Anxiety medication for cockapoo

[LunaNova]

Hi all!

Brief background: 6 year old cockapoo previously perfectly trained in every way, she was attacked last July by an XL bully (thankfully no skin broken but was lifted off the ground and shaken). Since then, she has been anxious in the house when we're in.

She's been checked over by the vet and everything is fine, the vets think it's purely psychological and think that it's only in the house because she's feeling protective over us. She's not anxious outside the house or around other dogs.

The problem is, when we're home but in a different room, she pees. When we're out she doesn't do it at all, but it's worse on days where I'm working from home or at the weekend. It doesn't matter if she's just been out and gone to the toilet in the garden, and there's no rhyme or reason to it.

She also barks at night when we go to bed (but not if we leave her during the day).

The vet recommended trying anxiety medication and said we'll probably have to try a few before we find the right one, but I'm not sure if any others we should try. So far we've tried:

Calmeze (2 months) seemed to stop the weeing but the barking at night was terrible.
Zylkene (3 months) seems to have made the barking at night better but the weeing was just as bad.
Yucalm (1 month so far) barking resolved but no change in weeing.

I'm tempted to try the calmeze again in case the night barking has just improved with time but are there any others we might be worth trying first? I feel so bad for my lovely girl that she's feeling this way and want to do anything I can to help.

I think you'd have more luck working with a behaviourist to get to the root of her problems and work on helping her feel more secure. It's pretty unlikely that it's because she's 'protective' of you.

Separation anxiety is very very very common in cockapoos.

Highly unlikely for any of the supplements you mention will make any difference in SA cases.

I agree get in touch with a qualified behaviourist not a trainer who calls themself a behaviourist. They will have knowledge of prescription medication and will work with the vet to create a plan to help you move forward.

As PP said, you need a behaviourist, not medication.

You won't change her behaviour unless you deal with emotions/trauma around what happened to her (and to you).

Valium for dogs. Is this the end of civilisation as we know it?

So these are all non-prescription supplements. You can get prescription meds but you have to work with a veterinary behaviourst as they are just to help transition. Hannah Donovan is very good personally but otherwise check APBC but ideally you want a vet who is additionally behaviour trained.

Pain is usually the root cause of a sudden change in behaviour, it may be worth investigating further than just a check over at the vets.

My dog had a similar issue and we worked together with the vet and behaviourist. She had extensive investigations at the Vet Hospital (TG for Pet Plan). She now is on a pain plan which has helped a lot.

The vet also prescribed Reconcile which is apparently the dog version of Prozac/Fluoxetine and has recently been licensed for use in the UK. The Reconcile has also helped a lot and we almost have our old dog back.

Thanks all, we have worked with a behaviourist previously. We've worked with the same one twice for our cockapoo as she was an anxious pup too and we had great results the first time, the second time not so much as we can't seem to find the trigger for the specific behaviour.

It doesn't seem to be anxiety about being left as it mostly happens when we're around, sometimes we can be in the same room and she has a sudden anxious spell resulting in her pacing manically (if it happens when we're with her she wees less frequently but it does still happen). When we leave the house she doesn't care and behaves normally, other than the odd play spell with our other dog she mostly sleeps. We never come home to accidents.

I'll have a look for a vet behaviourist, it's just so frustrating that she was never like this before the dog attack so that's obviously set something off. I am grateful that she's not become dog reactive from it, but this just seems to be impossible to resolve at the minute. Our current vet didn't really want to consider prescription meds at this stage as it's been less than a year since the attack and she's otherwise seemingly unphased by it - in that she is fine on walks and with other dogs.

I do wonder if it's my reaction to the attack rather than the attack itself that's caused the anxiety. When it happened I was holding her lead, my DH had our other dog and our 2 year old daughter was walking beside us. As I saw this great brute of a dog fly towards us and grab Luna by the scruff of the neck I screamed, dropped Luna's lead (in the hope that she could run away without hindrance if he let go) and grabbed our toddler because I was terrified the dog was gonna turn it's sights on us. I was really shook up by the event myself as our DD was literally about 30cm away from Luna when she was grabbed.

Does she behave like this if you're out, but DH and DD are home?

I wonder if she feels like she needs to protect you after your reaction?

Doesn't a ball 'trump' EVERYTHING for a dog?

So what about one of these?

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/6185857?istCompanyId=a74d8886-5df9-4baa-b776-166b3bf9111c&istFeedId=c290d9a9-b5d6-423c-841d-2a559621874c&istItemId=ixilqmalr&istBid=t&&cmpid=GS001&_$ja=tsid:59157%7cacid:278-707-7346%7ccid:16617947461%7cagid:135646442558%7ctid:pla-871376141928%7ccrid:588782485810%7cnw:u%7crnd:7275422702140346877%7cdvc:c%7cadp:%7cmt:%7cloc:9045821&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=16617947461&utm_term=6185857&utm_content=shopping&utm_custom1=135646442558&utm_custom2=278-707-7346&gclid=Cj0KCQjw27mhBhC9ARIsAIFsETHPtPt4YcMxk0DjgiHcz4RxBtttT-UkIv3NT_Yh6LeFhaW8Rog5GO0aAkWZEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

What exactly does make her anxious?
Is it something in your/ DH/DD behaviour? (as in movement, tone of voice, ...)
I adopted a very anxious cookerpoo (mimi Poodle X - the worst of both breeds!).
She peed like yours, when I was in the room: moving around or left the room- DC called it revenge pee!
It took about 6 months to "cure". I just taught her the settle command (down/stay) when moving around the house or leaving her for an other room. It's important to increase time and distance slowly! I've done it all with hand signals as your voice can carry all kinds of emotions that they can pick up on.
But then, my little doggy is super focused on me!
If human, the NM advice would be ditch/ leave as she's soo controlling!

Might not cut the mustard, but try a calming collar. Our cockapoo has one which emits a lavender type smell and it has calmed her down a lot. It was about £20 on Amazon.