Roo's first week on Fluoxetine. Dog anxiety

It's finally happened, Roo is on medication for her anxiety. Now it's time to find out if it will work for her.

A lot of people had told us that their dog was quite sleepy the first few days to a couple of weeks after starting medication and especially after they had just taken so they gave it to their dogs in the evenings. Given Roo's other health issues, we decided to give it to her in the morning so we could monitor her all day if anything happened. Roo's episodes typically last around 4 hours and she could easily have one during the night and we would never know.

The first morning, we were both fully prepared for a quiet morning, err no. Roo was still her usual self, rushing around not sleeping. We didn't really notice a difference in her until around 2pm when she took herself off to her crate and had a good snooze for an hour or so. Sue didn't even get up when one of us left or entered the room. After her nap she was very affectionate and needy. All she wanted to do was climb on our laps and lick our faces. Our first day, Roo reacted to 6 things. On average before medication Roo would have 17 reactive episodes in a day.

Days two and three, still typical Roo behaviour. Less reactions that normal around 6/7 but still reacting to nothing at times.

Day four, 2 reactions! Both to post coming through the door. It could have been a perfect day had she not decided to dig a metre long trench in the garden at lunch time. Typically Roo doesn't dig, there have a been a few occasions but it's not part of her every day issues. Not sure if it is boredom based now she is feeling less anxious, a one off or something else to add to the list.

Day five, six and seven, still a few reactions each day but definitely less than before. We still sit on edge when we hear people outside our house waiting for Roo to bark but the past few days we have been pleasantly surprised when she hasn't. Her reacting now seems to be limited to someone knocking on the door or post coming, which hopefully we can improve with training.

Seeing just these slight improvements has given us a much needed boost. We are finally hopeful for a more 'normal' future with Roo and very keen to see what the next few weeks bring. It can take 4 to 6 weeks for the medication to properly get into the system and work so we have a while to go before we will see the full effects of it.

Honesty before starting the medication we were at our wits end. We have tried so much with Roo and it felt hopeless. If you are struggling with your dog please go and see a trainer or a behaviourist if you think it could be anxiety related. You don't have have suffer or struggle in silence with your dog. There are professionals out there who deal with dogs like yours day in day out. We see so many people reaching out to others on social media for tips and tricks rather than going to see a professional. We have seen three different trainers and two behaviourist with Roo. Not cheap but worth every penny if we can make life a little better for Roo and us.