I wanted to give the meds a couple of weeks before reporting back . I mean, doncha just hate reading five star or one star reviews of a product only to realize that the person rated it based on speed of delivery, packaging, or after only having used something for a couple of days? What's up with that anyway?
But I digress.
As per the vet's instructions, a couple of days ago we bumped him up to 1/2 pill taken twice a day. The biggest challenge is getting the pill into him because he's never been motivated by food. I put a few small dabs of chunky peanut butter on a plate, hide it in one of them, then attach a smidge of dog jerky to the top of each schmear. Mostly it works the first time, but not always. It's like dealing with a recalcitrant toddler.
We also bought a thundershirt and put that on him a bit before we leave. The TS did little on its own, and the meds were meh on their own. However, with the two combined he's calmed down quite a bit when we leave him. He paces far less while we're out and the barking isn't non-stop. A low threshold perhaps, but we're happy with any glimmer of progress.