The life changing power of behavior medication for dogs

Over the last 13 years, I have specialized in training complicated dogs. Dogs that growl, lunge, bark, bite, and everything in between. Dogs that challenge the patience of their humans and aren’t the picture perfect ideal of the dog they envisioned. Dogs who display these behaviors do so for a multitude of reasons, none of which include trying to make humans lives hard. The truth is that these dogs are struggling. Struggling with stressors, fears, anxieties and frustrations. The hard truth is that oftentimes without the help of behavior medications the struggle doesn’t lighten and the human and dog are left feeling defeated. Over my career I have seen time and time again the life changing powers of behavior medications for these complicated dogs. So today I want to walk you through the signs that your dog might need more support, how to go about getting your dog started on medications and what changes you are likely to see with the medication on board. 

Over the years, when I meet clients who have complicated dogs, we always start with positive reinforcement training and relationship building. This often includes teaching both dogs and humans how to work together and acquire basic training skills to set the foundation for more involved behavior modification techniques. We start in environments where the dog is not faced with major stressors and is capable of thinking and learning. This is a necessary piece of the training journey, but at this stage in the training it often becomes clear that when there are stressors around, the dog is struggling to think, learn and respond to their humans. Dogs who live in busy places, with triggers that can’t be avoided. For dogs who experience stress daily, even in their home environment. For dogs who have had a lot of training and are still significantly struggling to make progress. These are the dogs that I often suggest my clients speak to their veterinarians about the use of behavior medications. Some of my clients can feel a bit overwhelmed when I bring up the subject, it brings up feelings of failure, that they can’t help their dog enough and now they need to be “drugged”. Nothing could be further from the truth. My clients are committed, consistent and even then, their dog's brain is still struggling to cope with their environment. Needing medication is not a failure of the owner, needing medication is because the dog's brain is struggling to function in a healthy and productive way. 

More often than not, these complicated dogs already have a primary care veterinarian who has seen first hand how the dog can struggle with their routine care. In these cases when my clients ask their vets about behavior medication, their vets are more than willing to prescribe a medication to try. While I had extensive experience in behavior medications, I do my best to stay in my lane and let the veterinary field guide my clients in what medication and how much. There have been a few select cases where the primary care veterinarian did not feel comfortable prescribing anything and instead referred them to a veterinary behaviorist with the necessary education and expertise to get the dog started on medication. When talking to your veterinarian it is important to mention the particular ways your dog is struggling. Describing how often and how intense their reactions can be. Also sharing how you have been working on training and have only seen minimal progress. These details help your veterinarian decide what medication is likely to be most effective. While getting started on medication is a great first step, it does not elicit an overnight change. As with all good things in training and behavior modification, you will likely start to see changes over a few days or weeks depending on your dog and the medications. 

As the medication is used and or built up in the dogs system that is when you will start to see more progress in your training. There are many subtle signs you can watch out for to know that the medication is having the desired effect. Firstly, you will see a decrease in fear and anxiety, your dog will have an easier time coping with known stressors. Additionally you will notice a quicker recovery time even when your dog is faced with stressful situations. The behavior medications are literally working to help your dog think in new ways and then in turn behave in new ways. This does not mean that your dog will no longer have big reactions, it means that your dog will be able to see, process and respond, versus seeing and being triggered with nothing in between.  Behavior medication is not a quick fix or replacement for training but a helpful addition. 

At current, the majority of dogs I am working with are on behavior medications and benefiting greatly from their support. A particular dog comes to mind and I wanted to share with you his story and how his life has improved drastically. To protect my clients privacy, I will call him Ted in place of his real name. 

Ted was found wandering the streets with his sibling when he was roughly 5 months old. After being picked up from the streets he was placed in a local shelter. There he was evaluated and then placed in a kennel. Shelters are always doing their best to make dogs comfortable but being in a shelter is more often than not a really overwhelming and stressful experience for dogs, especially dogs as young as Ted. A few weeks later Ted was adopted by a wonderful human and brought home. Ted was now living with his human and dog brother. The first week he settled in but after that his struggle became evident. Ted became very over aroused around meal time and began to display intense guarding behaviors towards the other dog in the home. He also began to display intense leash reactivity to other dogs, making it almost impossible for his human to walk both dogs together as Ted would redirect his frustration and his dog brother. Ted was also displaying intense reactive behaviors in the home when other humans and dogs walked by, which happened frequently in their apartment building. I was called in after Ted had been in the home for a few weeks and we immediately got to training. Ted is very smart, and motivated which made the skills practice really quick. His owner was amazing at following my instructions and really consistently working on the training. Over the next month, there was improvement but the day to day was still very stressful for everyone. At this point I suggested talking to his veterinarian who did prescribe behavior medication. With continued training and the medication now fully on board there have been huge improvements to everyone's quality of life. Ted can now handle meal time without having to be in his crate, he is no longer guarding food from his dog brother and their owner mentioned how his stress levels have plummeted. Ted’s leash reactivity towards dogs has decreased significantly and he recently was able to meet and greet with another dog successfully. Ted can now also be walked with his dog brother and chances of redirecting are low. Ted and his owner are now hitting their stride and really enjoying their life together. The medication did not miraculously change who Ted is, what it did was make it so Ted could think and behave without becoming so intensely frustrated and overwhelmed. 

There is still so much stigma around medication but I really hope this blog has shed some light on how behavior medications can truly improve the quality of life for dogs and their owners.

-Rachel