As a breed collie dogs are known to be bouncy, but three year old collie Scamp was so jumpy that it became a life threatening issue.
Scamp was diagnosed with a rare condition, similar to obsessive compulsive disorder, which meant that he would constantly be jumping up and down on the spot.
Because of the continual jumping Scamp was losing too much weight and hence would have had to be put down if there was no way of stopping it.
The thought of this was too distressing for Scamp’s owners Robert and Stasia Burns from Norwich they decided to visit a pet therapist as a last resort to help him.
After a number of sessions, the dog is much better.
The problem started last spring when the couple noticed the dog jumping very frequently. At first they didn’t think anything of it. It was only after Scamp started losing so much weight that they started to worry.
Mrs Burns, 54, said, "He was like a disgruntled teenager. It was a cry for attention, certainly when he started. It then got out of control."
The condition is a rare one and for most dogs it cannot be treated leaving no choice but to have the dog put down.
For Scamp, the situation got to critical when he weighed just 30lb even though he was being fed double the amount of food and still didn’t gain weight.
The couple now desperate took their border collie to a local vet who put them in touch with Kiran Brice, a therapist.
Mrs Brice said, "We followed a course of treatment which combined behavioural and calming measures.
"Behaviourally, we used counter-conditioning – ignoring the dog, changing its environment, increasing the mental stimulation and asking the owners to absent themselves from certain situations. To calm Scamp down, we increased exercise with agility classes and used pheromone therapy, together with Clomicalm, a veterinary prescribed drug, to support out behaviour programme."
The course was a success and Scamp is back to his normal weight and is back to enjoying himself.
Mrs Burns said, "It took ten days to two weeks before we saw a difference and in that time Scamp went through some demanding behaviour.
"He upped the ante from jumping, scratching and scrabbling to barking constantly, which drove us mad.
"But then, suddenly, it stopped and he became this lovely, super dog. He is now calm, happy and thank goodness, he has stopped jumping."
Mrs Brice went on to say that "extreme cases" like this are rare. But she warned people thinking of buying working dogs to consider how much stimulation these dogs need.
She said, "It is a lessen to people thinking of buying working dogs like border collies and German shepherds because they need to be kept mentally stimulated all the time, making them very high maintenance for today’s busy families."
