Barking Up The Wrong Tree

Does your dog need a stress pill?

According to the Daily Mail today, this is the new craze from the US that is about to cross the Atlantic.  Americans, crazy as we Brits think they are, have in some people’s opinion gone a step too far in their wish to treat dogs as members of the family.  Americans can already buy pills for their dogs to treat them for obesity (stop feeding them so much), amnesia (how do you know what a dog has forgotten, my dog deliberately forgets her name when it suits her) and OCD (is it really OCD if your dog repeatedly chases his tail?)

Now a British pharmaceutical company has bought the rights to two of these drugs and will be running tests in the UK.  If they are approved, you will need a prescription to get them for your dog.  One is for depression and the other is for OCD.

These pills were invented by a vet born in Britain, Nicholas Dodman, who said:

‘People are bonkers about their pets, as they should be.  Most pet owners understand that animals are living, sentient creatures-that have emotions similar to our own. Pets face more mental health problems for the same reasons we do as we live increasingly constrained, pedestrian lifestyles.’

But Dr Ian Dunbar, a vet who runs a dog training programme, said: ‘I’ve never had to resort to drugs to deal with some quite serious mental problems. But the average pet owner wants a pill because he thinks it’s a simple solution.’

Personally, I think it’s a load of old poppycock… what do you reckon?