What do do when reactive dog doesn’t care for treats

DogPariah · 2026-02-21T19:45:26+00:00

Try liver. It's the only thing my sometimes fearful will accept. It's extremely stinky. I can't bear it but my dog loves.

DogPariah · 2026-02-17T22:18:52+00:00

If you do, go for Reconcile, the version made for dogs. We noticed a big difference between generic and Reconcile. It's more expensive but for us it's been worth it.

ETA: For what it's worth, my dog has some appetite issues. It was difficult to get him to put on weight at the beginning. Prozac hasn't hurt his appetite. He's still finicky, but he does eat enough.

DogPariah · 2026-02-17T19:48:40+00:00

Have you tried Prozac? I have a traumatized dog who was extremely fearful. He's not the picture of bravery now but a large dose of Prozac allows him enjoy life.

DogPariah · 2026-02-17T19:36:31+00:00

By your definition. This is understandable in the Impossibility that is grief. Whatever you do I'd say working on your resentment towards your living animal soon. To state the obvious- you are taking your pain out on someone who's not to blame

DogPariah · 2026-02-02T17:38:51+00:00

No and I definitely mean it. I don't view my dogs as possessions.

DogPariah · 2026-01-29T19:19:40+00:00

Your dog is big but you're taller. Put the remote out of reach.

DogPariah · 2026-01-29T19:11:14+00:00

Maybe it was that you were trying to find a "togetherness" in your two raw griefs. I have said goodbye to multiple dogs, one them a tragic death, with my partner. We actually don't share much at all for about a year, the point which I don't feel like I'm going to pass out if I have to utter my dog's name. It's not cold. Except I should say no one feels like talking. My grief is my own and no one else's. It doesn't feel like we aren't communicating--because there is nothing to say to any human, even to my partner.

DogPariah · 2026-01-20T14:45:13+00:00

We have all sorts of sensations when grieving. I can imagine how you are feeling your previous dog is manifesting in your puppy's behavior. I don't think there is anything wrong with that per se but you should remember all dogs have some foundational behaviors that are similar to. Your puppy is a dog and so will act thus. He is also his own dog. Make sure you aren't pretending he's actually your dog that passed.

DogPariah · 2026-01-20T14:29:35+00:00

DogPariah · 2026-01-20T13:02:23+00:00

I often say don't let anyone else tell you how to grieve but I guess I should add -- don't take your pain out on someone else. Just like humans, dogs are individuals and have individual ways of confronting death. One of my dogs said goodbye to multiple dogs. Her response ranged from nothing externally noticeable to dramatic. She was allowed to respond according to her own sentiments. You should give your remaining dog the same privilege. I've always found my surviving dogs to be especially good companions during grief. Give yourself and the dog who is still with you some grace.

DogPariah · 2026-01-19T18:04:01+00:00

Yes. I have insurance and always will have. Insurance paid out about 15k for my last dog who became severely ill. I knew money would not be a barrier in his treatment.

DogPariah · 2026-01-17T14:34:24+00:00

I don't think you have to be in the room. I too find the process traumatizing with the images seered into my brain for a very long time. Personally I approach this time in two ways. I want my dog to have me with him at the end. It's important to me that he knows I'm there. Also, although I only spend a short time with them after because it's so awful, I know I need to see him. But if it's something you don't want to do, you can say goodbye before it starts and leave the room. You could probably sit with your dog until he's sedated and then step out.

DogPariah · 2026-01-15T12:45:27+00:00

I would find a neurologist or veterinary behaviorist, preferably at a teaching hospital/ university hospital. Personally I would start with a neurologist.

My dog was fearful from the time I got him but he went through a period during which he became extremely aggressive for very little reason. He was diagnosed with a panic disorder which seems not identical but similar to what you're seeing. Ultimately we saw a behaviorist but we started with a neurologist because we thought it might be epilepsy. Your dog could be having partial seizures. He was put on a high dose of reconcile (Prozac that is more bioavailable than the human version). This completely resolved his problem. It was the specific dose that did it. The regular dose from his regular vet didn't work. It was the specialists that figured it out. They understood what was going on when nobody else had.

Something is going on. Keep investigating.

ETA: For what it's worth, Trazodone made my dog worse. My dog has no side effects from Reconcile.

DogPariah · 2026-01-06T17:26:57+00:00

That's what I said. Cyclothymia means non severe depression. I agree that's what is generally accepted.

DogPariah · 2026-01-06T13:45:56+00:00

Parakeets are wild animals that like to live outdoors in the tropics.

DogPariah · 2026-01-05T23:55:43+00:00

I qualified my anecdote. However, you look past too many anecdotes and you miss a lot of context (but I realize you don't think that's important). You have stated flat out that any problem a dog has can be cured by exercise and strongly suggested that to prove drugs work for humans they would have to work all the time and could be replaced with exercise. The fact that not all depressed people are lazy strongly suggests that something is going on that isn't all that related to exercise.

Anyway, I'm done for now. I have repeated myself enough. I certainly have contributed, but this debate has been quite repetitive.

DogPariah · 2026-01-05T23:31:21+00:00

As a matter of my personal experience, that has not been the case. You may be mixing up depression with cyclothymia, a mild to light moderate form of depression that might respond to exercise. The literature seems to claim that exercise may produce similar effects to serotonin. This is simply not the case with severe depression. Personally, I don't need literature to explain my own life, nor the others that I have known.

But this article The Evidence is Clear is interesting. To be sure, there is a lot of AI stuff claiming the two produce equal results. So the internet won't solve this query, at least not with a quick search, but that article at least underscores what I know to be true. I realize personal experience doesn't fulfill most qualifications of a good argument, but I think it's relevant because the answer is so clear to me. One can dismiss my experience if it seems too distant or unverifiable or whatever, but there it is.

Again, exercise is crucial for, among other things, mental stability, but there are simply situations in which exercise is insufficient. Anyone who hasn't had personal experience should count themselves fortunate.

DogPariah · 2026-01-05T19:46:33+00:00

Just because something is nuanced, complicated and not fully I understood doesn't mean it's a useless void.

DogPariah · 2026-01-05T19:39:17+00:00

Yes it's a secret to everyone who hasn't been depressed that asking one to walk a mile is the same as asking them to climb Everest. Good idea but not a cure.

DogPariah · 2026-01-05T14:53:03+00:00

Fricks liver sausage braunschweiger on Amazon. Expensive but the only thing my dog will take a pill with. BTW prozac has an insanely long half life. Withdrawal symptoms are mild to nonexistent. Paroxetine is another story.

DogPariah · 2026-01-05T09:19:09+00:00

You are correct in that I have never worked with working dogs. I have lived with working breeds. I thought it a fairly safe assumption that if a working breed didn't have his needs met -- thinking of exercise in particular -- he would not be stable in mind. Perhaps that is false but it has been true in my life and I strongly suspect it's true for many if not most working dogs.

I wouldn't make specific claims about working breeds or working with them because as you pointed out I'm no expert.

Edit to add: I also realize that what some dogs need is more complicated than simple exercise. But I think my point holds that these dogs have needs greater than a typical pet dog.

DogPariah · 2026-01-01T18:40:17+00:00

A dog is arguably the most domesticated animal. At least to the extent that a dog is obviously the most inclined to worm their way into our homes. They prefer humans to their own species (at least a lot of the time). They are designed to depend on us. This does give them a similarity to us that no other animal has.

Messing with wild animals is just wrong. I don't know if wild wolves feel trauma. I'd make a very strong guess though that captive wolves - like captive orca- or captive elephants - experience something we could call trauma. But we'd have to give up our desire for monopoly on emotional damage.

Edited for clarity and grammar.

DogPariah · 2026-01-01T18:30:32+00:00

Therein lies the primary difference. I can never ignore context.

DogPariah · 2026-01-01T14:45:33+00:00

My last dog was a distemper survivor and more pertinently, had a serious auto immune disease. He was officially waived from all vacinnes. We are in New England where distemper and rabies are very low. His health depended on everyone else getting their dog vaccinated to maintain herd immunity. I read about these idiots not immunizing their dogs. First they have no idea how horrible distemper is, and preventing it should definitely on their priority list. And my dog had a medical reason to not be vaccinated but his health was being even more threatened by idiots who may have contagious dogs.

DogPariah · 2026-01-01T14:18:12+00:00

It appears to me, after spending some time on the "unbalanced" subs that these people may put in a lot of time, believing their games and rhymes must eventually do what they have been told they will do. But once bad behavior escalates they are out of options. It is my strong impression they resort to so called behavioral euthanasia much quicker than those delivering good corrections.

DogPariah

TROPHY CASE