My Yorkie is aggressive to visitors & kids. Does he need Prozac?

I am so sorry to hear about Ivanhoe! 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! Training is often completely ineffective if the fear/anxiety threshold is not lowered. Once medication is instituted, training is often MUCH more effective. I hope this helps! Best of luck to you all!

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.

I am sorry to hear what you and bongo are going through. Prozac usually takes up to 3-4 weeks to start working. Some people feel they notice benefit as early as 1-2 weeks. Many times dogs with extreme anxiety need multiple medications while waiting for the Prozac to reach peak affect ( ie using trazadone or alprazolam and Prozac together). Also working with a behaviorist in conjunction with medications is very important (especially with such a young dog) and will give you the most benefit.

He's pretty old to start working on that, so keep your expectations low, but you can start by having him around other dogs in very low key settings. Start really far away, give him lots of treats, and leave if he seems at all uncomfortable. Here's a website that goes in to dog body language a bit: https://positively.com/dog-training/understanding-dogs/canine-body-language/ I would also consider talking to his vet to see if they think he needs medication to help with general anxiety, or if he's a normal dog who just isn't very social. Good luck!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. I am sorry to hear about Blue, but you are not alone! This type of behavior is usually related to fear - fear that is so extreme that the pet has no choice but fight or flight. It often leads to aggression. The bad news is that an expensive trainer may not be able to help Blue anyways because her fear level is so high. The good news is that there are several great anti-anxiety medications that can make a HUGE difference in Blue's life. Not only will they reduce fear (and therefore aggression), but they will make whatever training you try MUCH more effective. (Pets cannot learn when they are scared). My favorites are amitiptyline and trazadone, but there are others available. Talk to your vet about what is available and reasonable to try for Blue. I hope this helps and best of luck to you and Blue!

Poor Walter. In some cases you are correct, the opposite effect is achieved and the pet becomes what we called paradoxically aggressive. This is not considered a normal side effect that will go away, but instead an adverse effect which has to do with how the pet metaboilzes the drug altogether. I would recommend discussing with your vet to stop the medication and try an alternative aggression medication at this time. If he has inter-pet aggression, then I would consider trying Clomicalm or Prozac (Fluoxetine) as an alternative. Also don't forget that you have more success controlling behavioral issues with pets when you do both medical therapy + behavioral modification training with an animal behaviorist. https://iaabc.org/consultants Best of luck with Walter and I hope you can get his behavioral issues resolved soon.

Hello, thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. This is a very dangerous situation, having an very large, & aggressive dog around children. Buspirone is a non-benzodiazepine anxiolytic agent used in dogs, but it may take a week or more to be effective; it is not appropriate for acute treatment of situational anxieties. I would never just depend on a medication to address this type of phobia where someone can be seriously hurt. Training, conditioning, muzzles must all be incorporated, along with an appropriate medication to try & manage Truman. You need the help of your veterinarian & a trainer or behavioral specialist if you want to socialize Truman & make him more comfortable & confident around children. I hope this helps. Take care.