Hi! My partner and I adopted our 3-year-old (now almost 4) rescue mutt, Bear, a year ago now. We had some strict criteria when adopting a dog: good with cats (we have two tabbies), good with other dogs (we live in a neighbourhood with many dogs and certain people tend to let them off-leash), and preferably not a super big dog as we do not have a large backyard. The adoption agency identified Bear as a dog that was good with other dogs and cats, and just on the edge of the size limit we wanted. He seemed perfect! We saw him in his foster home, and he seemed to do well with the other dogs, although he clearly preferred people. The cats were nowhere in sight but the foster parents assured us that he just kind of stays away from them. This was fine with us as our attached home has three floors and lots of room to just stay away from the cats if he wanted.
Maybe we went in a bit too naively because about a month after he came home with us, he started displaying fear-based aggression towards dogs on walks as well as our cats. He would see them, ears and hackles up, and immediately bark and lunge until they left. We hired a trainer who started using and recommending positive punishment. Obviously, this did not work, and we fired her. We hired a new trainer who started us on the right track of positive reinforcement. Things were going okay for a bit, and we saw some improvement up until we didn't. Bear plateaued, and he stopped improving. The time between his fear and his reactivity was still too little for us to intervene.
We stopped going on walks on the recommendation of our trainer because of the number of dogs we see, no matter the route we take. Instead, we do indoor activities and mental exercises. My partner and I gave up our small backyard so that he could have his outside time there. We had to cover the fence in tarps so he wouldn't bark and lunge at every passing dog, although he started picking up on the jingling sound of dog leashes and barks and lunges anyway. We have gates and closed doors all over the house, so Bear and the cats are never in the same place at the same time.
At some point, our trainer recommended that we see the vet for medication. Our vet refused, saying that he would not be prescribing anything other than gabapentin and trazodone (which we already tried and just made him very very tired and hard to train). He said we needed to see a behavioural vet costing upwards of $4000. We switched vets. Around 2 months ago we saw our new vet and got a prescription for 40mg fluoxetine! He was on his loading dose of 20mg for one week and then switched to 40mg. He reacted terribly. He stopped peeing, only peeing once a day; he didn't eat, didn't play, didn't do anything but sleep. He went days without eating and pooing. It seemed like when he was awake he was more anxious than ever. After two weeks of no improvement, the vet suggested we bring him back down to 20mg. The major side effects went away. It has been two months since his first dose of 20mg and three weeks since he went back down from 40mg to 20mg. He still struggles with training, has a reduced appetite (also making training hard), and is still a bit more anxious than pre-medication (although, who knows, maybe this was his baseline).
We will continue with the 20mg to see if there is any improvement with time. I know there are other meds to try. More training to do. We wake up, and we try again. He is a sweetie to people, to kids, and a major cuddler. We won't give up on him, although I do think about how life would be easier without him. Travel, daily life, day trips. No one I know understands what it's like, but I bet some of you will!
Thank you for letting me vent! Kudos to all of you and all you do for your reactive dogs. Give them all a kiss for me!