Dogs require work and attention.<p>Too many people adopted dogs during the pandemic because they were stuck home and needed some distraction as well as realized they had the time to devote.<p>Now that things are returning to normal, people don't want to spend the time.<p>> Maisie howled at any stimulus. She paced all night and pounced on anyone who came to the house.<p>Your dog is some combination of bored and scared. You don't need a vet, you need a dog trainer.<p>Dogs can be incredible amounts of work. I probably spend on average 2 hours a day on dog work of some kind and I have a dog walker come twice daily too (30min/2x day).<p>There are times when I'll admit it's not convenient. The last vacation I took had an extra ~3k tacked on for a house/pet sitter, but, I (knowingly) made a commitment when I adopted/purchased them.<p>The whole concept of drugging your dog just seems, frankly, abusive to me.<p>People need to do far more research when adopting or buying dogs. Animal rescues are commonly not honest about a dogs history (to make it easier to adopt the dog out) and the vast majority of breeders are not honest about the amount of work required with particular breeds and particular dogs.
We brought home a very anxious few month old rescue puppy and she wouldn't do anything but hide in her crate and she would shake whenever anybody came near her. After a couple of months of not really improving, the vet put her on Prozac and it worked amazingly. After a week or so she was making massive strides. About six months later, we weened her off the Prozac and she was comfortable enough with us that she didn't seem to need it any longer. She's now six, and still an anxious dog overall, but she loves us, is always happy to see us, and lives a pretty good life. Would she have come around even without the Prozac? Maybe, but I'm happy it seemed to have reduced her terror while she came to trust us.
I like my dog, but I don't plan to ever own another. Besides money, she costs a lot in time and convenience. Food and water. Walk her morning (feel bad if I sleep in too long), noon, and night. Brush her and vacuum often (sheds a lot). Clip her nails frequently (which is a struggle), or her feet will hurt. Give her a bath every couple weeks. Wash her bed. Take her to the vet. Give her monthly prescription meds for fleas/ticks/heartworm. Clean up when she gets sick. If we want to leave home for more than like 8 hours, we have to take her along (if dogs are allowed where we're going) or get a sitter. It's all manageable, but personally, I would just rather not have the responsibility, even for a dog that's not high maintenance. And I'm not sure I like the "dog culture" I live in where the outside of my building always smells like pee, there's pee in the elevator every morning, dog shit appears in random places, people let their big dogs play off leash, dogs left alone spend all day barking, etc...
We don’t really know how SSRIs work - or if at all (at least not as intended) - yet they’re handed out indiscriminately for “treating” anything that isn’t “normal”, accepted, or desired behaviour.<p>These drugs have life-altering - and often permanent - side effects to the extent they’re a case of the cure being worse than the disease for any but the most severe and otherwise untreatable conditions and hence run against basic ethical standards in medicine (“Do no harm.” for one).<p>Feeding that type of drug to a poor dog, who can neither decide for themselves nor know what’s happening to them, takes a special kind of unethical.<p>On the other hand, it’s not like the standards around SSRIs for treating humans are ethical either.<p>Their side effects often are downplayed or kept from patients, who will take those drugs at their doctor’s recommendation, not knowing the full extent of what they have subscribed to.
We recently adopted a dog.<p>The prior owners had decided to kill it. On the advice of the dog's psychiatrist. We convinced them to give the dog to us instead.<p>The prior owners both take prozac. The dog was on prozac. I suppose they figured what's good for them is good for the dog too.<p>(The dog is doing very well. No prozac)
Because people are buying dogs way too big for their homes and then they don't take them for walks or exercise them. I live a few doors down from a doctor and he drives a $100k+ Mercedes, but I've never once seen anyone in his family take their German shepherd for a walk. Pets are just accessories for some people. Then when their dogs get bored and start chewing things up, digging holes, or generally doing dog things people decide to just drug their animal and tranquilize them rather than give them more exercise or find a better outlet for their animal's energy.
Dogs are even more poorly equipped for the sudden shift in living conditions over the last century than we are. Dogs are meant to be a little bit wild, roam around and enjoy being a dog every so often. Not being able to <i>ever</i> do that is taxing.<p>Yes, dogs require training, but it doesn't fix the root issue, which is not living up to their intended purpose. To serve, protect, and piss on everything another dog has pissed on.
After suddenly losing our previous dog (adopted as a 4 mo old pup) at 4 years old (septic shock), we adopted a rescue (about 1½ yo now) from the Dominican Republic. After several months of trying to calm him with the various ways we know through decades of rescue dog ownership and multiple training sessions with different dogs, we currently have him on prozac. He arrived in Canada on a flight with ~90 other rescue animals and went to a foster house that already had 3 other dogs (one of whom passed not long after his arrival, AIUI).<p>We do not want him to be on prozac long-term. But our vet has suggested that if he learns what it is to be calm, we should eventually wean him off and he should be in a better place as he understands that this house is safe for him. The behaviours we worry about are not the barking, but the shaking in terror.<p>We know he will always be a somewhat more nervous dog than the last one (the last one was a 90 pound king shepherd cross; this one is a 23 pound terrier mix known as a potcake or coconut hound). But he’ll get there.
I'm the owner of a 7 year old anxious dog since she was a puppy. We got her in San Francisco while living in apartments. We then moved to a rural home in Oregon and then to a house in LA. Her anxiety manifested differently in each area, which has led me to believe she may not be "anxious" so much as a dog reacting to her environment. I'd say where we are now is her least anxious state, and she gets more mental stimulation here than anywhere we've been. This is a pretty suburban area, so she gets to sit in our front window to watch people and animals walking by all the time. Sometimes she barks at them, but she seems happy and energetic when she does it (a behaviorist would call it barrier frustration, though).<p>I don't know what the lesson is, exactly. Every dog is different. If I get another dog, though, I will make sure they have an environment with constant opportunities for mental stimulation even if we aren't home, which will probably means an accessible window with a good view.
One of our dogs came from a previous human who, we can infer, did not treat her very nicely. She was on Prozac when she arrived, but we have since weaned her off. To this day, when someone -- particularly a woman, but even another dog or a cat -- threatens or appears to threaten her bed or her food, there can be much growling, baying, and baring of teeth. For this reason we have learned to prevent my wife and the dog from occupying the human bed at the same time, and she has become quite obedient of the command "get off the bed".<p>Other than that, she is doing well, a loved and happy dog. We are grateful for the opportunity to show this creature what it's like to be loved by humans over the long term. We hope to get her in front of a behaviorist to figure out how we can ease her anxiety further -- without drugs.
> <i>“I had been the best dog mother I could be,”</i><p>This really irks me and maybe it's related to the problems. I have no idea. I love dogs, but have never owned one.<p><i>Dogs aren't human.</i>
<i>You are not their parent.</i><p>Stop treating them as toddler substitutes. I'd argue that the excessive coddling of pets is abuse.
CBD gummies work fine for dog anxiety. I also have friends that swear by low dose ∆9 gummies turning their "hospice" dogs into puppies again, at least giving them some quality of life in the last days/weeks/months.
Dogs need, before anything, exercise and depending on the breed they might need more/other stimulus. Walking your dog 2 hours a day (one hour in the morning the other in the afternoon/evening) would basically be a minimum requirement. After exercise they need disciple and affection (that order). If you can't do this, don't get a dog, it's not a toy, it's a member of your family that needs proper care. Drugging a dog up to fit your lifestyle is not an adequate response for your lack of responsibility.
In my experience (wife is a breeder of shepherds), the ones cause it.<p>I’ve literally seen a puppy come back that was “scared of its own shadow”, that I’ve taken out to loud chaotic environments with out a reaction from the dog.<p>I’ve seen a perfectly stable pup go out, and become fearful of the world.<p>The wife no longer sells pups to service dog homes where the potential owner has anxiety issues, shepherds are very emotionally sensitive and pick up on the owners anxiety, it imprint it.<p>I’ve also seen dogs that weren’t the most stable goto solid homes and come out rock solid.
People love spending money on healthcare. They'll spend a boatload on themselves and if they can't find a reason to do that they'll spend a boatload on their pets.<p>I mean that sounds crazy but look at the amount of money spent on pets per year - and then look at the trend line.<p>First US state to allow pre-tax dollars towards pet insurance will be in 10 years. That's my prediction.
I’ve got a 16-yo dog on prozac cause he’s recently (past year) became extremely anxious anytime we leave the house, even just going into the yard, he barks and whines, scratches at the door, and has accidents. I think it has helped but honestly hard to say. If there’s a better alternative I’d love to try it. We take him on plenty of walks (for his age) and attention when we’re home.