Update

It has been a while since I've blogged about Brenda, which my faithful readers can take as a sign that nothing has gone hideously wrong with her in a while. She continues to take Buspar in higher and higher doses every two weeks. She is currently on half of her max dose and is doing well on it. For the first few days that she's on an increase she is groggy and happy. She sleeps a lot and walks in a daze. After she acclimates to the dose she gets her energy back but remains overall calm, meaning little incessant barking and is less rude when walking on the street. She still barks and lunges and looks scary to many passersby--both dogs and people--but her edge is not as sharp and she responds to the exercises I'm doing with her and is gradually learning to tolerate sharing the world with the rest of us

The Buspar is helping me, too. Just knowing that she is on a severe anti-anxiety drug helps curb my own anxiety. I've also started taking 5-HTP, an amino acid that helps support calm moods. It's great, and a supplement that both Porter and Sadie have been taking for a while. Now we're all hooked and are meandering through life more serenely.

The morning routine also continues to change. For about two weeks I was running with Porter and Sadie each morning (an accomplishment in its own right since a year ago Sadie would barely walk outside with one person let alone run) and then coming home, dragging Brenda out of her crate, putting a muzzle on her and then letting Ben walk her. That routine got tedious, though, and ultimately didn't seem to help Brenda get along with Ben, so now I walk Brenda (she's jumping out of her crate on her own now!) and Ben takes care of Porter and Sadie in the morning.

I miss running (all Brenda can do is a trot unless she's in just the right mood) but have rejoined the gym and am carving out time for myself as many days of the week as I can. Training dogs has made me stronger than I thought. Last time I was at the gym I could barely do a pushup and now I can do five sets of five!