fernando1999
New member
Hey everyone! Ill try to keep this brief because so much has happened with my pups in the past year. But i Would love to hear from people who have had successful experiences after visiting a behaviorist when it's felt like all else has failed.
I have a very... unhappy beagle/foxhound mix named Buccleigh. He's almost 7 and I've had him since he was 6 weeks old after he was found abandoned on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.
He's always been dog reactive to unfamiliar dogs, but his reactivity was manageable because we've always had huge fenced in yards for him to get his exercise in, and he WAS best friends with my 3.5 year old pitbull (another dumped stray i took in almost 2 years ago), and my 12 year old rat terrier who he had known his entire life and who passed away 9 months ago. Since then his behavior went down hill. I'm sure my older dogs passing has triggered this.
He began starting fights with my pitbull and now they can't be together anymore at all. My pits very friendly with other dogs and loved Buccleigh so much, but buccleigh just began bullying him so badly (he never did before losing our older dog) and the pit developed anxiety from his constant barking. (Since they've been separated my pits been fine).
I've been working with a wonderful r+ trainer who has been coming to my home weekly for the past 3 months.
She said she's never dealt with a dog who has quite the combo of fear, frustration, anxiety and demanding behavior. In short, it takes him over an hour to calm down after coming inside from being outside. Something about walking through doorways has started triggering him. He howls, barks, pants, paces, cries. I can distract him with treats by getting him to do tasks like sit in his bed or grab a toy etc, but if he doesn't get them as fast as he'd like he'll disengage and lose focus (another new behavior as he used to be very treat motivated and focused).
Ive tried trazadone which gave him panic attacks and a month of Prozac which made his behaviors a thousand times worse. Right now for about 2 months he's been on 300mg of gabapentin and 0.5 MG of Xanax twice a day which seemed to help at first but he's backslid a lot the past 2 weeks.
Both my regular vet (who I love and is amazing, she's been so supportive) and my trainer say a behaviorist is the next step, but im looking at a 4 and a half hour drive with him and a 690 dollar initial visit, which I'm more than happy to do and pay if I was more hopeful it could help my poor sad boy. So I'd just love to hear about some of your experiences! (And if you have any other advice I'd love it and I can answer other questions about how we've approached training, thanks!)
I have a very... unhappy beagle/foxhound mix named Buccleigh. He's almost 7 and I've had him since he was 6 weeks old after he was found abandoned on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.
He's always been dog reactive to unfamiliar dogs, but his reactivity was manageable because we've always had huge fenced in yards for him to get his exercise in, and he WAS best friends with my 3.5 year old pitbull (another dumped stray i took in almost 2 years ago), and my 12 year old rat terrier who he had known his entire life and who passed away 9 months ago. Since then his behavior went down hill. I'm sure my older dogs passing has triggered this.
He began starting fights with my pitbull and now they can't be together anymore at all. My pits very friendly with other dogs and loved Buccleigh so much, but buccleigh just began bullying him so badly (he never did before losing our older dog) and the pit developed anxiety from his constant barking. (Since they've been separated my pits been fine).
I've been working with a wonderful r+ trainer who has been coming to my home weekly for the past 3 months.
She said she's never dealt with a dog who has quite the combo of fear, frustration, anxiety and demanding behavior. In short, it takes him over an hour to calm down after coming inside from being outside. Something about walking through doorways has started triggering him. He howls, barks, pants, paces, cries. I can distract him with treats by getting him to do tasks like sit in his bed or grab a toy etc, but if he doesn't get them as fast as he'd like he'll disengage and lose focus (another new behavior as he used to be very treat motivated and focused).
Ive tried trazadone which gave him panic attacks and a month of Prozac which made his behaviors a thousand times worse. Right now for about 2 months he's been on 300mg of gabapentin and 0.5 MG of Xanax twice a day which seemed to help at first but he's backslid a lot the past 2 weeks.
Both my regular vet (who I love and is amazing, she's been so supportive) and my trainer say a behaviorist is the next step, but im looking at a 4 and a half hour drive with him and a 690 dollar initial visit, which I'm more than happy to do and pay if I was more hopeful it could help my poor sad boy. So I'd just love to hear about some of your experiences! (And if you have any other advice I'd love it and I can answer other questions about how we've approached training, thanks!)