Hi all! My boyfriend has a 6&1/2 yr old male Rottweilerb(a smaller boi, he's 75 lbs) and the dog has been anxious as all get out since we started dating 5 years ago. He adopted Lou (the doggo) at about age 1 yr old (guessing)..
Lou was a surrender: he had been adopted and a year later the owners brought him back to the breeder, who places the ad for the dog with just a rehoming fee.
Lou has always been scared. He didn't know what anything was when my partner got him: stairs, traffic comes, wooden walkway/bridges (any kind of walkway going over water- even small ones).
He used to "fear nip" at people on occasion (not cut, just if he got a bad vibe in the first year or two he'd do a "nip" thing if they tried to pet him, not a bite, not touching skin, but in their direction so they knew "don't touch me, not cool!". He has become very well adjusted since my boyfriend adopted him and hasn't done that in 3-4 years. He lets random people walk up and pet him now even though it makes me slightly nervous, he picks up on our vibe so I act cool and calm and it hasn't been a proven in years and years.
But he is ANXIOUS. Like he pants all the time. He cries when my boyfriend leave the house or to get in the bedroom, so we have started letting him sleep on a second bed on the floor of the bedroom. My boyfriend literally holds his paw when we watch movies. The constant panting drives me a bit nuts tho, ngl.
I'm concerned because he doesn't know to relax around other dogs and cats... But he has coexisted with both. My boyfriend has another dog (a roommate) the first year or so and he lived with my 2 cats for 3 years or so. He clashes with large breed male dogs at times. But cats have been fine in the past.
Edit: And I am getting lots of comments on prey drive. Yes this was a concern but Lou has NEVER bitten or attacked ANY ANIMAL EVER. Not cats (that he lived with), not the damn mouse that was in our house (ughhh!), never ever ever attacked any animal. He has been attacked by a male dog once but did not bite the other dog.
So here is my current situation: I just adopted a kitten. I'm a cat person. Lou is very interested in the kitten. We have only let them be around each other supervised. Lou did fear nip on the kitten's direction over after the cat ran up to him, hissed and swatted him in the face and drew blood but he didn't get his mouth anywhere near the cat. This was when my boyfriend let them be alone together in a room on day 3...
And... now the kitten has gotten bigger, it has been about 2-3 weeks. And the kitten wants to play with Lou soooo much. Lou just has no chill. He hasn't nipped again... Even though kitten did attack him one other time. He just can't stop panting and staring the kitten down when in the same room (I'm usually holding the kitten).
If Lou would chill the kitten would be playing with him constantly. I would settle for peaceful coexistence and Lou not caring about the cat like he did with my last cats. Could just be because this one is tiny and new.
The kitten is Toki Wartooth (from Metalocolypse).
Toki just wants Lou to chill.
What can I do to make Lou calm down other than positive reinforcement when Lou behaves around him? We have been using training commands ("back it up, down, look at me, stay") and those work well, Lou is well trained by my boyfriend (he was a terrified pup when my boyfriend got him and he put a lot of work into training, he has experience at training big dogs but knows very little about cats).
Any suggestions??? We've been considering taking Lou in to see if he may benefit from SSRI's or doggy anxiety meds. We've considered this for years.
I've read that trazadone helps a lot with anxiety in large dogs. Anyone have any experience with this? It wouldn't just be for Lou and Toki to get along though, This was the catalyst to an issue we have been discussing for years: we want Lou to be less anxious in general and if medication would be helpful for his mental health, we may want to try it.
Tips and recc's, shared stories, etc, would be great!
** Edit: My boyfriend insists Lou does not have a prey drive or if he does, he has not seen it, and he says he isn't exhibiting a prey drive towards this kitten (I know he wasn't with my cat who died of heart failure). And my boyfriend has raised some very large (often called "aggressive breed") dogs and has absolutely seen a prey drive in action, he has some stories of former dogs that shocked me, being a cat person).