This is truly a first world problem. My dog has severe anxiety, and is therefore stuck in the house most of the time. I can't take him for walks because were unable to ever leash train him, and if I try and take him for a walk on the trail he will just sit down and start shaking and whining. I tried all sorts of behavioral solutions and trainers, but to no avail. Tried that thunder shirt thing I saw on tv as well, didn't work. My vet, after doing blood work to make sure his liver could handle it, prescribed my dog 30mg of Prozac. Luckily it's dirt cheap.
I feel weird medicating my dog, but it's truly a last resort. I've done some research and don't think there's any chance he will have any adverse effects. I picked up the prescription yesterday and gave it to give today. But it sure is an odd feeling giving your dog anxiety meds with their treats. Once again, truly a first world problem. Has anyone else dealt with this?
I'm in the same boat (not as severe, though).
I've got a spanish greyhound (specifically, a podenco andaluz, they look like pharaoh hounds). It's a hunting dog, so they often come from puppy mills, and after the hunting season, hunters just abandon or kill them (by hanging, usually:
http://www.vice.com/read/its-greyhound-murder-season-in-spain ). This one was lucky enough to be abandoned and then found by us. Now she's the happiest dog when she feels safe, but we live in the city, and she HATES it. She's scared to death of children, men, garbage trucks, bicycles, tricycles, and pretty much anything that's not what she's used to. She'll empty her anal glands in fear when a friendly child comes too close, and we have to take her in our arms to get her out on the street for a walk. In the countryside, she's more than fine, she runs around for hours on end, and comes back covered in blisters, wet, stinky, and HAPPY.
Apparently, if a puppy hasn't received enough external stimuli during its first
four months of life, its brain will lock in that state and every new thing will provoke a reaction of fear. Once they get to that state, they'll never become a normal dog, however, with a lot of work and patience, it's possible to get them
kind of normal (meaning, they control they fear and accept new things)
It's all still fresh in my memory because we saw a vet/trainer just yesterday. We'd already followed our usual vet's advise, and started treating her with Anafranil one week earlier (it takes two to three weeks to work, and it's also dirt cheap, like 2€ for 50 tablets). It's also sold as a dog-specific Clomicalm, but it's the same thing and around here, because there's a dog on the box, it's 5x more expensive. It won't work by itself, its purpose is to calm the dog enough to be receptive to the training.
About behaviour training, the vet told us to do a series of exercises. You've probably tried them, pm me if you want to know more and we can exchange opinions. Honestly, after only the one walk we took with the trainer, today, amazingly, she already was much better.
I'd stay clear of Prozac. The aim is not to hide symptoms by drugging the dog, but to cure them.
I've also got another dog and she's "Little Miss Perfect" (not her real name) so, out of jealousy my podenco tries to copy what she sees, to make us happy and proud. It helps a lot.
Edit: of course, the goal is to stop giving her Anafranil as soon as she's overcome her irrational fears (or at least, until she's come to terms with them)
