PROZAC FOR POOCHES

Roll over. Eat. Sit. Play dead. Slobber. Show the mail carrier who is
boss.

OK, so maybe a dog's life doesn't seem particularly challenging to
most of us. But the recent FDA approval of the first anti-anxiety
medication labeled for dogs -- the first medicine of its kind
specified for animals, period -- suggests that their worlds are more
complex than we think. It seems that humans don't have a monopoly on
distress, angst and irrational fears.

Spots and Fidos have issues, too. And the issue getting a lot of
attention right now is separation anxiety. "People like pets -- they
want pets," says Dr. Bill Ormsbee, a veterinarian at Town & Country
Animal Hospital on Arkansas 10. "What they don't realize sometimes is
that dogs, in particular, are social animals. When they're left all
day with nothing to do, they get anxious."

And they get destructive. They chew furniture. They slay houseplants.
They leave puddles -- and worse -- on the carpet. And sometimes, they
get loud -- they howl and simply refuse to stop. These are the most
common symptoms of separation anxiety.

In extreme cases, dogs even hurt themselves. They break teeth and rip
out toenails. They cut themselves breaking through glass windows
trying to be reunited with their owners.

In the past, veterinarians have used medications designed for humans,
including antidepressants, to treat dogs with these problems. But this
month, they'll have the option of using a new drug called Clomicalm.
The medicine is a "pooch Prozac" of sorts. An adaptation of Anafranil,
a drug used to treat obsessive-compulsive disorders in humans,
Clomicalm tablets are designed for pooches, based on their weight.
Dogs are given the medicine for a period of a few months, based on
progress.

While some will call it a wonder, others will call it outright wrong,
saying humans shouldn't meddle with the higher order.

But you probably won't hear dogs grumbling about it. Hey, the stuff is
meat-flavored.

FOR THE DOGS

Clomicalm represents more than a mood fixer-upper. It's a significant
pharmaceutical first step toward understanding the behavior of animals
and treating their problems -- something that certainly will receive
more attention in forthcoming years.

Dr. Bob Hale, a veterinarian at Briarwood Animal Hospital on Kanis
Road, says animal behavior is still very much an enigma.

"There are two areas of veterinary medicine that I have repeatedly
told my clients that we are not trained in as well as we should be --
behavior and dentistry. We've come a long way, but we still have a
long way to go."

Hale says he often hears about dogs exhibiting destructive behavior
when owners are away. "I get asked a question nearly every other day,"
he says. "Sometimes it's health-related. Sometimes it's
environment-related. Sometimes I can't explain it."

Novartis, the Switzerland-based producer of Clomicalm, estimates that
15 percent of dogs experience symptoms of separation anxiety, ranging
from destroying property to following an owner constantly to
salivating excessively.

"Until now, most pet owners didn't understand what was going on," says
Alice Coram, a representative for Novartis. "They thought the animal
was 'bad' or acting out of spite. They were giving human emotions to
what's happening and didn't realize that their dogs were experiencing
anxiety. If an owner thinks his dog is acting out and punishes the
dog, that increases the distress of the dog who already is anxious."
Clomicalm, which Coram says is not a sedative or tranquilizer, helps
dogs calm down. While tablets are tolerated by most dogs, some dogs in
clinical trials experienced stomach upset. Novartis literature says
the tablets do not alter a dog's personality or memory.

If someone suspects his dog is experiencing separation anxiety, Coram
recommends using a video camera or audiotape recorder to monitor what
happens when the owner leaves. If the dog exhibits abnormal behavior,
it's a good idea to take him to the vet.

But the pill alone isn't perfect. Successful treatment requires
considerable behavior-modification training as well.

Therein might be the downside with drugs such as Clomicalm and
Anipryl, another drug recently approved by the FDA for treatment of
canine cognitive dysfunction, a sort of Alzheimer's disease for dogs.
People might think their responsibility for the well-being of their
pet ends with a pill. Leslie Sinclair, a veterinarian and director of
veterinary issues for companion animals at the Humane Society of the
United States, says her organization is cautiously enthusiastic about
the FDA approval of Clomicalm.

"It's wonderful to have a tool like this for the dogs that need it,
but we don't want people to think they can just solve their pets'
behavior problems by giving a pill -- even if it is meat-flavored,"
Sinclair says. "A lot of the press on this and the ad campaign aimed
at veterinarians makes it seem like that is going to be the case.

"We're concerned that pet owners will think it's just that easy, and
it's not." Another concern, Sinclair says, is that symptoms considered
to be indicative of separation anxiety could actually be signaling
some other problem. Not every dog who messes the carpet is
experiencing separation anxiety -- it could be something else altogether.

"Sometimes the dog is just not getting out enough," Sinclair says.
"Sometimes a dog is just lonely and bored to tears. We talk about the
chronic barking problem. Usually, barking is a cry for help. It's not
a cry for a new drug."

FIT FOR A DOG?

Dogs sleep on our beds. They eat our food. They get pictures taken
with Santa. They wear sweaters. They are friends. They are part of the
family. But they're not human.

This development begs the question: Do they really need our drugs,
too?

Coram says yes.

"The disorder is very real, and I think that certainly there are
concerns about dogs taking this kind of medication," Coram says. "Some
people have concerns about humans taking behavior-modification
medication as well. But when people see tapes of their dogs and see
that they really are suffering, treatment is the only humane thing to
do."

Whether pet owners agree with that philosophy, realistically speaking,
she might be right. Each year millions of animals are put up for
adoption and euthanized because their owners refuse to deal with their
behavioral problems.

Ormsbee cautions the drug should be kept in perspective.

"Behavior problems in animals are a very big problem," Ormsbee says.
"Vets as well as owners deal with these problems all the time. A lot
of what we consider objectionable behavior is normal behavior for a
dog or cat. Dogs bark. Cats urinate to mark their territory. These
drugs, while they're great, should never be the primary treatment for
some serious behavioral problem. People want an easy fix, and I think
this will be viewed as one.

"That's doing a discredit to people who understand
them."