Puppy prozac, doggy porn
By Gina Spadafori
April 22, 2007
I hope our Dr. Marty Becker forgives me for wrapping these two items into one post …
Yesterday, our Dr. Marty was on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America” weekend edition.” It’s not his usual assignment, but they asked him to stay an extra couple of days after his regular GMA appearance on Thursday (which had been postponed from Tuesday because of the Virginia Tech tragedy).
The subject of yesterday’s segment was separation anxiety in dogs, and the release of Reconcile, a new drug to help owners work through this difficult behavior problem. Reconcile is a beef-flavored chewable version of fluoxetine, a drug more commonly known by the brand name Prozac. Its use is not new in veterinary circles. Dr. Nicholas Dodman of Tufts pioneered the use of Prozac in helping to treat pet behavior problems more than a decade ago.
Eli Lily’s make-over of the product in a more pet-friendly form will make it easier for pet-owners to use. And that will be good news to pets, their owners, their veterinarians and, well, Eli Lilly, of course. (Here’s a pretty good read on how drug companies are keen on the veterinary market, where human drugs have been commonplace for years in what’s called “off label” use.)
But as Dr. Becker points out, puppy Prozac no matter what its form is not a “magic pill” to get you an instantly perfect pet:
Becker said that for people whose veterinarians believe medication might be the best course of action, Reconcile should be combined with other forms of treatment.
“You should combine this with more behavioral training. And give them jobs. With drugs like Reconcile and behavior training, 42 percent showed improvement in one week,” he said.
Good advice, but then, he is one of us, and good advice is what we try to do here at the Pet Connection.
Here’s the rest of the article, on the ABC-TV Web site.
Now for your daily weirdness, how about an article with pictures on a new sex doll for dogs? No, we’re not kidding. Gizmodo has the goods. (The link isn’t exactly work-safe, but it isn’t that bad.) Go on, click. You’ll laugh.
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How many million dog have separation anxiety - was it three?
I commented about it on a blog thread when I first heard of it last week. There is something wrong with the way dogs are being treated and kept locked away from life - it is a crying shame to drug them up to retrain them. Don’t tell the benefits of it - I went through all of it myself with a paid medicine pusher from U.C.D. I threw the pills away, exercised my dog more, played constructive games and gave her a playmate buddy.
Something is terribly wrong here. Really. Medicating dogs is nuts - as far as the doggie porn goes - give me a break please. We are fighting to say our pets from dying and now Doggie sex toys. This is consumerism gone amuck.
Linda MS
Comment by Linda — April 22, 2007 @ 10:16 am
I wonder how many of those anxiety-ridden dogs would be cured if their pet parent[s] took Prozac instead.
Comment by Lynn — April 22, 2007 @ 12:32 pm
Re the doggie sex toy: best [only?] laugh I’ve had in a month or so.
Comment by Lynn — April 22, 2007 @ 12:33 pm
Re: the dog toy
Wow. Just wow.
I haven’t laughed that hard in weeks.
Comment by Ally — April 22, 2007 @ 12:54 pm
HEY!! - Where’s the toy for cats?
Comment by elliott — April 22, 2007 @ 2:19 pm
Give them jobs? Did I miss something here? Or does that phrase need more explanation?
I can see employment offices flooded with German shepherds and golden retrievers looking for guard dog and guide dog work. “Will work for treats!”
Comment by KathyF — April 23, 2007 @ 1:15 am