to a sleigh. I decided to take this opportunity to see how close I could get to the horse without him going nuts. We walked slowly (couple steps at a time) towards the horse, giving him treats with every step. He was staring pretty fixedly at the horse but he was still accepting food. Sometimes he needed a little reminder with a squeak from the toy. We were able to get relatively close to the horse (maybe about 100ft) before he started ignoring the treats and squeaker. We passed the horse at a running/jogging pace so as to redirect his attention. At this point I had run out of treats but we were about 500ft from home. As we continued walking on our way there was a large bang/crash from the trailer. Temba jumped and turned around, going into high alert. He began walking faster & pulling hard in the direction of home. I tried to keep him going slow and at a walking pace but he kept pulling. Ears low, tail low. As soon as we got home he ran really quickly up the stairs and looked pleadingly at the door wanting to be let in ASAP.
As we were moving past the horse, I could tell he was starting to get close to threshold. I think the sudden noise definitely put him over the top. His fearfulness reminded me of how he seemed when I first got him. I hope that the combination of medication and training/desensitization will help move him away from that memory.
