If your dog is barking mad, help is at hand. You can give it some Prozac. A dog version of the anti-depressant drug has been launched in America and will soon be available in Britain.
It will be used to treat a canine compulsive disorder in which faulty genes combine with stress to produce excessive licking, whimpering and tail-chasing. The drug, called Reconcile, comes in a beef-flavoured chewy form and is also expected to curb compulsive pacing, chewing and dribbling.
Prozac, which has been used to cure compulsive behaviour in humans, works by increasing the brain’s levels of serotonin, a mood-lifting chemical.