It should be considered understandable for dogs to have anxiety as they live in a world that they cannot completely understand.
In case you haven’t read my other posts, King is 12 years old. We got him as a puppy at 8 weeks old. He did training at puppy school. He learned everything quickly and we thought we did a solid job with training him. As any first time dog owner, you learn that there is plenty you do not know about owning a dog. I am hoping by sharing our trials and tribulations with owning a dog, that you can pick up a few helpful tips.
King has two types of anxiety: noise anxiety and separation anxiety.
We live in California and fireworks are pretty popular here during holidays. King’s first 4th of July was coming up- We knew that dogs are either terrified of fireworks or are pretty neutral. We worked on noise desensitization with him prior to the holiday, but in reality, can you really mimic the noise of a firework…no.
So we made a great decision and took him to the beach on 4th of July- at 6 months old. As soon as the fireworks started, King was petrified and he tried to run away. So, he was scarred for life with loud noises moving forward.
Every 4th of July since, he turns into a nervous wreck once the fireworks start goin off.
We have learned ways to block out the noise:
1) Getting a surround sound and playing a movie loudly.
2) We bought floor fans that are loud and can block out some background noise.
3) We have a wifi speaker that we play a fan noise on as well (it’s literally my top song on Spotify LOL).
4) The last line of defense was getting a vet to prescribe Trazadone, which we did not get until he was about 9.
After the fireworks debacle, King became afraid of other loud noises as well: construction noises, nail guns, loud wind (when he’s inside). We honestly never know what sound is going to make him nervous. Anytime we leave him alone, we either turn the floor fan on or turn the fan noise on the speaker to drown out outside noises.
Moving on to separation anxiety. He didn’t always have this, it came on shortly after the COVID pandemic. Both my husband and I were home for at least a couple of months. I went back to work first, but my husband was still working from home. When they requested him to go back to the office, soon after, King started having anxiety episodes when he was left alone.
He was crate trained as a puppy, but after about 2 years, we trusted him enough to have access to the whole house when we left. We also have cameras in the house and are able to monitor him while we aren’t home- He would just sleep, get up, stretch and then lay back down.
Well in 2023 he had his first anxiety episode and he tried to scratch his way out of the door that goes out to the garage. In his attempt to escape, he also chewed up shoes (which he has never done in his life). He also tried scratching his way out of the sliding glass door to the backyard. Luckily both doors he tried getting out are heavy duty, and he’s a strong dog. He did end up hurting his paws and mouth, both were bleeding. We actually had to have my sister in law come over until we could get home from work that day so he wouldn’t keep hurting himself.
After that first episode, we decided to put him back in his crate while left alone so he could not hurt himself. Well, things did not get better with that. His crate was made of metal, as the wire style ones he could break out of. He would try to scratch, claw and bite his way out of the crate. We came home again to bloody paws and mouth. With the crate being made of metal, King ended up filing down his canines on the bars when he was trying to chew his way out! This crate was not safe for high anxiety dogs.
I don’t want to say what crate brand we had as it is a good crate, it just wasn’t right for us. Just keep in mind that a metal crate is strong, but if your dog is anything like King, they could hurt themselves.
My husband immediately researched safer crates that had enough airflow, were not made of metal, but strong and could hopefully keep our dog safe while we weren’t home. He ended up finding KBC Kennels and we did not have to continue our search after that. The crate is made of hard plastic, has plenty of holes, but the design doesn’t allow him to chew on them. They have standard crates and “breakdown” crates. We chose the breakdown kennel so that we could travel with it if needed.
After being fully tested by our high anxiety dog, the only damage he was able to do to himself was by scratching at the area inside where the screws are and that area BARELY sticks out. Overall we were very happy with the kennel and have been using it since 2023.
We still felt really bad about the level of anxiety King had while we were at work. We hated seeing him turn into a nervous wreck. We tried giving him CBD, even a double dose did nothing to calm him down. I even tried giving him Benadryl and that didn’t work either. It’s like he was dead set on being scared, it was so heartbreaking to see!
On the day that King started the anxiety episodes, I was at work and I brought it up to my coworker. She told me that her dog had similar anxiety and she had been given a drug called trazodone by her vet. I was a little skeptical to try it at first because it sounded like you would just be drugging your dog, which you kind of are.
The day we decided to call our vet to ask for trazodone was the day my husband came home from work to let King out on his lunch- King had been panting so much, there was a puddle of drool in his kennel and on the floor, he ripped up his blanket and was refusing to go back in the kennel. So yes, he was physically safe in his kennel while we weren’t home, but mentally he was a mess. I called the vet and told them the scenario and I was able to pick up the trazodone that night after work.
The first time we gave King trazodone, the dose the vet recommended was too high. He is usually between 55lbs – 60lbs and the vet said we could give him 200mg – his anxiety level is very high, but at that dose he could barely walk without falling over! So we adjusted it to 100mg and oh my goodness, did we finally have a calm dog. He definitely seems high when he’s on it, but he is still able to function, just at a calmer level.
I want to touch on one other thing we have recently been trying out – Ashwagandha Adrenal Balance Supplement.
I started an Instagram for King in 2024 and I wish I would have done it sooner. There are so many people in the dog community who share their experiences and advice and you can learn so much.
I was talking to a fellow follower and told her about King’s anxiety. She asked if I had ever tried an adrenal supplement for him. I had never even heard of something like that. When I googled it and read the ingredients, it’s basically Ashwagandha that is safe for dogs!
I take Ashwagandha myself for anxiety, but I had never heard that dogs could take it too. I didn’t end up buying the one she recommended because it was pretty pricey – $40/month. Dogs are expensive.
We already had Trazodone for King and that was working fine, but then we noticed that even when we were home with King, he still seemed anxious – pacing around the house, going from room to room, sometimes shaking like he was afraid of something we couldn’t hear.
I decided it was time to start up my research for an affordable ashwagandha supplement for him. I found Bark & Whiskers Adrenal support through Google. They weren’t too expensive and it came in a powder form that I could add to King’s kibble. The jar lasts a good two months for King who is around 55lbs currently.
When I first started giving it to him, I didn’t think there was going to be any miracle with his behavior, I just wanted to see if it would help him at all. My husband is the one who is mostly home with King during the day, as he now works from home. He used to send me texts that would say King was being nervous or something had scared him every week. Well, I noticed I stopped getting those texts soon after I started him on the adrenal supplement. It still didn’t hit me that maybe the supplement was working because they were such minor changes.
Then one night, we’re all in the living room and it’s dead silent, we were flipping through our streaming options on what to watch for the night. The next thing we know, a cascade of fireworks go off and King is laying by the fireplace, that echoes loud noises through the chimney. My husband and I look at each other, then look at King and he’s just laying there, chillen! His eyes were open, then he just looked at us, looked at the tv and then continued to just lay there. Any other time, he would have gotten up immediately to pace back to the room and then back to the living room. He would have started shaking, maybe even panting. Then he would have pretended he needed to go outside to the backyard (because he thinks he needs to go outside when he’s scared). He did none of the above.
Yes, I was surprised by the non reaction King had to the fireworks that time, but it still didn’t cognitively hit me until the next bout of fireworks went off the following week. Similar scenario – it’s night time, no background noise going on except for sink water running, about 6 fireworks go off in a row (sometimes I wonder if they’re gun shots), I peak my head out of the bathroom, King is laying on the bed, looks at me and has no reaction. I almost thought he was going deaf, but he doesn’t seem to have any hearing impairment when we call him around the house or do training.
I think it is safe to say that the Adrenal Balance Supplement has definitely helped balance King’s anxiety. I have repurchased the product 3 times now and will continue to do so. I almost wonder if I would have known about this product sooner, if it would have helped prevent some of the things King went through while growing up. He is a sensitive boy and he has big feelings. We hardly give King Trazodone now, it’s only as a precaution if we know we are going to be gone for a majority of the day. He is fine for short periods of time 2 – 4 hours alone without any trazodone now.
It is such a relief as a dog parent to see your once nervous, easily spooked dog, feel comfortable in his own home again. If you have any experience with anxiety with your pet, please feel free to share what you tried and what worked/didn’t work.
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Lacey & King 
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