Medication Update for My Anxious and Reactive Dog (January 2024)

Lucky started her 9th pack of Fluoxetine yesterday, marking her 9th month on medication. I had hoped to ease her off it by the end of last year, but the past months seemed like a plateau. The medication helped her go from being terrified to mostly anxious (sometimes just a little nervous). Our walks have become calmer and more enjoyable, and Lucky has become incredibly good with dogs - calm and playful in familiar areas.

However, we haven’t quite reached the point I had envisioned. Anxious is better than terrified, but there are still quite a few moments of jumpiness, especially when something unexpected occurs, particularly at night. You can see in the video that she is willing to pick up the food on the ground (which was not possible before when we are so close to the vehicles), but she is very nervous, and it has been like that for a while.

I’m not here to promote medicating dogs because I’m still contemplating increasing the dosage. Lucky is currently on 20mg per day, which is low. I’m considering checking with the vet and our trainer to see if it would make sense to give her more. I’ll provide an update in the next few weeks in case I decide to do that!