Glory, my Mom has had a difficult time swallowing for a long time now and when she was in the nursing home it seemed to get worse so they ordered an upper GI. Turns out she had an esophageal ulcer. They put her on prilosec or something like that and within 24 hours the problem started to resolve. I hope your is quickly diagnosed and resolved!!
Anne, hang in there! Only a couple more weeks.
I tried the gentle leader on my dogs. On my old dog it worked just fine but with my younger dog I had troubles. He likes to pull and the only thing that works on him is a pinch collar.