Grayson – A Time for Reflection

Grayson has really gained confidence in the past few weeks.  As I wrote in Luna’s logs, we hired a CTS-D (CranioSacral Therapy Practitioner) to assist with improving Luna’s quality of life, but we are also seeing some good response on Grayson.  His first month in the enclosure had a lot of anxious moments, creating a lot of tension both behaviorally and physically.  Since we started using the newly taught body work techniques, Grayson appears much more relaxed and with that relaxation, a new found confidence.  We use a straw bale in the medical pen as a make-shift treatment table and Grayson climbs on the bale waiting for staff to go to work.  The treatments are a morning and evening ritual providing good staff interaction to maintain a strong social bond and a good assessment of his physical condition.  If the byproduct of that work is a more confident pup, we can’t go wrong.

Sorry, I just realized I didn’t post Grayson’s weights in the first set of logs.

We track the pups on a weekly basis with a weight on Fridays.  Since September 1st, Grayson has gained 14.6 pounds, with the highest gain of ~ 4 pounds in the last week. 

Name	Date	Pounds	Weight gain since last measurement
Grayson	9/2/2016	41.2	3.2
Grayson	9/9/2016	43.4	2.2
Grayson	9/16/2016	46	2.6
Grayson	9/23/2016	48.4	2.4
Grayson	9/30/2016	52.6	4.2

Grayson is behind Axel and this may be his genetics or it may be his increased energy and response to activity.  We will continue to do body work and help Grayson relax and hope that the calorie output from activity slows a bit so he can catch up to Axel.