Experience of 'anti-anxiety' aids

[hurricane124]

Hi
Unfortunately our rescue staffy was attacked by another dog on Sunday. She's suspected to be an ex bait dog so has always been fear reactive (just growly) with dogs who get in her space. She's made great progress with this in the past year. It wasn't a horrific attack but she did spend the day at the emergency vets getting sedated and sewn back up.
Understandably she's been a bag of nerves since sunday.
Following advice she now has an adaptil collar and has nutracalm tablets to start taking tomorrow. Just wondered if anyone had experience with either of these and if they were effective?
We're waiting to see her trainer again to see how to proceed from here.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

Poor girl!

Sorry I have no experience of anxiety aids but do know a staffy with very fixed views who doesn't like to change her mind, no matter how her owners try to change her mind, so you have all my sympathy with this.

 

[hurricane124]

Poor girl!

Sorry I have no experience of anxiety aids but do know a staffy with very fixed views who doesn't like to change her mind, no matter how her owners try to change her mind, so you have all my sympathy with this.

We had finally managed to semi convince her that random dogs weren't just going to attack her - guess life has proved us wrong!

 

[{97702}]

oh no that's awful, how did she manage to get attacked? Poor girl, she must have been petrified

I've heard good things about adaptil collars but in different circumstances, I do hope they work for her

 

[meleeka]

Adaptil collars worked well for my dog.

 

[Aru]

I use adaptil spray on a bandana all the time. Helps a lot of dogs with mild anxiety... But isn't enough in severe cases.

Your reaction and confidence in handling the walks going forward will also help massively as well, dogs do very much feed off our attitudes and worries so projecting confidence and comfortableness as opposed to wariness when meeting new dogs can help her feel less anxious....easier said then done after a bad episode though
Good luck with the trainer

 

[Britestar]

Nutracalm id great. I use for a Thunder fearful dog to great effect.

 

[pippixox]

poor dog. terrible
I would strongly recommend trying a thunder vest- I know a friend with a nervous collie who swears by it, and didn't find the chemical options did much.
also a yellow I need space vest to hopefully stop dogs rushing up if their owners bother to look!
as mentioned by others, watch your own anxiety. I used to have a rescue GSD who was fear reactive and I had to remind myself to remain calm as he hugely picked up on my own anxiety. he made great progress in the three years we had him (PTS young from cancer) but he would never be able to be off lead in public parks just encase as of course you don't know what other dogs will behave like. so worth it though, as he was great with all people and had a few dog friends.

ultimately it is all about management to avoid close proximity to unknown dogs. we never walked in dog busy places unless early or late. but we did go everywhere camping with him, just made sure he had enough space. as much as it sounds terrible, it was actually helpful that people tended to keep there distance from a GSD! probably similar with a staffy! (no offence, we have had 2 weeks with my brother in laws staff and I love her- although she is also selective with unknown dogs due to a similar situation to your poor rescue, but thankfully she accepts my two dogs with careful introduction)

 

[hurricane124]

oh no that's awful, how did she manage to get attacked? Poor girl, she must have been petrified

I've heard good things about adaptil collars but in different circumstances, I do hope they work for her

We were out a local running event we go to everyweek. She was running on lead with me and an off lead dog ran over and grabbed her face.

 

[hurricane124]

Nutracalm id great. I use for a Thunder fearful dog to great effect.

Thanks vet told us to give her 1-2 tabs before her walk. Tried her with 1 today an hour and a half before and she still started crying when she saw a dog the other side of the road about 70 feet away walking away from us. Tomorrow we try 2 tablets I guess!

 

[hurricane124]

poor dog. terrible
I would strongly recommend trying a thunder vest- I know a friend with a nervous collie who swears by it, and didn't find the chemical options did much.
also a yellow I need space vest to hopefully stop dogs rushing up if their owners bother to look!
as mentioned by others, watch your own anxiety. I used to have a rescue GSD who was fear reactive and I had to remind myself to remain calm as he hugely picked up on my own anxiety. he made great progress in the three years we had him (PTS young from cancer) but he would never be able to be off lead in public parks just encase as of course you don't know what other dogs will behave like. so worth it though, as he was great with all people and had a few dog friends.

ultimately it is all about management to avoid close proximity to unknown dogs. we never walked in dog busy places unless early or late. but we did go everywhere camping with him, just made sure he had enough space. as much as it sounds terrible, it was actually helpful that people tended to keep there distance from a GSD! probably similar with a staffy! (no offence, we have had 2 weeks with my brother in laws staff and I love her- although she is also selective with unknown dogs due to a similar situation to your poor rescue, but thankfully she accepts my two dogs with careful introduction)

Yes we are lucky that some people keep their distance!

She already has yellow dog 'I need space' lead cover and 2 harness patches saying ' rescue Dog and in training. Hopefully they keep people away.

 

[{97702}]

We were out a local running event we go to everyweek. She was running on lead with me and an off lead dog ran over and grabbed her face.

Oh poor girl Was that Parkrun? I do hope she recovers well xx

 

[hurricane124]

Oh poor girl Was that Parkrun? I do hope she recovers well xx

Great run local - very similar to park run.
She's healing up well physically. I think her anxiety will take a bit more time.

 

[Mynstrel]

Thundershirts are really good, or google ttouch body wraps which you can do with a tail bandage and aren't as hot in warm weather (and easy to keep in your pocket!)

Currently trying nutracalm on our anxious collie rescue and it does seem to help.

Beyond using calming aids, work out where her comfort distance is from strange dogs now and don't deliberately push her out of it but work slowly on reducing it with lots of rewards for good behaviour, somebody with a non-reactive dog can help a lot with that. Remember to keep calm and positive.

 

[hurricane124]

Here she is today- let us know what she thinks of her cone!

 

[{97702}]

She is beautiful 😊😊

 

[satinbaze]

I find Pet Remedy is better than adaptil. Easily available online, my vet uses this too with great success. Thunder shirt is also good and if you buy one from a proper pet shop there is a 30 day full return from the company if it doesn’t work for your dog

 

[Kaylum]

My westie was attacked years ago by a gsd. She was thrown in the air. The idiot owner of the other dog let if off for the first time not knowing what it would do.

My dog was hurt and had been bitten. They got a nice vets bill around £900 the reason why all dog owners should get insurance.

I carried a walking stick with me when we walked after that to put some space around us and another dog. The owners could clearly see she was on a lead and got nervous from other dogs coming up to her. Why people cant see dog on a lead put your dog on a lead. Plus I thought at the runs all dogs had to be on a lead?

Adaptil helped my rescue dog to settle in.

 

[hurricane124]

My westie was attacked years ago by a gsd. She was thrown in the air. The idiot owner of the other dog let if off for the first time not knowing what it would do.

My dog was hurt and had been bitten. They got a nice vets bill around £900 the reason why all dog owners should get insurance.

I carried a walking stick with me when we walked after that to put some space around us and another dog. The owners could clearly see she was on a lead and got nervous from other dogs coming up to her. Why people cant see dog on a lead put your dog on a lead. Plus I thought at the runs all dogs had to be on a lead?

Adaptil helped my rescue dog to settle in.

We are currently at £800 with follow ups. Luckily £600 has been paid by the other owner.

All dogs taking part in the run have to be on leads and other runners tend to be very respectful of that- however nothing stopping other park users doing what they want, which is what happened.
Technically the park is on an on lead zone. But turns out it's voluntary and non enforced

 

[Stiff Knees]

Hello Hurricane124. She is lovely 😍. We have tried Adaptil spray and Nutracalm tablets in the past. I don't think the Adaptil helped but the anxiety we were dealing with was a quite severe case (a reaction to a stroke and one very confused elderly Labrador). The Nutracalm tablets did help but took a few days to reach their optimum effect, if you don't see an immediate result I'd be inclined to persevere as giving them for an extra day or two might make all the difference. I hope your beautiful girl is feeling much better soon ❤️

 

[Cahill]

sorry to read about your sbt. x

 

[Clodagh]

She is beautiful. Poor thing.
As a matter of interest, and it is none of my business - but my OH would say 'When has that stopped me', will the other dogs owner be paying all your bill? I hope so. At least they have proved honest so far!