Mercy is a 5.5 year old pit bull mix.

I got Mercy 4.5 years ago from some people who were not taking care of her. I don't have any reason to believe they were outright beating her, but her medical needs were neglected and she has permanent scarring from possible chemical burns. The vet believes that it may have started with an OTC flea topical and was left to fester and create severe skin trauma.

When I took her home, she was scared of everything, I took my time, she warmed up. She developed strange phobias out of thin air. One week she was terrified of the kitchen even though she never had a problem before and ate her dinner there, another white trucks when we'd go for walks, another children. She held onto the child phobia for much longer and seeing them even dozens of yards away would cause her to start shaking and practically wilt into herself. Another issue she had was she would stand or sit around and hang her head, stare at the floor, and actually mope. She was extremely sad, nothing made her happy, sometimes she wouldn't even eat because she was too preoccupied with moping. One time I noticed her doing it and almost an hour later realized she hadn't moved and was still staring at the floor.
A year after getting her I got a trainer to help me with some of her fear issues and she turned into a normal dog almost over night with the correct leadership she needed from me. Children stopped being so scary and eventually she realized that they tasted like Cheetos and sometimes give her cheese crackers, too. She finally learned how to fetch a ball, learned how to lay down on command, learned how to come to me every single time I called her. These were all things that were impossible for the first year.

Fast forward three years later and she still mopes. She's no where near as bad as she used to be, but she has 'moods' where it seems like she really believes the sky is falling, that everyone is mean or is going to beat her. The moods come and go and there's really no trigger that I can tell, but the one thing I have noticed is that high stress situations like a road trip and staying at hotels or with family makes her HAPPIER than when she's at home. This is completely strange to me, because I would think stress and new environments and new people around her would make her feel worse, not better. I can't exactly afford to take road trips every month just to make my dog happy, and I try to expose her to new things weekly so that she has something to think about, but I'm running out of options since I'm going on 2 years of living in New Orleans.

I'm sorry all of this kind of rambles, but I wanted to lay out the whole story and see what you guys think. Can dogs have depression? Do you think I should talk to a vet about possible medication to see if it would help her? I'd say her moods come on once every two weeks or so and you can't really see a pattern, it just happens.

I just found this, and thought I would pass it along.

http://pets.webmd.com/dogs/features/depression-in-dogs

 Quote:

What Are the Symptoms of Dog Depression?

Dog depression symptoms are very similar to those in people, said John Ciribassi, DVM, past president of the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior. “Dogs will become withdrawn. They become inactive. Their eating and sleeping habits often change. They don’t participate in the things they once enjoyed.”

But vets warn those symptoms also can mean a dog has a medical problem, so the first course of action should always be a full checkup by a veterinarian. A pet that mopes around and no longer wants to go for walks could simply have pain from arthritis, Beaver says.

I would make sure that Mercy doesn't have a medical problem that might be the source of her problem. If it isn't pain related, then I would start looking at considering getting a behaviorist to see if there is something more you could do before resorting to medications for depression. Often times a behaviorist might be able to see the situation from an outsiders perspective and give you some kind of insight to the problem.

It sounds like you are trying everything you can Samantha and you have done a good job, and deserve lots of kudos for taking Mercy in to your home, not to mention having achieved success with your work with her around children.
It is interesting though that she seems to really enjoy getting out of the normal routine, and enjoys the road trips!


One more thought, most dogs are very tuned in to their owners emotions, and if you or someone your dog is close to, is going through something emotional, it can effect your dog in specific ways. That is something to think about anyways, just some ideas.

Mercy is a lucky pup to have you, I wish you all the best trying to figure this out.

I believe that yes of course, they are emotional beings and can have depression....even clincal. I have done quite a bit of research in this area and overall there are certain health factors that play a role big time. In humans just changing the diet and lifestyle can greatly help serious mental health disorders like depression, bipolar, schizo and autism.

I believe there are many factors, environment, how one see's the world in default, trauma, genetics, exercise, protein in the diet (protein makes neurotransmitters), vitamin D...etc.

I believe that it is best depending on severity (in dogs there is no risk of suicide) to take a holistic approach with diet, exercise and doggie behavioral therapy. Drugs should be an absolute last resort for depression alone.

I had a hardwired anxious dog once, with positive training and desensitization alone I was able to get her to be comfortable around people and even showed her in agility trials! Yep, she even did the see-saw! She was always a nervous, sound shy dog genetically but her improvement was drastic.

Besides all that Joyce said, I just wanted to add that depression in dogs does exist (I used to be highly skeptical, but now I've seen it, watched it, been convinced, more than once ... JMO!).

Working with another person's dog who had some of the apparently-depressed intervals you describe, I followed some advice I read somewhere (I wish I remembered where; obviously it was a source I trusted) and boosted her exercise. What I read was that depression in dogs could respond to many of the same things that can boost a human having a depressed period: exercise, change in scenery, action in general. Also, again following simplified Skinner-type behavior work, the dog was boosted into activity (and not reinforced or soothed in depressed behavior), and rewarded for happy reactions.

Of course physical possibilities need to be ruled out first.

Believe me, I know how all this sounds at first.

I can only report that it was the most successful protocol with the dog I'm talking about.

I even researched whether serum dopamine increased in dogs during and post-exercise as it does in humans, and found confirming research from the 80s and 90s.

IOW, it seemed to me that it was well worth a try, and it was.

We took care not to "reward" a depressed state. I don't know how important this is, but we first called the dog, got her moving around, and THEN headed outside for a run and a little car ride so the depressed behavior wasn't obviously triggering something nice from the owner.

I might have way over-complicated it... who knows. But whatever things I did wrong, the basic idea did indeed prove helpful, and it was immediate. Not permanent, but a great new tool for each episode.

All JMO!

Joyce, you do have a point I haven't really thought about. My husband isn't super close to Mercy, but she likes him a lot and he's been going through some issues with PTSD and insomnia. She doesn't try to get close to him when he's having a particularly hard time, but maybe it is affecting her. Maybe it's affecting me and is affecting her through me. I try to take care of myself while supporting him.

Mercy's 5th Birthday

Zoey always seems sad and some what depressed when I have to leave for a couple days, when I'm getting ready to go she knows and hangs her head and mopes.

If all you are correct it only solidifies my thoughts all along

that I seem to have this effect on most women.

You're such a player, Joe!

Most dogs can read the emotional environment very well- if your husband is having troubles, Mercy may just not know how she is supposed to act during those times. There were times when Drift was working with the kids in the mental health facility when she would hackle up and try to get out of the room- It was always when one of the kids was having a bad time and was in a negative mood. I think when people are in a bad "space" or frame of mind, the dogs can sense an energy change. Mercy sounds like she's a rather sensitive dog (like Drift) so she reacts with being jumpy... her "go to" behavior in the past.

I would keep a journal for a while. When she shows these behaviors, write down exactly what is going on - ask you husband if he's having some troubles, are you having some issues that you are dealing with? Even record the weather- ya never know what can affect them, and barometric changes are a big deal to some dogs. Write down the moon phase. Again, you just never know...

It's kind of cool- you get to delve into your dog's psyche

Let us know what you come up with if you do the journaling.