Pills for Pups: Medication and Behavior - a podcast by Ty Brown

Today I want to talk about drugs. Not in the Nancy Reagan, 1970s, “Just say no!” way, but in relation to dogs.

It seems that every year, more and more dogs are getting on drugs to hopefully modify their behavior. These are drugs similar to the ones that humans take for depression and anxiety to deal from everything from aggression to hyperactivity to excessive barking.

There are generally two groups that push for drugs. The first is veterinarians, whose mindset I can understand even if I don’t agree with it. I love vets and I think we all need them. But they don’t generally have expertise in dealing with behavior. Even veterinarian behaviorists tend not to be up to snuff on how to affect change in dogs’ behavior.

Why is this? Because veterinarians look at the body. They want to know how they can neuter a dog, heal its wounds, or treat an allergy. When it comes to behavior, their training persists. So when a veterinarian is confronted with an aggressive dog, then, they often suggest giving a pill to make him calm down.

I don’t agree with this impulse, but I do understand it. There’s a large parallel with what has been happening for a while in the human pharmaceutical industry, where a lot of doctors and veterinarians are prescribing things that they probably don’t need to. I can’t speak to the human medical side of things, but I am an expert in dog behavior. I’ve helped many dogs get off their medication. On the other hand, I’ve seen what medication can do. Sometimes it can be a great help.

The second group that pushes drugs is dog trainers. I’m mostly referring to the “pure positive” or “anti-adversive” style of dog training that’s appeared in the past twenty years. While every dog training program should contain plenty of positive reinforcement, these trainers don’t use corrections at all. These types of trainers also push for a lot of drugs and medications. The reason is very simple: you can’t train dogs very well using a “pure positive” method. Most dogs with bigger problems like aggression or anxiety can’t be helped by a trainer who’s just pushing treats, so something has to fill the gap. A lot of these trainers are inexperienced or simply lack expertise. They’ll suggest that their clients go to the vet and put their dog on medication instead of actually training the dog with a method that works. This is becoming a big problem.

Medication, at its root, is a chemical. For that reason, it may be very helpful to a person who has a chemical imbalance such as bipolar disorder or thyroid problems. When the body is not producing the chemicals or hormones it needs to be healthy, medication can be hugely helpful. This is not an anti-drug post!

But I do believe that a majority of dog behavior problems are not related to chemical imbalances. Now, I’m speaking not from hard research, but from anecdotal experience as a person who’s trained thousands of dogs. Nearly every problem I see is a simple behavior problem, stemming from poor socialization, lack of correction or structure at home, or not enough exercise. A number of factors can cause behavior problems, but very few of them are chemically related.

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