Stubborn, Old, Paraplegic Aussies

by Julie
(Lawrence, KS)

Hello! I have a 9 year old Aussie male that I adopted from animal control five years ago. He's had problems with biting, but we've mostly got that under control (most of it was to do with herding; though some of it was to do with more aggressive training tactics from people he didn't trust).

In March of 2013, he had an FCE, which is a spinal embolism, which paralyzed both of his back legs. With physical therapy, he learned to walk again, but he has limited continence, so to prevent accidents in the house, I walk him 3 times a day, morning, noon, and night.

For the most part, this has worked out and his worst behavioral problem has been severe separation anxiety. Whenever I leave for a weekend, he refuses to leave my bedroom--not even to go outside and pee. During these time periods, he eventually begins to refuse his food as well.

At this point, I've more or less figured out how to handle the separation anxiety, but he's developed other, wonderfully strange habits for our walks.

We just moved to an apartment recently, leaving the house I shared with my beloved roommate. Now, whenever we go on walks, he tries to walk to her house. When I walk him to the house, he refuses to walk back to our apartment with me (I have to physically drag/carry him using our physical therapy harness).

I could deal with the walking problems--I'm planning on taking him back to obedience classes, physical limitations be damned! However, he is also going on a hunger strike right now. He refuses to eat at our established meal times and spends all day hiding in the bathroom (the coolest part of the apartment). I can handle most of these things individually, but does anyone have advice on how to deal with all of them together? Lord knows, I'm willing to try just about anything for this silly beast.

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