This Morning fans rage 'no wonder ITV is failing' as woman claims DRUGGING her dog 'cured his anxiety' in 'awful' debate

Daily Mail​

27-05-2025

This Morning fans raged 'no wonder ITV is failing' as a woman claimed drugging her dog 'cured his anxiety' during an 'awful debate'.
Monday's instalment of the ITV show saw hosts Alison Hammond and Paddy McGuinness sit down with Emma Reed, her cockapoo called Chester and vet Dr Sean McCormack.
Emma had owned Chester since he was a puppy and described him as 'captain cautious' in his younger years, but trained and socialised him well.
However, she noticed a huge change in his behaviour when he went through adolescence and 'was suddenly really anxious on walks, and started randomly barking, sometimes even lunging at people'.
After seeing a behaviourist, it was suggested that Chester tried fluoxetine Prozac 'to take the edge off so he could train and learn'.
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Emma had owned Chester from being a puppy and described him as 'captain cautious' in his younger years but trained and socialised him well
Emma described how the change 'wasn't instant, but it was more quick than I thought it would be'.
However, some viewers took issue with the segment and didn't understand the concept of a dog on such medication.
Many posted on X: 'This has to be b*******, dogs don't give a f*** as long as they are fed, watered and walked #ThisMorning.';
'Hmm I would have thought a dog would be more alert in strange surroundings …#ThisMorning.';
'Chester is off his face #thismorning.';
'We drugged our dog into a partial coma to stop him being an annoying c***! #thismorning.';
'Giving Prozac to dogs? Surely it's viewers of #ThisMorning who need it most.'
While another felt it was insensitive given the incident in Liverpool that happened on Monday evening and said: 'After the horror in Liverpool #ThisMorning has "puppy on Prozac." No wonder ITV daytime is failing, read the room.'
During the conversation, vet Sean argued, 'if the dog is in an anxious state all of the time, that is a welfare issue, that dog is not enjoying itself in normal life'.
He explained: 'For some dogs they do end up on the drug long term,' but it is usually a short term solution to allow room for 'behavioural modification'.
The vet shared the drug isn't given to puppies, because 'we cant medicate puppies when they're in the early development phase'.
Paddy read a statement from a vet at the British Small Animal Veterinary Association.
He said: 'Fluoxetine could be usually beneficial helping more than half of dogs with separation anxiety or dominance aggression but he also warned against drawing parallels between depressed humans and dogs, saying we don't know whether dogs have the same sort of mental health issues as people.'
It comes after This Morning fans slammed ITV yesterday for 'scraping the bottom of the barrel' with a fresh presenter shake-up.
Monday's instalment of the daytime show saw Alison Hammond and Paddy McGuinness step in as hosts.
Usually, Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard present the ITV programme from Monday to Thursday.
However, some viewers were not impressed when they saw Alison and Paddy on their screens.
Many took to social media to share their thoughts, swiping they 'can't think of two worse hosts'.
While another brutally added: 'Can't think of two worse hosts. It's almost insulting.'
However, some viewers took issue with the segment and didn't understand the concept of a dog on such medication
'Can't be listening to these 2 #thismorning,' another viewer penned, alongside an image of someone turning a TV off.
Another said: 'McGuinness? No thanks #ThisMorning.'
While someone else said: 'Oh no, not McGuinness #thismorning.'