Re: PTSD in Black Lab
My dog has anxiety. His journey has been a long one, and I won't bore you with it, but he's had problems since I brought him home at 8 weeks, for a handful of reasons. He takes anxiety medication daily and has a script for instances when he may need to do something more stressful (he doesn't take those often, but does sometimes). We did try Zylkene, but it didn't touch his anxiety, though it may for yours so if your vet says it's fine you could give it a go. It's really just a supplement.
It can take time for stress levels to come down. With some more sensitive dogs, it doesn't take many bad events before they develop a negative association and stress increases. If things are rough at home, she probably picks up on that. One thing you can try is decompression activities - long, relaxing walks where you just amble where she wants to go (if possible); sniffing and licking are also both calming for dogs. So sniffing out treats in grass, or licking some food out of a Kong or off a Lickimat.
Best of luck to your girl, it can be hard when they are afraid and we can't just sit down and explain the world to them.
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