anxiety

My 13 year old Maltese has started being very anxious in the evening. He jumps from chair to chair, scratching the pillows, and pants alot. He jumps on the sofas and scratches them also. What causes this? Maybe he needs some medication. Thanks.     Mary Hall

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

Has your dog ever exhibited this behaviour before?  Is it related to thunderstorms or has anything changed in the home environment, such as, a new addition to the family or has a family member left?

Changes in personality can be due to a change in the environment, but, many dogs are also empathetic, or sensitive to their humans emotions.  Has anything changed to make you or a family member anxious?  Does any family member have a serious disease?

If there is no identifiable change in the environment, and your dog does not have any thunderstorm or other phobia, than the other possibilities are cognitive dysfunction, or an idiopathic behavioral disorder, or the cause has yet to be identified.

There are cognitive dysfunction medications that are effective for cognitive dysfunction,  and there are many anti-anxiety medications that are effective for anxiety.  But, it would be best to try to identify the cause because cognitive dysfunction medication would not be appropriate for an anxiety disorder and visa versa.

Additionally, behavior modification techniques would also be helpful if the specific cause could be identified.  

I would suggest that you video tape an episode or two to show to your vet.  Try to pinpoint the cause with a little bit of medical detective work, and discuss all of this with your vet.  A consultation with a veterinary behaviorist would also help.