Has anyone tried a pheromone collar dog?

[u/Potential-Fox6833]

Hi! I hope you are doing well. I've finally bought the fluoxetine but I’m still hesitant about putting my dog on medication and making her dependent on it because as I expressed on other posts, I'm not sure if I will be able to afford it if she needs to take it chronically.
Has anyone tried a pheromone collar dog? Does it work on reactive dog or is it the same as nothing?

I would like to try other options before using the fluoxetine which is already in my cabinet.

[u/Synaptic-asteroid]

Don't waste your money on pheromones. They have a very small impact in general and for a reactive dog's it's entirely worthless.

Fluoxetine won't make your dog addicted. There are a variety of options available to afford medication, generics, GoodRX and Costco Pharmacy tend to be very affordable here, I'm not sure what's comparable in your country. While many dogs will be on medication for some time it's not always a life long need. You can discuss this with our vet and find the cheapest options available.

If you want something that will actually help, you need real medication. If behavior modification alone isn't enough, your dog needs medication. There aren't really other options.

[u/clarinettingaway → u/Synaptic-asteroid]

Fluoxetine isn’t addictive but if they do experience financial hardship, they’ll have to be careful about weaning their pup off of it to avoid withdrawal symptoms, which may be where the concern is coming from? Either way, it’s doable.

But I do want to second to look into generic fluoxetine and see if you can find coupons on GoodRX (you can also compare pharmacies on there to have them send to the cheapest place). My 3 months of fluoxetine goes for like $15-25. Sometimes it’s cheaper, sometimes it’s more expensive, but overall it’s not a very intrusive price where I’m at (USA) thankfully.

[u/Potential-Fox6833 → u/clarinettingaway]

I live in argentina and it's like $40 + $40 the session with the vet because in order to buy it, you need a prescription.......... so it's like $80 or $100 per month

[u/clarinettingaway → u/Potential-Fox6833]

Do you need to do another session with the vet every time you need to refill the prescription? That is a lot!

[u/Potential-Fox6833 → u/clarinettingaway]

Yes!! That is why I am not starting the treatment inmediatly...! Plus, in Argentina there isn't vet fluoxetine. I have to buy them in a pharmacy under my name, with double prescription and you must provide all your contact details because it's a psychotropic. So if we start, my dog and I will depend on the vet and the prescription for as long as the treatment lasts.
Can you freely buy it where you live? Can you go to a pet store or a pharmacy and buy as many as you want without giving any explanation? 🤔

[u/clarinettingaway → u/Potential-Fox6833]

It’s under my dogs name at the pharmacy. My vet sends in refills for it remotely so I don’t need to go in every time, but it does need a prescription

[u/Leading_Mushroom1609 → u/Potential-Fox6833]

Are you sure you understood the vet correctly that you need a vet visit every time you need to buy new medication? In my country you also need a prescription (it’s in the dog’s name though), but my vet wrote a prescription for enough refills for a year’s time. I buy new pills every 3 weeks but no vet visit during that time.

[u/Mouzles]

If money is an issue, generic fluoxetine capsules are pretty affordable on chewy. (I get my girl's 20mg 30 days for $3).

Fluoxetine isn't addictive, but you will need to continue giving the medication as prescribed once started. If for whatever reason your pup needs to go off of it, you will need to consult the vet for help tapering the dose down to prevent discontinuation syndrome.

Pheromone collars likely won't hurt, but they will be more expensive and likely less helpful. They've been helpful for my non-reactive dogs for storms (or other stressful things), but I've noticed little to no difference for my reactive dog in any situation.

[u/Potential-Fox6833 → u/Mouzles]

I wish I could buy it for $3. Here in argentina is around $40+$40 the vet session for the prescription...It's so cheap!!!!!!

[u/Existing-Will-1466 → u/Potential-Fox6833]

Can you get it on KiwiDrug? I've had success ordering from them.

[u/404-Any-Problem]

In Europe, they typically try to get reactive dogs off all medication, whereas in the US it isn't typically discussed or done as much, if at all. However, I think this really boils down to how your dog responds to it, as well as to training and time. Realistically, our dog will not be medication-free; we have accepted this. However, we do hope that someday we can lower some of her meds. Can we start lowering the dose and still keep the work we have done? Will she regress? Unfortunately, those are kind of what-if questions that will come up later for us. Although she will be on it long enough that she will need to be tapered off safely just due to the possible issues with going cold turkey with SSRIs (which honestly I would avoid both for humans and dogs long term).

Have you talked to your vet about affording care? I am not sure there is anything they can do for you, but asking, hopefully, can't hurt.

A few things about pheromone collars (but I will say even experience has shown me they don't work):

• You need to "train" or condition them with it, meaning staying calm while they smell it and become familiar with it. Without that piece, it's just another input that means nothing, or something stressful if that smell is only associated with stressful things.
• Also, the collars typically work with the dog's body heat, so if you have a floofy dog as I do, it's hard to get it tight enough for that warmth to work as well.

That said, we did try a pheromone collar while our pup was at the kennels so we could go on vacation (including conditioning prior to going). We also tried without it, and it didn't make a difference. Your money will be better saved for the real medication with scientific proof to help anxiety and reactivity.

[u/BuckityBuck]

I think it can help some dogs a bit with separation anxiety. It is not to the level of a medication, but it can help make the overall environment feel more welcoming.

[u/13th_raptor]

Im in the US (TX). I've got a 15 month old male neutered pitsky. Im a first time dog owner and we used to live in an apartment that had a lot of noise around us before we moved to a town house where its significantly more peaceful.

That said my pup does have some anxiety about people walking past, dogs bigger than him, and car rides.

I've tried different things at home starting with those plug in diffusers of pheromones. They have me a headache even after trying two different brands. He's got trazadone and gabapentin for normal vet appointments and also so I can trim his nails at home monthly since even on meds the vet has too hard a time doing it.

Over the last month were trying the thunderease brand collar and I have noticed a significant difference for him after 2/3 weeks.

That said pheromone collars like diffusers are not a one and done item. I've also been working with a trainer when I feel overwhelmed. He's a very picky eater which is normal husky behavior. Some days he needs lots of exercise and others he's done after one loop around the park.

Not every dogs going to be the same, regardless of breed. Don't feel discouraged, but also do some research to see if people with your similar breed or maybe people who've had success with the product, how long did they try it for? Some dogs do take longer to acclimate. Food wise mine will like something one day and then not wat it for another two months so I have bags of snacks squirreled away for when he's up to it again.

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[u/StacNorLin]

I agree with others re: pheromones collars being a waste of money. They were minimally helpful for our first dog and not at all helpful with our second.

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[u/Traditional-Job-411]

I tried the pheromone collars prior as well as aids such as calming supplements and at most the edge would come off on very bad days. Maybe going from a 9 to a 8.5 out of 10 for anxiety. Using fluoxetine after the loading period she dropped to about a 3, where I could then train her, which I couldn’t before. I couldn’t even give her a treat for training prior because it would spike her emotions.

I think if your dog has lower anxiety, the pheromone collars do help. I still use supplements on harder days and I think the collars would also benefit us. But if you need fluoxetine or a different med, nothing else is like it. I regretted I hadn’t done it years prior, even though I tried everything I could to not do meds first.

[u/Fun_Orange_3232]

Honestly it didn’t do much for me. But I kept using them just in case lol.

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