My husky is aggressive and scared of people/dogs. Can medication help?

Medication can be used in cases of dogs who have food aggression, but it needs to be combined with behavioral therapy. If all you do is give Shelby medication, it still does not change the underlying cause of the behavior. I would take her into the vet to discuss using medication for her as well as a referral to a professional behavioral expert. I never recommend owners try to train a dog with aggression on their own due to safety issues. Give you vet a call today to set up an appointment for her. In the meantime, I would feed your dogs in completely separate rooms as far away from each other as possible. Keep Shelby in her own room, and do not let her out until your other dog has eaten all her food and the bowl has been put away. Best of luck!

If you have a dog with severe aggression, you will not be able to resolve the problem with medications alone. Any severe problem requires medication while you are doing intensive behavioral training. Then, once you have the problem well controlled with the medication, you can slowly taper the medication. For aggression, I always recommend working with a veterinary behaviorist. I would recommend consulting with a veterinary behaviorist ASAP for this problem with Bongo. A veterinary behaviorist is a veterinarian who has additional years of training in behavior. They can also prescribe or change medications if needed. Hopefully you can find one near you here. http://www.dacvb.org/about/member-directory/ There is at least one in the UK even though this is a US organization. Sagi Deneberg Langford Vets Ltd. University of Bristol www.langfordvets.co.uk Email: behaviour@langfordvets.co.uk Langford house Langford United Kingdom Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using PetCoach.

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I am sorry you are going through this. To be brutally honest, this is NOT acceptable behavior from a pet. Regardless of his previous back ground, biting is serious and indicates a serious behavioral problem. Some breeds are more anxious (sadly both husky's and German Shepherds are in that group) and that can lead to aggressiveness. Also dogs reach their social/behavioral maturity around 2-3 years of age. You need professional help if you want to keep this dog and not have an injury happen to you or someone else. He is a liability at this point. I recommend a boarded veterinary behaviorist. Your Vet will likely know ones near you. I wish you the best!

Thank you for contacting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach with your question about your dog. So I see he is on Amoxicillin and Baytril. Those are antibiotics, and as a side effect, can cause GI upset in the form of diarrhea. He may be very aggressive due to feeling badly from the diarrhea. I would call his vet now to let them know the problems you are seeing, as the vet may want to check things out. Be very careful around him yourself so you don't get hurt. Best of luck.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. My advice is to get professional help sooner rather than later. This type of behavior is often due to anxiety. I would strongly recommend talking to your vet about anti-anxiety/ behavior modification medication which can make a huge difference! Once the medication is on board, the fear-threshold is lowered, and learning can occur. At that point, working with a reputable trainer in your area is a must. Best wishes to you and Cooper.

I would recommend a few different things for Annabelle. The first is getting a trainer to come to your home and see what the triggers are for her. That way they can help you learn how to deal with it and hopefully redirect her. There is medication that may help. Understand that it may take multiple medications, multiple trials and it can take time for medication to fully work. Your veterinarian will be able to prescribe medications to see what would be best for her. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! That kind of behavior is part of the usual behavior of a husky. You can perhaps help with anti-anxiety medications such as Trazodone which can be used on an as needed basis. Calming treats are not particularly helpful so I am not surprised that you have not noticed a difference with those. I would encourage you to check in with your veterinarian to see if they would be able to prescribe something like that for you. Best of luck!