Herbal help for anxious beagle?

[milkmamamerina]

Sorry to be long winded, I want to make sure to give the full picture:

My 7 year old beagle (neutered) has always been anxious and is stubborn on top of it. Sometimes this anxiety has led to aggressive behavior like growling when approached when he is sleepy and he also snapped and punctured my thumb once when I was taking my ds's string cheese back from him.

Anyway, our current problem is that we just moved into a newly built home and our beagle is wandering around peeing on everything. With my two young children, I can't possible keep track of the dog's comings and goings in our house and he has stopped asking to go outside. At the moment we are keeping him in his crate or outside on the the dogrun (shaded with misters and astroturf--no lawn in our new yard yet) for all but a couple hours a day. He has always been an indoor dog, so this does not make him happy one bit, but I can't continue to have him urinating all over our new house!

Although I know he should get more exercise I have a 1 year old and a 3.5 year old with a lot of traffic near us so walking my 2 beagles with the 2 kids is just not safe.

I want my dog to be happy but just I can't allow him mark up the house like this.

I was wondering if anyone knows of an effective remedy (I'm thinking herbal, but I'm open to anything) for my dog's anxiety. I'm open to other solutions to the urination problem too, but I know that it is not medical because he has done this before and we had him checked.

[Girl In The Fire]

The problems you are describing are not something that will be cured by a magical /herbal/ natural/ homeopathic remedy or pill. It sounds like there are numerous things going on here that have resulted in your dogs behavior.

To be very blunt all of these problems are problems that are created by the owner, your dog is what you make it. The only way to solve these problems are through training and behavior modification.

As a quick fix is to crate him so he cant pee inside and treat him like a puppy you are housebreaking. For a long term solution start walking your dog on a regular basis, this will give him exercise and a chance to pee and poop in an appropriate area, and then find a trainer to work with you.

[milkmamamerina]

I'm not looking for a magical cure, just something that might help him a little. I know St. John's Wort is good for people and depression and thought there might be something similar for anxiety.

As I said, I cannot safely walk the dog in our current situation, but he does have an appropriate place to pee and poop. Our dogrun is not concrete but astroturf on dirt. It drains the urine down and we clean the poop daily.

Although I agree that the owner has a part in the dog's behavior, I believe dog's are like people in that nature and nurture both play a role in who they are. My other beagle does not have the same problems with anxiety or aggression. So, to be blunt, I take offense to being accused of creating these problems.

We are doing the best we can to provide a nice life for our dogs, but never at the expense of our children. I will not sacrifice my children's safety to walk the dog. And, we have already worked with a trainer in the past and aren't in a financial position to hire another at this time.