Very anxious dog - does it get better? Need some success stories maybe?

[u/aridede_b]

Hello!! I have a female dog that is turning 2 in November and our challenge is very strong anxiety towards environment. We adopted her with my partner when she was 12 weeks old so one could say it's ideal - but she was saved with her sisters and mother from bad conditions with small contact with human and then was totally quarantined for two weeks until we got her. Back then I was sure she's a puppy, she will learn everything no issue etc. We live in mid-large city, not in the very center but she came from a village. Anyway we started to socialise her, first from the bag, then out of it but she was always a bit shy. I think she was always anxious but I didn't understand it and then a noise startled her so much on a walk, she started running in panic and I ran with her instead of stopping her and comforting. From now on it went downhill, she was maybe 14 weeks when it happened; was scared of people, noises, cars, outside world generally. We went to a trainer and she suggested we socialised her too intensively which might be true but well, it was too late. She told us to use three areas and wanted us to use this method of coming back to the "safe" area everytime our puppy was scared. Now I know what method did she mean but she just didn't take into consideration the fact, that there's NO area outside where our dog felt safe. So the trainer shortcuted it all to "run with her where she wants to gain trust" and I feel like it was our biggest mistake as we taught her to run everytime she's scared of anything.

It was getting worse and worse to the point we changed to another behaviorist that recommended us meds because our dog would stop everywhere, startled, shaking, she would shake before going out of our apartament, ran away from collar or harness, either completely stop on walks or rush like there's no tomorrow in panic, she was 9 months old when we started the meds. She never wanted food when stressed, didn't want to eat outside and we have to use her wet food outside cause she doesn't take aby treats. The training though was "only" counter conditioning but it was so hard even on meds because it was still so hard even with the most delicious food. And it's not like walks were extremely hard, we carried her outside and at first even carried her to the forest near and maybe 2-3 people would walk past us during the whole hour but it was still so stressing for her. We continued but this training didn't do much.

At home she was startled of falling objects, noises of washing mashine or taking the dishes outside but it actually got better in this part! She started on fluoxetine and it made her rest and sleep so much more which we've seen as something good, we really care about her rest. She's such a nice dog at home right now, can rest but can also train with me, do nosework or exercises/fitness since she has first stages of luxating patellas. But once we are outside, even at peaceful place, this all just dissapears and is replaced with fears.

Back to my story, we went to veterinarian-behaviorist (we still do go to the same one) and trazodone has been added to the mix in February. Fluoxetine helped her after 6 weeks first as well - she wasn't like TOTALLY out of her mind like before, would do "sit" on the walk at some occasions, some of touching our hands, stopped rushing that much, we still continued counter conditioning, gave her food for every better behavior. And then, when she stopped progressing, trazodone helped as well, it seemed. She was exploring and sniffing more in the forest (before she would just go for the sake of walking). We started to train with another trainer to get more exercises on top of the counter conditioning and it worked, tried to keep her near us im difficult environment, to gain her trust in us (that it is safe with us) etc. She even started taking treats other than her food sometimes, could do few tricks in the woods... And it turned out she got her first heat at 1,5 years. During the heat she was braver, if you'd ask me if I want to keep it like this I'd say yes cause she was the best she every was, even if still scared a lot. Had contact with us. Sometimes she would even keep being close and nice to get food outside which before never happened. It was tiny bit annoying atm even cause I wanted her to explore but oh boy how I miss this.

After the heat it slowly became worse and worse. We tried to up the doses of both fluoxetine and trazodone (separately) but one made her even more anxious and the other caused that she was completely detached from us. Stopped taking the food outside again. Would startle at more things again, panic more and stop more, shake more. A month later she actually got stomach inflammation and we were treating that, so she acted very panicky and scared but we didn't want to change a lot at such hard time for her. At this point she was 1 year, 7 months. We slowly cured it, went on diet, did tests and ultrasound again and she got better but her anxiety stayed. We couldn't train again at all and went to our vet again to ask if we could change the meds as it got great results only around her heat so I wasn't even sure if it's meds at all.

And we're here today at very small dose of trazodone and week on our first destined dose of clomipramine (instead of fluoxetine) and I know I have to wait for it to kick in, I read this reddit like a maniac, not only this but like the whole internet. To get hope from anywhere. She's lovely and so smart at home! She actually loves her dog friends, she has some longterm pals, we go with them at least once a week and when she's in the fields with them it's the only time outside that her tail is up. She loves dogs btw, she would repeat so many things after them, we actually want another one one day but I'm too responsible to do it in the middle of this mess with her. Because other than on walks with friends, she's still shaking before going out, we now have to carry her out of the closed area our apartament is because she's frozen. She can go to our forest because with been there hundreds of times, everyday and she still has moments od huge panic even inside it, not even talking outside. She would freeze when someone is walking behind us, she would freeze when the car is turned on and just stays on her way, unmoving. She never actually wants to go outside, she's taking food only in specific areas and moments when she feels safe in the forest. I'm just so sad and it's not like I want her to completely fit my fantasy of dog but I poured so much energy, worry, money in her, I do many things with her at home and try try try but I feel so miserable seeing her progress... (Minimal) She's approaching second heat I think and I'm scared of it getting worse or better and then worse anyway. I'm waiting very patiently for the meds to kick in but I don't know if I actually believe I'll help. I want to, I don't want to give up, I know she was able to be better but I don't know how to come back to it. Training is almost impossible now, we're using the same routs she knows, she has routine and it's at least helping to do the same walk over and over and over. She's back to be very detached from us on walks too.

Do you think there's a chance something will click in her with either meds or maturing? I don't want to give up with the search for right meds but its taking so much time and energy, I'm just a bit discouraged. She will be 2 y o at the end of November. And I'm panicking I'll never get her out of this but I want it do much. :( I got interest in training, doing many things with my dog, I have time for it... But her brain declines and it makes me so sad.

If you have some good word for me, I'd appreciate it ❤️

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