Advice on my MAYBE depressed dog? And sorry for the long post.
I have 3 dogs, a 16 year old chihuahua mix, a 14 year old chow mix and a 5 year old lab mix. All of which were shelter dogs and have their own issues. The one i struggle with the most is the lab mix, she is high energy and high anxiety. I got her when she was 1 years old, she had been neglected and abused, very underweight when the shelter has relieved her owner of her and she has several scars on her face and body. She also had recently had puppies that were never found, they apparently knew because she was still secreting milk. Long story short, over the last 4 years, we have worked extremely hard to get her to trust strangers, she has only ever lived with me, but animals and a boyfriend i had when i had first adopted her, who has since left (2 years ago). I started back up in college, now going to school full time and working full time. Because my other dogs are very old and extremely lazy, they don't mind as long as i come home and give them attention and treats. etc. BUT, Daisy, the lab, is not adjusting well. It's been 2 months and she has become increasingly more depressed. She no longer wants to sleep in bed with me. She is not as energetic as she always has been (we had to go for long walks every day, several visits to the park a week, playing fetch in the back yard, etc) and i still do a lot of those things, just not 3 hours a day like i used to. We now play in the back yard 30 minutes every day, we go to the park 3 times a week and she gets attention everyday. But now she doesn't seem interested. She sleeps all day, doesn't follow me around the house like she used to, she doesn't play with her toys anymore. I don't know what to do. We visited her vet 2 weeks ago and she said there is nothing wrong with her physically, she thinks she's just adjusting. I attempted putting her in doggy day care, but she's extremely anxious when i'm not with her or if i leave her places alone (i.e.: the groomers) and after just a week, the instructor at the day care center recommended that i no longer bring her, because she cries the whole time, doesn't seem interested in the other dogs and eventually became aggressive towards one of the other large dogs that tried to play with her. Which IS NOT her personality, she LOVES other dogs, but has always been reserved around people. Any recommendations? Any ideas on how to get her out of this funk? I'm running out of options. I feel so bad for her.