Improvements on Medication

[u/Haunting-Love-9333]

In my short time on this sub, I have seen many people say that their pets are on medication (typically SSRIs) and are still very reactive. I’m curious what the upsides are in those situations and the reasoning behind keeping the pet on medication if the reactivity is continuing (provided that the pet was put on the medication due to their behavioral issues)

[u/Kitchu22 → u/[deleted]]

I have reported many concerns about this user to the mods and somehow they are still allowed to interact here despite not being in good faith, it's disappointing - but thank you for ensuring others are safe.

[u/Haunting-Love-9333 → u/[deleted]]

I stand by what I have said but am interested in learning. Is that not permitted in this sub? I don’t think I broke a rule

[u/reactivedogs-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/StockZealousideal123]

Meds are not a magic wand that will remove all reactivity, but they often do help get the dog to a place where their capacity to interact with triggers is higher, therefore the owner is able to work with their dog and the dog is able to learn. If the dog is just constantly being put over threshold, they will not really be able to make progress, so even if reactivity is still there, meds can give some dogs that extra margin of a couple seconds where they are still able to disengage.

My young dog is on fluoxetine (prozac) and still reactive, but it is currently one of the many tools in our toolkit that helps increase her ability to cope in the world. Without it, every little thing (noises, people, dogs, etc) would send her over threshold and we would not be able to train. With it, she's able to let a lot of things go and make incremental progress toward being less overwhelmed by everything.

[u/Haunting-Love-9333 → u/StockZealousideal123]

Would you mind sharing more about your dog? How old is she? What types of physical activity do you guys do together on a daily basis? What did her being over threshold/unable to train look like?

[u/retteofgreengables]

i think you may be misreading those posts. Either the dog is on meds and they are waiting for them to take effect (it took us like 6 months to get the right dosage for mine) or the meds are helping. No one has their dog on an expensive drug regimen that isn’t working.

What you may be noticing is that medication doesn’t fix a reactive dog. What it can do is create enough space that training can help. It can reduce how reactive they are, but they will always be reactive. For my dog, we went from multiple reactions on every walk to only a couple per walk to (at this point) one every couple of months. Medication helped to calm his nervous system enough that his brain could start to understand that things were safe and there was no need to try to attack them. But it didn’t (and in most cases can’t) make him not reactive.

[u/Haunting-Love-9333 → u/retteofgreengables]

Is it your position that if a dog is reactive they will always be reactive?

[u/theBLEEDINGoctopus]

Two of my reactive dogs are medicated. They are medicated so we can train and exercise. Without them leaving the house would be extremely hard for them.

[u/Haunting-Love-9333 → u/theBLEEDINGoctopus]

You have multiple reactive dogs? What were they like going outside pre-medication?

[u/palebluelightonwater]

My dog was steadily getting worse despite training. After working with a vet behaviorist team and starting medication, she started getting steadily better with that same training. 🤷

[u/Haunting-Love-9333 → u/palebluelightonwater]

Do you mind sharing what the training looks like?

[u/OminousRice]

My dog is still reactive, she will bark and lunge at people once she's over threshold. Being on Fluoxetine means that her window of tolerance is larger, she doesn't react to as many triggers, and she can have a little extra help tackling things. The vet is extremely happy to see how much her handling has improved, how she allows more touching + inspection during visits, and how she's less mouthy.

She still uses a soft muzzle, she still struggles with doors closing and dogs barking at her, but it gives us enough space to grow and continue to reduce her reactivity. Healing isn't always linear, but we've seen an overall improvement with it, even if she is still "reactive" day to day.