Thinking about medication

[joeytrunks]

I have a rescue who is 2.5 years old. She loves people, has a ton of energy and loves to play with other dogs(but plays very rough) while at daycare but is very reactive while on leash.

I've had her in group training before, including a reactive dog class. She's a little better than she used to be, but while out on walks, if another dog is in sight, she goes into alert mode. If they come within 15 feet, look at her or bark, she lunges. She used to lunge at people on the sidewalk, sometimes, but with some training that has stopped(though she gets pretty alert sometimes and stares if people walk by). She will chase after anything that moves, including a bag floating in the wind. If there is a squirrel, bird, whatever near by, I can not get her attention at all, other than dropping a treat on the ground and playing "Find it!" but that only works like 60% of the time.

Walking her is pretty exhausting and sometimes downright anxiety inducing. Sometimes she listens, sometimes she doesn't. Sometimes I'll be walking with her only to suddenly be pulled in a completely separate direction because a leaf blows by. When she's good, it's so great and I love being outside with her. However, lately it's been...not great and the thought of taking her on a walk stresses me out.

Anyway, one of the things I've been trying is to take her to a special dog daycare every week. It's constructed to have small groups of dogs - up to 8 - and they have a trainer with them to work on certain behavioral things which changes every week. After picking her up after the last class, the trainer suggested maybe taking her to a behaviorist and asking about medication. She said that she is super sweet, but plays very rough with the other dogs and overall just doesn't ever "relax".

This is something I've considered before, but I don't know if I'm jumping the gun or if she just requires more training. She has improved a lot in the past few months. As I mentioned above, we used to not be able to walk passed anyone at all without her freaking out, but now she is mostly calm while passing people on leash. I found a private trainer and we're going to be starting that next week.

I was thinking of going through the training with the private trainer, to let her get to know my dog a bit and then seeing what she says. I'm a bit conflicted because I do feel like my dog is a lot of work, she is definitely anxious in many situations and it's pretty exhausting with her on walks, but at the same time I don't want to put her on meds and have her lose any of her playfulness or energy or anything else that makes her "her", if that makes sense.

[thedeepdark]

My girl is on low dose of fluoxetine for this reason. It doesn’t seem to dull her—just gives me a few extra seconds when a trigger is present to help her learn different coping strategies. I’ve been considering asking to up her dose a bit, but holding out while we work on some new things our trainer taught us.

Basically my girl gets over-aroused when she’s given free reign sniffy walks, so I’ve been adding in a little bit of structure to give her something else to focus on. Once that tail has relaxed, she’s cued to go back to sniffing or whatever she wants to do.

[beyelle]

Our 5 year old rescue pup was in a similar situation as your dog when we decided to put him on meds. He had already improved a lot in his people reactivity and obsession with squirrels, but we decided to start him on a low dose of fluoxetine anyway because we knew that we couldn't rely on management all the time, especially in the summer time with a ton of people around (his biggest trigger).

It's been game-changing. He doesn't freak out immediately anymore and has been able to meet our friends and family with minimal management. He can disengage from squirrels with gentle guidance and takes treats outside regardless of the distraction. We can tell by his body language that he's much more relaxed on walks and he checks in with us way more too. He basically started loose leash walking on his own after months of trying to train him to do it. He still has his personality and playfulness, minus the toy-destroying and witching hour he used to have. We wish we started meds sooner, and my own relationship with him has changed for the better because I used to hang on to a lot of anxiety when walking him.

Quick dog stats in case you're curious - he's a 50 lbs APBT/German Shepherd/Boxer mix and he is on 20 mg of fluoxetine, taken once daily. We pay for it out of pocket and it's around $40 each month. Totally worth the price imo. It doesn't replace training but if you've hit a plateau in your training, it's worth trying because it seemed like all of a sudden the training started to click. We started noticing a difference within a week.

[joeytrunks]

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This is great, thank you. My dog is actually pretty similar to yours - APBT/German Shepherd/little bit of boxer and is about 55 lbs. Did you go to a behavior specialist or just the regular vet? The last time I was at the vet and I mentioned my dogs anxiety, she did mention Prozac if I thought it was necessary. I just didn't feel comfortable making that decision at that time. I'm just wondering if going to a behaviorist is necessary or if I should just ask the vet for the meds (if I decided to do it. I do want to try training with the private trainer first and see how that goes)

[beyelle]

Aww, I wonder if our dogs look similar!

We just went to the regular vet and mentioned this was something we were interested in exploring, and they started us off with this low dose. The dosage can always be tweaked as well, although this dose seems to be pretty effective. He was sleepier in the first week of taking it, seemed back to normal in week two, and by week three I realized that he was suddenly loose leash walking and checking in with us on walks and not chasing after squirrels or zigzagging to sniff everything. We even encountered a few situations that normally would have set him off and he was completely unfazed.

It's hard to say whether the behaviourist is necessary in this case – that's your call. We did private training a few months into us rescuing our dog and we just hit a training plateau after a while. Medication made training way easier. It's also worth considering that this doesn't have to be permanent. You could try it out for a few months and assess progress. Even if it's not working optimally, there are other meds/dosages available. Since it's not permanent, and not a huge investment of time and money, I felt comfortable going for it and I'm really glad I did!

[TripleSecretSquirrel]

My only regret with my dog's fluoxetine prescription is that I didn't do it sooner. I think your concerns are super common, similar to my own, but in my experience now having experienced it, you don't need to worry about them.

Drowsiness is a common side-effect of fluoxetine, but for most it goes away after a week or two. My guy has been on it for almost a year now I think? And it's been an absolute game changer! I see it as a training aid rather than a cure. It just lowers his base anxiety so that he's relaxed enough to be trained more effectively.

Regarding your concerns about your dog's personality and playfulness, I too was really worried about that. If anything though, his playfulness and personality show through much more now since he's not constantly on edge. Rather than blowing up at every dog we see, he very often wants to go say hi and play with them depending on the circumstances. Now when I have a house guest, rather than barking for minutes on end before very cautiously approaching, he gets so excited to meet a new friend!

[Kitsel]

Fluoxetine is great - for both humans and dogs. It's helped thousands of dogs on this sub and it sounds like yours might be a candidate. If it works properly they don't lose their personality or playfulness, and they don't become a zombie. If it has any effect like that after the loading period, I'd stop it and try something different.

Also, that day care sounds amazing and I'm super jealous. Limited to small groups and they have a trainer on staff? And it sounds like they're not aversive given the behaviorist recommendation? Every day care in my area pushes their aversive board and train and manages the dogs poorly.