The visit with the Behaviorist

The session began with an evaluation, so we sat on a couch and stayed quiet
while the behaviorist watched Kuma explore the room. He covered ground pretty
quickly, checking out all the objects (bone, kong, chair) but was wary of some
other things(inside of kennel, dark space behind piano, behaviorist). Elias
pretty much watched quietly, aside from making his shoe squeak on the floor
(made Kuma tense up and watch for him to make a move). He ended the evaluation
by speaking to Kuma excitedly and trying to get him to come over to him. Kuma,
of course, decided it would be better to bark and bark and bark and didn't show
much inclination of going near him.

At that point Elias came to sit with us and started interviewing us, getting all
the background. We felt embarrassed admitting how little we really knew
about the breeder. Quite upsetting to look back on... We also showed him a brief
video of one of Kuma's "episodes" - milder than his worst - where he ignored the
food set before him and pawed/mouthed at Mike (my husband), then resisted when
Mike tried to hold him back. That seemed to make an impression.

Elias then started to talk about what he thought of as the problem. He's fairly
certain that Kuma's issues are largely genetically based, some of it due to his
breed. He described asian dogs like Akitas, Chows, and Shibas as having more
primitive brainstems more similar to wild animals like foxes and hyenas. Those
animals are of course very careful about contact with humans and other
unfamiliar situations because their lives depend upon it and they're concerned
mostly with their safety. Elias feels that Kuma probably is more in that
direction than most dogs, and the temperament of his parents as well as Shibas
not being as neotenized as other breeds are to blame.

He then went in to a good deal of detail talking about the neurophysiology of a
dog's brain, describing how the impulses for safety come largely from the
pons/locus ceruleus. In wild animals like hyenas, the neurons of the locus
ceruleus are more developed than in the average house dog. He also noted that
studies of human cadavers have shown that people with anxiety disorders also
have more developed neurons in the same part of the brain. Specifically, the
locus ceruleus communicates with the limbic system - the part of the brain
largely responsible for emotional state.

In Kuma, he says, all these "Alert" signals are coming from his primitive brain
and influencing/directing his behavior in a range of situations.

Unfortunately, Elias doesn't think using medication together with behavior
modification will be particularly effective. What he said during his discussion
is that the available medications really don't work to affect neurotransmission
originating in the locus ceruleus, so it can't override those signals. He does,
however, feel that he has a reasonable chance of helping Kuma by using
Avoidance Conditioning (e.g. shock therapy). While the science behind the shock
therapy was quite interesting, we really have no interest in pursuing that
option. Honestly, Elias pretty much said to just get a new dog.

Mike, a pharmacist, does not agree with Elias' belief that medications will not
work. And I think that giving it a chance is better than nothing. So, our vet
prescribed Clomicalm and he had his first pill this morning.

However, I don't think just giving him a pill is the answer - I think we need to
work with someone on addressing these problems and addressing how we might best
deal with his reactivity.