Oh, my Cocoa...

Want to hear a funny story? Haha…who doesn’t? Okay, here’s my story.

We have a dog, Cocoa, that has problems with anxiety. Yes, you heard right…she’s very anxious/nervous/scared. The past week or so it has gotten even worse. Possibly related to enclosing a portion of the yard for them during the day? Very possible. Either way, there’s no reason for it. But she is seriously scared of EVERYTHING. Oh, but the best part, she’s not scared of things that she should be scared of. You know, like strange people or other animals. Oh no, she loves people and other dogs and bugs and other animals… What is she so scared of then? Inanimate objects. She’s scared of things. Oh, and noises. But mostly things. And change. She can’t handle change. I hung some clothes on the stair railing to take upstairs and she’s comes around the corner to go upstairs and saw it and about had a heart attack! She jumped, spun around and ran back down the hallway. Did I mention that Cocoa is a 60+ lb chocolate lab? Uh huh. Tell me about it.

The worst is umbrellas. She HATES umbrellas. And John likes to tease her with them, poor thing. If she sees you with an umbrella, she will run to the furthest opposite side of the room she can and hide behind whatever is over there. And then she’ll proceed to growl and bark at the umbrella. Like one of those “I’m terrified!!” growls. It’s very sad to watch. Though I know John would love to video it because it is pretty funny how she acts. But yeah, I could go on and on and on about all the things she’s afraid of. Smoke, Saran wrap, rollerblades, Tupperware…I’m totally serious.

Okay, well, like I said the past week or so has gotten really bad. How many people have ever met a lab that won’t eat!? Well, she’ll eat, but VERY slowly, and won’t even finish it all. Yesterday I tried to sprinkle some cheese in her dinner since she only ate like half her breakfast. That didn’t help. I tried to put her food in a different bowl. That didn’t help. She only ate more once I put it straight on the floor. And then still didn’t finish it! Major had to come in and clean up the rest. So this morning I tried pouring some milk in with her food (thanks for the idea, Val!) and she did eat more, but still didn’t finish. If I leave the room where she’s eating, she’ll stop eating and follow me. So I have to stand right there while she eats. And even then she’ll eat some, stop, walk around, I have to tell her to go back and finish eating and she’ll eat a few more bites, stop, look around. I tried to leave her to finish eating this morning so I could get in the shower, but again she stopped eating and followed me out of the room. I swear she’s losing it. And she’s not even 2 years old yet!

Well thank goodness we have an appointment at the vet on Monday. I’ve brought up her anxiousness to the vet before (it got REALLY bad after the hurricane, go figure) so I’m going to have to bring it up again. She might actually have to start on medication. I don’t know what else to do!

Yep, that’s my story. I guess it’s not super hilarious or anything, but it’s comical to me. I have a 60lb dog with such bad anxiety that she might need medication. That would be my luck.