How do you deal with a "depressed" dog?

Question

My dog is half dalmation and half australian cattle dog. He's a very lively dog but I think that causes him to get bored easily. He started chewing on his legs and paws to the point where they started to bleed a little. I've been trying to get him to stop for a long time. A couple days ago I noticed that he was keeping his weight off of one of his chewed paws. I took him to the vet, figuring it was infected. They gave us some antiboitic pills and recomended that he should take antidepressants. Hearing that made me feel like the worst dog owner in the history of the world.

Answer 1

give him his "bits" back!?!?!?!?!

Answer 2

Oh you poor thing! Actually, most people that ask pet related questions here on Yahoo! haven't bothered to take their pet to the vet, but you did! Congratulations on being a loving and responsible pet owner! Your dog may be depressed because he's bored. I hightly suggest LOTS of different toys. switch them out everday or every other. For instance, if you work or go to school, give him a new toy when you get home. play with him with it and make it fun! (after his daily walk) he'll probably want to play with it all day the next day. Then when you get home, give another toy and put that one up for a week. Intersperse about 8 or 10 different toys, including lots of stuff to chew on everyday. Take him for a walk morning AND evening so he'll be less bored. Dalmations and cattle dogs need a lot of activity, so if you do already walk him, encrease the time by about 10 minutes. Cattle dogs especially need a job, they are working dogs. You may want to get him one of those doggie carry packs that fit over his back and put something in it. Doesn't matter what it is, bottled water or anything and he'll feel like he's got a job. he'll feel useful and that should help tremendously. If the dog is highly drepressed maybe you want to give him antidepressants at first, but try it without and see what happens. I think you'll notice a difference and it will bring you closer together. Have fun and good luck!

Answer 3

Since you took the dog to the vet that makes you a good owner. Extra love is also good. try to spend time with him playing. Remember, your dog is a mix of working dogs. Each 1/2 of him is met to be mentally and physically active. If there is not change, you can purchase at a pet supply store a KONG toy or the like in which you can place a small treat and when he moves the toy around to play with it, the treat will evenly fall out for him to eat. Can you take him to a dog park to ramp a bit? Have there been any change in the family size or dynamics? Like did someone move out or go off to school? If none if this works then I would seriously consider the antidepressants form him. Good luck.

Answer 4

Your not a bad owner since you took him to the vet when something was wrong I would say that your are a great owner. If he becomes bored easily it's likely that he could get depressed. We have a dog like that. He needs to be stimulated and a little more love right now. Give him a lot of cuddles when he comes home and some treats and new toys to play with while you are away.

Answer 5

The dog needs two to four hours of work each day. If you or
your household can't get this done hire someone. Its cheap.
If you've got an acre or more lay out an oval track of climbs,
crawls, leaps, and (yes) swims. This will take training but any
cattle dog should be happy irregardless. Or, walks with oral
and hand signal commands, and drill the dog like a soldier
around the block or in nearby park. Some war dog veteran
at a retirement home would love the opportunity, y'think?

Answer 6

one of the weird things about drugs is that they group them into categories, but they're often used for other things. Some antidepressants are used for separation anxiety, some for OCD, others for hyperactivity, and some are even used to help people sleep...we do it with people drugs, and with dog drugs.

so, an antidepressant doesn't mean your dog is depressed, or that you're a bad owner. All it means is that they think a particular drug in the group called "antidepressants" is the best way to help your dog stop chewing.

Chewing, by the way, is often a sign of boredom or anxiety (or just too much energy). Long walks and learning new tricks can help a lot. You can get a doggie backpack to add some weight and make his walks tire him out more... (ask the vet to help you figure out how much weight is safe)

relax, and remember...bad owners don't look for answers!

Answer 7

You're not a bad dog owner. The chewing could be deppression, or an OCD type thing (which antidepressants would likely take care of), but it could also be something like allergies.

I've seen some websites that have "puzzles" for dogs. Most of them are toys that the dogs have to figure out how to take apart to get to the toys inside. Something like that might keep your dog stimulated enough to keep him from chewing on his paws - or you could make up your own little "puzzle" for him. Do a little web surfing and you're bound to come up with all kinds of ideas to keep his mind (and his mouth) off of his feet.

Answer 8

I have an Aussie named Scamp who will do the same thing. She gets bored and will start chewing on her hind legs.It took me awhile to figure out what and why she was doing this for.I'll take her for a run with the horses now.I had stopped doing that for awhile and that was about the time it started .She is getting a little older and it gets to be about 101 degrees or hotter in the summer afternoons and I thought it was to much for her.But I guess she needed that afternoon run. She started biting her legs and chewing on them. Now I take her with me again. Or play a good brisk game of kick ball in the open field beside the house she loves it. She can kick better then I can.She stopped chewing on herself.So I don't know if it was boredom or if she was mad or who knows but she stopped doing it.

Answer 9

there's a sparkling rigidity of Parvo out this 3 hundred and sixty 5 days this is extremely resilient and common Parvo vaccinations do no longer look to hide. If I bear in mind wisely NeoPar grew to become into the only vaccination that grew to become into useful against it and not many ppl use it. I purely bear in mind getting some data mailed to me on it early final spring or so. i will movie star this besides and if I also have a while to do slightly examine i will placed up findings. good success and that i'm sorry this is happening! upload>>>Sorry you're nonetheless no longer arising with a lot. Has a necropsy been performed on any of the ineffective doggies/canines? i could strongly urge you or anybody coping with something with such constrained tips to have a ineffective domestic dog sent to a school for an entire way of existence, isolation and sensitivity. this is heavily the place i could initiate! If it does no longer provide you a diagnosis it is going to a minimum of inform you what it is not...basically educational at this factor yet i could desire to understand if it have been my canines. Please save us published!

Answer 10

Aw, we hate to hear that our darling dogs have problems. Other answerers have said many good things for you: it's not your fault, sometimes depression just HAPPENS, antidepressants don't necessarily mean he's depressed, and you're a good owner for taking him to the vet and caring about him.

Since you're looking for help, I'd say you're definitely a good owner. Try to get your dog some new toys/jobs, like agility, obedience, puzzles, etc. Only get your dog a "friend" if YOU want to get another dog.

Best of luck to you and your dog - you're lucky to have each other!

Answer 11

There have already been excellent answers to your question from other contributors, and I really don't know if I can offer much more, but, I will try.

You have a dog that is bred from a combination of two very intelligent, high energy breeds of dogs. Your dog needs a job to burn off energy that is causing him to seek repetative actions to entertain himself.

The chewing of his body parts is your dog's way of ridding himself of pent up energy . Your dog has sufficient respect for your position as "pack leader" to refrain from damaging anything he sees as "yours" , so turns on himself instead.

I have a young male Labrador retriever that I dog sit for his owner( in emergencies) and this Lab was doing the same thing as your dog.
We ( his owner and I ) agreed to jog this dog daily (2 miles or more) and this has eased some of the problem.
The chewing of the body was corrected by lightly applying "Deep Heat Linament" to the healthy hair (DO NOT APPLY TO SKIN OR OPEN WOUNDS ) around the area the dog was chewing. This linament smells horrible and the dog is so offended by the smell that he leaves the formerly raw areas alone. Now ,it is not my recommendation that you use this linament; I am only stating that we tried it out of desperation and it worked for us!

I am personally not in favor of using tranquilizers on dogs unless there is no other possible alternative. I find that the "spirit" of the dog is compromised ( the dog becomes sluggish and apathetic), and I don't like to see this happen to an energetic dog.
Your dog needs daily vigorous exercise ( agility, disc dog exercise, swimming, diving , Chasing a tennis ball that you bat out of sight or whatever other type of interests you can find in your community).

I have even taken to hiding treats around the house and had my own Labs "go seek". This is one way to get them to use their sense of smell and their wits to come up with places I might hide their treats.
I wish you the best of luck finding something to burn off your dog's energy. I know that this is increasing the demand upon yourself as far as time and planning goes, but, your dog is showing you that he needs something he is not getting at present. This need will likely lessen as he gets older and there will be less demand upon you.

Please understand that what I have written does not mean that you are a bad owner! Just like humans, animals have different needs and the very intelligent dogs ( such as yours ) need just a bit more than the average dog.