Stella and I are moving in with my partner who has 3 cats. She has 2 mainecoons and 1 elderly cat who is also very anxious. We have been working on introductions to the cats and home 1-3 times a week for about 2 months and Stella is still unable to settle and tries to chase/lunge at the cats. We’ve both consulted with our vets for strategies and for pre-medication prior to meetings. Stella also takes Zoloft, gabapentin, and clonidine twice a day at baseline. Even with an additional dose of gabapentin prior to going to the home, Stella has been unable to relax. Additionally, Stella has done private training lessons in the past and I am noticing skills regression since bringing her into the new home. She has much worse leash reactivity, separation anxiety, and pulling on walks.

He is reactive on leash with dogs and other animals. He barks, pulls, and lunges. This sometimes extends to looking through windows to bark at dogs. He is reactive to sound and plays too rough with other dogs. His reactiveness has been getting worse over the time that we've had him.

Ruby is a five year-old golden doodle. She is reactive to other dogs that she has not previously met. Typically she is on a leash and the other dogs are on or off leash. She will freeze up and bark/lunge if close enough. This started after she was attacked by a couple loose dogs. She has never bit and is friendly towards humans.

He has stranger danger and depending on the situation can react towards people. Definitely lunges on walks but is really good around dogs when in a free space (not on leash). He is not great with new people unless they are also with a dog.

I started fostering Limerick in Summer 2024. She wasn't thriving in a shelter environment because being around other dogs distressed her that much. I don't have any history on her because she was found wandering at the local public pool, and she's estimated to be about 8 years old now. She's honestly an angel at home - she walks great on a leash in general, was fully housebroken already, learns new commands quickly and eagerly, is good with the cats in the home, etc. She just gets incredibly stressed by other dogs. Limerick is definitely an anxious girl in general (she's on chronic Fluoxetine, and gets Gabapentin as needed for storms - I also give her Keppra twice a day because she's had 2 seizures before and Denamarin once a day because her ALT values are mildly elevated), but most of that is separation anxiety. She's incredibly attached to me and freaks out if we're separated at all. She doesn't act out though - she never tears things up, urinates/defecates inside, etc, she just screams and whines and throws herself at the door to try and get to me. This is why she's on anxiety meds, so that I can actually leave for work and stuff. I'm a Veterinary Nurse, so honestly I don't have a hard time handling her on walks (the most she ever does is plant, raise her hackles, and growl, which is not nearly as hard to manage as half the dogs I work with every day), I just want her to feel less stress on walks because she deserves to enjoy them fully. One of the Vets at the practice I work at recommended this program to me to hopefully help make walks a less stressful time for her.