I’m considering medicating my reactive dog but I don’t know yet

[parentingpod]

I recently welcomed a three year old rat terrier/chihuahua mix into my home and have been struggling with her reactivity. I am her third furever home, the lady I got her from was a senior woman with COPD and was struggling to care for her, and she got her from a couple that rehomed her because she was jealous of their newborn baby.

The woman I got her from said she does fine with other people and does good with other dogs. This has not been the case since she has been living with me. She goes nuclear whenever she sees other people or dogs and will try to run after them. If she sees someone walk by she is on high alert for the rest of the day and will not calm down. I’ve been working on desensitizing her, and we have made some progress but she is still overly anxious. We’ve been staying at my Mom’s recently and despite her liking my Mom (she’ll roll over for her and let her pet her) she’ll growl at her and try to go after her when she enters the room.

My Mom thinks she has been abused and thinks I should consider medication to help her relax. I’m looking into it, but I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with medicating their reactive dog?

Tldr: My dog is reactive and I’m considering medicating but I want to hear other people’s experiences.

 

[ashiedu]

@parentingpod My dog is on a SSRI and I have no regrets except I wish I started him on it sooner

 

[parentingpod]

@ashiedu Good to know! Did they have any side effects from it?

 

[ashiedu]

@parentingpod Nope!! Side effects are rare, per my vet.

 

[childman]

@parentingpod How long have you had her? I would give her 2-3 months to settle into your home and routine. Keep things really basic in that time frame, simple walks, but nothing too long or in an area that is too populated, if possible.

At that point if you're still considering it, call your vet up and go for it. As long as she's healthy otherwise, the most common problem would just be that it doesn't work. And meds aren't magical, but for a lot of dogs they help get them to a place where they can start to feel less on edge and more able to learn and make better decisions.

 

[parentingpod]

It seems like we’ve been together for a long time, but I just realized that we’ve only been together for a little over a month. I’m probably being a bit too impatient and need to let her get comfortable on her own time. I’ll revisit the med idea in a few months if she is still struggling.

 

[authormargaretrosefrancis]

@parentingpod I've only had my pup on Prozac for 3 weeks, and I've had her for 3.5 months total (she's 13 months old) and I think it's such a good decision for us. So far we've seen a huge change but she's still as goofy as ever, but one of our deciding factors was that we could see she was getting worse even though we were working on desensitization and counter conditioning. It hasn't solved everything but it's helped a lot.

Another major factor in our decision is that we live in a city and we can't even go for a 2 minute alley pee without seeing someone or another dog. We once went out at 6am and saw three dogs within 5 minutes so it was unrealistic to expect us to avoid triggers and I can't dedicate my life to managing her. She's also an active dog that's 45-50lbs and we swapped vets for one that would prescribe medication.

 

[parentingpod]

@authormargaretrosefrancis That’s awesome that it’s helped so much, and the city issue is definitely a problem for us. My apartment complex is pretty busy and she looses it whenever she even hears another person. I was hoping she’d get used to it, but I honestly don’t know at this point.

 

[authormargaretrosefrancis]

@parentingpod I've read for most people they see changes from weeks 4-6 on any SSRIs so it's also worth figuring out how much you can endure. We also got on the wait-list for the only vet behavioralist in our area and we contacted them in mid April and likely won't get an appointment until late August or early September so with that timeframe we just decided to see a fear free vet that isn't a VB but also is super cognizant of reactive behaviors. We had multiple trainers recommend medication for her as well.

I got to a point where I was just filled with anxiety even taking her out to pee and crying almost every day because we just couldn't see any improvement. So my mental health has gotten a lot better since we started. The first week was so awful on Prozac and her reactivity was probably 2-3 times worse than normal but it's mellowed out considerably. We can pass men on the street again which we hadn't been able to do for two months. Dogs are still a huge problem.

There was a commenter on Reddit that said something like 'if your daily life is a struggle, and you're doing all the right things (meaning R+ training with KPTA, IAABC trainers) isn't it worth trying to take the edge off so your dog can actually learn?' and that helped me a lot.

 

[jitheth]

@parentingpod Current dog is reactive to sound and dogs, he's on Gabapentin 2x a day, Fluoxetine has helped many a dog but wasn't the right call for him -he stopped eating completely-

My husband and I also take him for sniff walks in a nearby meadow (almost daily) for roughly 30-40 minutes and that really helps him out. We try not to do a ton of training during these walks and just let him lead the way.

My parents had a dog who was reactive/aggressive. I can't remember what his daily medication was, but know they paired it with Trazadone for vet visits and that konked him out real good.

Your vet should be able to help you figure out what the right med is should you choose to go that route. It can be some trial and error with type and dosage. Most will want you to be working with a trainer in tandem with the meds.