Scared dog after Spay - what do I do?

[Niementowski]

My puppy Bichon was spayed on Thursday. She seems fairly irritated by the incision spot, but the healing looks great. She appears TERRIFIED of me and my husband. Before the surgery, she was overly affectionate with us, but now, looks at us like we beat her. She'll stand absolutely still for an hour, shaking. So, we took her back to the vet today (Saturday), and she was instantly fully of energy, running around, licking everyone (but us), and wagging constantly. The vet checked her out - she's healing very fast and everything is fine. As soon as we brought her back home - back to fear. Totally different puppy than Thursday morning before we dropped her off! What do we do? The vet thinks that we may be giving her too much attention when she's acting scared, so we're reinforcing it. We would like to try to reinforce her happy behavior, but there's just simply nothing to work with. It's so unlike her - we're really worried!!! HELP!

[PeachFaceMom]

My chihuahua puppy was spayed on Wednesday and when I first brought her home she refused to come out of her crate and looked sad when she was inside. She trembled some and didnt really want to do anything...so I left her alone.

The next day she was walking around and her tail was wagging..but she was extremely sore. If she acted sad or scared I didnt acknowledge her..and then she would go lay down and rest.

I have a feeling your Bichon baby is thinking that she is being given attention thanks to the way she is acting. When she does this try not even talking to her or looking at her...this way she will get interested in something else and hopefully not act scared.

Try offering her some treats and maybe getting down on the floor with her and just letting her come up to you...slowly but surely she will come around.

Salsa is officially bouncing off of the walls and she isnt allowed to run or jump yet! lol! Just go slowly and your pooch will be fine.

Heather

[mom2bichons]

It took Candy a good week before she started to really act like her old self. Try giving her space maybe just sit in the floor and see what happens.