We discuss the different types of behavior medication that treat dog anxiety and they actually work in your dog’s system.
If your dog is experiencing separation anxiety aggression compulsive behavior maybe your dog is experiencing disproportionate reactions to triggers and you are considering behavior meds then this video is going to be for you because today we are taking a good look at some of the common medications that vets prescribe in order to treat chronic anxiety and if
You’re interested in having a little bit deeper dive on those make sure you keep watching what’s up guys it’s jenna with dog liaison where i coach you on how to enhance your dog’s mental health needs and on this channel we break down scientific research in order to inform and educate us on how to train dogs so if you’re interested in a nerdier approach to canine
Cognition make sure to hit that subscribe button now i recently did a video in which i discussed whether or not it’s time to take your dog into the vet if you haven’t seen that video that one is a little bit um of a less technical video this particular video is going to be a little bit nerdier a little bit more nuanced and it’s really just meant to help you have
A better understanding of what medications you’re actually putting in your dog and what they’re supposed to be doing because i’m definitely the type of person where i’m like i don’t give my dog anything unless i know exactly what it is and why it’s doing it right and if you’re like that then this video is for you as well now today is not going to be a science
Project i am not interested in throwing big words at you that no one knows what they mean but today is going to be a little bit more technical than our last video on the topic so i’ve worked with the registered veterinary technician michelle burkhardt in order to take some of these big fancy latin words and break them down into normal speak for you and me see i
Am not a veterinarian i am a dog trainer so i have worked with michelle of the behavior service at uc davis teaching hospital michelle is a registered veterinary technician she’s the karen pryor certified professional trainer she’s a fear-free professional trainer she works closely with two board-certified veterinary behaviorists and she’s a co-author of studies
That are examining specifically behavior meds so she’s definitely well versed in this subject and this video would not be possible without her help so if you end up enjoying this video and you think you get a lot of information out of it do me a favor and comment thanks michelle down below and let’s flood the comment feeds with thanks michelle so let’s get
Into it so the primary goal of most behavior medication is to make sure that your dog’s serotonin is readily available now serotonin is a neurotransmitter and it does a lot in order to keep our reward centers and our learning centers and our physiological centers running and doing great things but it can basically be summed up as the chemical that keeps us calm
And content and so you’re usually going to hear referred to as the calm chemical now these behavior medications are not necessarily creating more serotonin what they’re actually doing is making sure that the supply your dog is already naturally making is readily available when he needs it the precise process in which your dog serotonin is made more available is
Going to change depending on which drug your dog is using that’s one of the distinguishing factors between drugs is that process of serotonin availability plus some drugs may additionally regulate other things like norepinephrine which is adrenaline of the brain so some drugs will do more things as well and that’s also a distinguishing factor but effectively you
And i common folk can break down the medications into two categories the first is as needed which is something that you give your dog and you will see the effects of as soon as you give it to them and it usually wears off within about eight hours or you can use daily medication which is given chronically every single day and it has to be given every day in order
To be effective arguably the most common as needed medication is tracidone and tracidone is very frequently given in cases where you need the dog to fall asleep so for example um if you are having fireworks tonight and you need your dog to be sleepy you might give them tracidome because it has that sedative effect that said at the right dosage and given correctly
Trazadone doesn’t have to make your dog drowsy in fact you can give it to them daily as a daily medication and have the same awesome effects as a daily medication for chronic anxiety the con to doing it that way is that you often have to give the triazodone multiple times a day because it’s only in the system for eight hours at a time so you may end up giving two
To three pills each day another as needed medication is cat presser duradon which you and i probably recognize as clonidine but michelle described this to me as a way to mitigate the crescendo effect of adrenaline so think of it like when your adrenaline goes you might start sweating more you might have an accelerated heart rate there are a lot of involuntary
Responses that happen when a when a species when a dog is getting adrenaline rush and so cat press or durdon are going to minimize that response moving on to daily medications daily medications must be given every single day in order to be effective and depending on which medication your dog is on it could take three to eight weeks before you see any effects
Whatsoever there are a good chunk quite frankly of daily medications but that doesn’t necessarily mean that just anyone out of the lot will help your specific dog often vets lean in towards a category of behavior meds known as ssris and this category includes medications like fluoxetine uh certain probably butchered that name uh paroxetine and saleo the most
Common ssri is fluoxetine um and you and i probably recognize that as doggy prozac but it’s also called reconcile like the brand is reconcile that said which brand of ssri your vet prescribes is going to depend on a couple of factors here’s what michelle told me she said we often choose the ssri based on the doses and medication form that is best for the pet and
Owner the vet’s experiences with a certain medication and its efficacy the owners observations of their dogs and their individual needs for their dog clinicians may also consider whether a certain medication is fda approved to solve a specific disorder in a dog so for example klomacon is fda approved to treat separation anxiety in dogs and it’s been observed in
A lot of different studies in regarding separation anxiety however it’s worth noting that just because a medication isn’t technically approved fda approved for dogs that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s sketch or not on the up and up in fact most of the behavior meds for dogs are not fda approved for dogs and that is mostly due to a lack of funding it’s really
Expensive to get fda approval and sometimes these organizations just don’t have the funding for that so yes vets are going to be more likely to prescribe something that is fda approved but just because it’s not does not mean that it’s there are a lot of other behavior medications that we have not discussed in this video so if you’re looking for more information i
Have linked a ton of resources in the description box below and i really recommend you check some of those out if you enjoyed this video make sure to hit like to let the algorithm know i appreciate you sitting down for a nerdy err video i know that not everyone is interested in this deep dive so i appreciate that you were willing to put in the time if you enjoy
More nerdy content make sure to hit subscribe and i’ll see you guys soon
Transcribed from video
Types of Dog Behavior Medication for Fear, Aggression, Separation Anxiety, & OCD By Dog Liaison
