r/DogTrainingCrucible

[EDITED to remove some leading questions and present a more balanced topic for debate.]

In my own personal experience, I have yet to hear a balanced trainer (excluding LIMA) say that medication can be helpful for dogs who have behavioral issues due to anxiety or fear. Instead, from what I've seen, many will include +P/-R, not exclusively but as part of their training approach to manage anxiety-based behavior problems.

Is this true and representative, or are there balanced trainers who are open to the use of appropriate medication? Are there balanced trainers who avoid using +P/-R for any anxiety or fear-based behaviors?

There can be a genetic cause for fear or anxiety in dogs, which peer-reviewed studies have proven in some situations like fear of strangers or other dogs, or noise phobia. Studies have also shown the genetic area for some of these phobias and anxieties in dogs overlap with the same genetic areas responsible for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, etc in humans which also commonly include anxiety as a co-disorder. There is far more, but I won't dive into a deep summary here.

What are the ethics and efficacy of using medications to assist dogs in reducing fear versus avoiding medications and focusing on mental resiliency to overcome any genetic component?

What I'm not saying:

--I'm not saying all balanced trainers avoid medication all the time. But if you are balanced and don't, I'd love to hear from you since anecdotally-speaking it seems a rarer position.

--I'm not saying that a dog isn't responsible for its actions or can't make choices, but that management and fear resolution are the first steps before addressing behavior. Usually, once the fear is gone, the problematic behavior stops.

--I'm not saying all fearful or anxious dogs need medication.

--I'm not advocating for overmedicating or for turning dogs into zombies. If suppressed personality happens, it's an indication of the wrong type and/or dosage.

--I'm not advocating for using medication in place of training. Behavioral training should be a critical part of any treatment plan involving medication.

Counter-conditioning for a behavior deals with changing emotions, which presumes the dog is in a negative emotional state (like fear/anxiety).

But what about behaviors stemming from over-arousal or aggression? Do you use counter-conditioning for that as well or something else? How can you tell if you are actually changing the underlying emotions VS simply reinforcing alternative/incompatible behaviors?

We have huge numbers of homeless dogs in the United States. For those in countries without this issue, why do you think your country has been so successful? Was there a homeless dog problem in the past? If so, how was the problem addressed?

For those familiar with US style animal shelters and rescues, how can we improve adoption success? Medical issues are probably mostly a resource allocation problem, so let's focus more on factors that can be modified without requiring an increase in operating budget.

What would be most beneficial in finding homes for these dogs, and then keeping them in the new homes?