Alright, I'm leaving for the vets now. Cross your fingers and we'll see how tonight goes! It's also storming tonight (he hates thunderstorms, imagine that) so this will be a good test!

I hope the med works for you. Ill be watching for an update

Many years ago after my german shepard went to doggie heaven...my siberian husky was depressed. He lost his best friend. One day hubby and i went out...and we came home to him chewing on the water heater . It was gas mind you! He could have blown up the house plus we didnt have any water for 3 days. I call the vets and he put him on Clonicalm. It was the best thing we did. He was a great dog beforehand, but when his best friend died...he had a huge amount of seperation anxiety. As much as i hated putting him on anything......he really relaxed him to where he could enjoy life again. Good luck with your pup...i hope this works for you too!

Alright, I dosed him last night and here is the update.

At first he milled around outside with a listless look on his face, kind of like he didn't know what had hit him. He didn't beg, scratch or whine to come in. No incessant barking or talking back. It had rained so I let the dogs back in the house and put them in their crates to dry off. So far so good, right?

Wrong, my Mom came over and rang the bell, all hell broke loose. He freakin' looses it when someone rings the bell. He threw a fit, God awful noises came from his cage and I tried to calm him down. It kind of went down hill from there. He had an aggressive outburst with a toy and another dog, snarling and lunging at the other dogs face when they got close to him. I promptly removed the item in question from all thedogs and that was it for toys. The rest of the night I just tried to keep him as calm as possible and tried to interact with him and reinforce calm, positive commands.

Today is day two, he threw a fit this morning before I left for work. I'm holding out hope that things will get better and he'll learn that he doesn't need to dominate all situations and that the world is not ending just because he's in his cage. I'm sure the drug needs to build up in his system for a little while to see the full benefits of it. One of the side effects is "increased volcal outbursts," however, I think it's only temporary. I really hope it's only temporary.

Any suggestions for toy/food aggression? Am I doing it right?

Aw :( - I'm sorry it didn't go better. Anti-depressants can take anywhere from 3-6 weeks to be therapeutic, so even though you may see side effects immediately (ex. drowsiness), you won't really see the true therapeutic value until later. You may see some therapeutic reaction after about a week, but still not full value. Hang in there.

I don't have much experience w/ aggression, but, there are really talented, professional dog trainers who are members here at YT - and they always give incredible advice. You might want to scan the Training section, and also maybe start a thread there.

It will get better! :)

I have a renewed hope that this will be the boost he and I need to tackle these problems.

I'll scan the training section to see what I can dig up, thanks Wylie's Mom.

Yesterday was a little better, aside from the 20 minutes he spent making a noise akin to a dying baby Wookie. If it didn't happen so much it'd be funnier. If I could up load an audio clip I'd post it.

I'm incorporating treats into crating now, to try and make it more positive for him. I get a small handfull of kibble and make him sit for a kibble piece before going to his crate. I figure it'll knock two birds out with one stone (or a handful of kibble), a quick training session and a positive act coupled with the dreaded crate.

It's just so utterly hard to ignore him when he throws a tempter tantrum. That's my only downfall.