Does Your Boxer Have Separation Anxiety?

[Spotty's people]

boy are we lucky!

I answered "Yes, but not too bad"

Spotty has almost always had someone around. So, when we left him alone, it was really only for short periods. Short periods seem fine for him, about 2-3 hours... IF we tell him we are going out ("Susan/Ernie go out, Spotty stay home"). If we try to sneak out, he panics. The first time we tried this when we had just brought him home, & the person in the townhouse next to us (before we moved here) said he howled most of the evening....

Last month I had to go to a funeral 1 hour away from home, & ended up being away all day... The neighbour said that she thought she heard a baby crying in our yard, & could not believe that it was this big dog laying there making that noise! Poor, poor fella!

Another day, I had to go out for about 4 hours, and the other neighbour reported a similar thing. If we lock him in the house, sometimes he will get into the garbage, but NOTHING like what some of you report. But the crying breaks our heart. And that little face at the window.... awwww. My hubby wants to take him out to restaurants, too! We hardly have a life because we don't want to leave the dog behind!

Now, the neighbours (who love him!) call him over to the fence, pat him, talk to him, & he lays there closer to them if they are working outside.... I'm glad I have such great retired neighbours on both sides! Both who love dogs!

 

[tugger]

I always thought Brit had severe seperation anxiety.
Thank goodness she is crate trained. I once put the video camera on her while I went to work. She did nothing for 8 hours but lay in her crate. Every once in awhile you would hear a groan.
But when I drove in the driveway she stood up and stretched and that was it . Made me feel better that she was not bouncing off the door all day or crying.
But to leave her out is disasterous. My husband left her a couple weeks ago and she ate a loaf of bread. I wrote a post about it.
She is a rescue dog and I think she always thinks she will be left behind to someone else again.
She is good crated. When I tell her I have to go to work she walks to her crate and opens the door with her nose and lays down. Not before a couple of Boxer sighs tho! LOL

 

[KBENDER]

Our lilly is a rescue we got in 1997, we had problems with her going potty in the house when we were gone and chewing things up, my wife was watching a program on tv one day and we learned about seperation anexity, we went ti pets mart and bought her a crate, put a blankeet in it a nd a couple of toys and it worked wonders. We leave her AND the other two out and have no problems nowexcept for a chewed up magazine once in a while

keith

 

[myrocky]

Rocky has problems if we don't put him in his crate. He is fine in there and we don't hear a peep out of him. If left alone he bangs himself against the door or the window beside it. Scratches until he barley has any claws. He is a rescue pup. We got him when he was about four months old.

 

[El28]

Our 3 yr. old female, Toby is so afraid that we will leave her alone in the house. We have just recently moved out to the country and also had to put our Boston Terrier to sleep, so I think due to all the changes she is scared. She never acted this way before. We laugh at her in the morning because she will stay between myself and my husband blocking the door and making sure she's not left. She rides into town w/ my husband and she stays w/ my mother- in- law everyday and I pick her up in the afternoon after work. So basically she is at the baby sitter everyday!!LOL! Boxers are the greatest!!

 

[jldodge]

My boxer/bulldog mix has TERRIBLE separation anxiety. She lost her mom in childbirth, and was bottlefed. Now, she has a blanket that she sucks on when she becomes agitated, or nervous! I had never heard of that, so I asked the vet, and he said to let her suck away, that only replace the blanket when it becomes tattered, so that she doesn't swallow any pieces.

She also breaks out in hives, when we leave her, and has to this date, chewed to pieces, 7 remotes, 1 cell phone and 2 hand held phones, several books, newspapers and magazines. I do crate her, but would leave her out occasionally when she was acting fine. Now, when I leave the house I have everything up as high as it will go.

What has helped her so much is.......I got another boxer! I rescued him from a neighbor who left him tied outside without water and shelter. I wasn't sure if the 2 would get along, but she loves him!

I don't give her antihistamines for the hives now, and she chews on nothing, only gets agitated when he's out of her sight, like yesterday, when he was neutured.

However, she still sucks on her blankie! We just love the both of them to pieces.

Good luck! Jane

 

[Laura922]

I have 2 boxers that were adopted from a shelter. My female (Rosie) does not have any separation anxiety, but my male (Rocky) has severe separation anxiety.

The first day he was brought home, he thought he was left alone and was so frantic to find us that the crashed through a 2nd story window and jumped into our neighbors yard!! Luckly he only suffered a minor abrasion on his leg ... It goes without saying, that now he is NEVER allowed to go upstairs unless we are in the same room with him.

The second day he had him, we put him into our yard while we were working in the garage. Within a matter of moments he jumped a 6' wood fence to get to the garage.

Now when he can't be with us he is kept in a completely enclosed (with a chain link roof) dog run. This keeps him from escaping and/or hurting himself, but he will make this really weird and loud moaning sound for about an hour or two. Needless to say, our neighbors are very thankful that my husband usually takes Rocky to work with him.

We've tried several different approaches recommended by our veternarian and several trainers to help him get over this, but nothing has worked. Although I've been hesitant to resort to drugs I think that is exactly what I will need to do.

 

[rgm-7]

my boy mack was very destructive shreeded car intierors, chewed stuff up ,tore through both doors in my trailor house, broke into my refrigerater atleast twice, had to buy anew door for the fridge.he was my roomates dog when hewas apup, but he moved out and the dog had adopted me so he gave him to me. mack is now 5 years old, he seems to have mellowed out now that he is older. he still tears something up ocaisonally. but not half as bad as few years ago

 

[McDuff]

McDuff suffers from severe SA and injures himself. He has been on meds for six months and is much happier during the day when I'm at work. He's just such as people dog that it breaks my heart. I hated to resort to meds but it has made his quality of life much better.

 

[MAGGIEMOM]

After the first 48 hours never a problem but then there has always been another dog in a cage in the same room. some nights though we let the other dog lose and she still gets in her cage jsut fine. guess i am lucky