Holy Crap! It Works!

Ever since I’ve gone back to work, one of the hardest things to deal with has been leaving Bailey home alone.   He’s my baby!  Leave me alone, I know it’s sad!  For the past five years he’s had me by his side all the time and suddenly he’s being left all alone.  Look at that face, doesn’t it break your heart?

The downstairs neighbor has asked us about it.  She said that during the day she has heard him howling.  Not barking, but endless sorrowful howls that she said is really sad to listen to all day.   She wasn’t complaining, probably because her kid screams a lot and she probably knows we hear that too, but she just wanted to let us know he was really unhappy.   I shit you not, after a while I let Xander talk to her while I thought about grocery lists and stuff to stop myself from crying.   Is this what it feels like when new moms leave their kid at daycare for the first time, or the first day of school?   I’m sure it’s probably just a fraction of the pain they feel but still, I’m sure their kids don’t howl.

I started looking around online for something to try to keep the dog quiet while we were gone.   There were a few different non-barking options but they seemed sort of mean and he’s not barking, he’s howling.   I couldn’t punish him for being sad.

That’s when I found information on DAP (Dog Appeasing Pheromone) and started reading up on it.   I wasn’t sure what to think of it or if I thought it would really work.  There is so much crackpot stuff around now, how could I tell if this was the real deal?

Here is an explanation of how it works:

In mammals, all lactating females release a substance which science calls an “appeasing” pheromone. The function of this pheromone is to provide a feeling of comfort, safety and reassurance to the young. A dogs “appeasing” pheromones are secreted by the bitch 3 to 5 days after the puppies birth.

The environment we live in today is full of noises and smells that can be disturbing to some dogs who share our homes. It is now appreciated that anxiety is a real and debilitating condition for our dogs as well as for us. One of the most fascinating and ground-breaking developments to materialize against the stress and phobias experienced by our dogs is the identification and use of pheromone therapy.

Stressed and anxious dogs

A team of French scientists has managed to produce a synthetic version of this dog appeasement pheromone and this has now been launched in the UK as the Dog Appeasing Pheromone (DAP) Diffuser. Tests and trials have been going on for the last two years to assess the products value in the treatment of stressed and anxious dogs, and these have shown that by releasing this familiar signal to the dog, the DAP Diffuser can be very effective in many areas of dog behaviour therapy by making it feel less anxious, calmer and safer. These include destructiveness, vocalisation and house soiling brought on by stress, nervousness or anxiousness.

This sounded like a good solution.  It didn’t shock or annoy the dog into being quiet, it soothed and calmed them.  I asked Xander to phone the vet and ask them if there was any validity to the claims that this stuff could actually calm a dog from the point of utter grief to being calm and relaxed.  To my surprise, their response was that it works extremely well and that they have DAP Collars that do the same thing as the diffuser.    So he picked one up on his way home from work.

When I looked at it I was like … wtf, it just looks like a black flea collar.   I was convinced that there was no way this thing was going to work.   Granted, flea collars do work too I guess, but still.   I think I expected something a little more impressive looking.

I’ll be damned though, because the thing actually works!  We’ve had it on him now for about a week and we’ve been meaning to go down and ask the neighbor if there has been any change but we’ve been so busy we just never got around to it… but yesterday Xander ran into her in the hall and she was asking if we have found somewhere for Bailey to go during the days because she hasn’t heard a peep from him all week.

What a relief that was for me to hear.   I’ve been so worried about him and I hated leaving every morning.   Now I have the peace of mind of knowing that when I leave he’s either too busy getting up to no good, or just sleeping on the bed, to sit around and cry for us.