Separation Anxiety and Peeing

[Carabe11a]

About 4 months ago, we rescued a beautiful little fawn girl. She's about a year and a half old and didn't get neutered until we got her (while she was in heat no less ugh!) Since then, we've had our ups and downs with her health and her behaviour, but it's been about 2 months since she's had any serious health issues. Unfortunately I can't say the same about her behaviour. Let me explain:

When we first got her, we found out through watching her that she was taught that the crate was the naughty box. However, we couldn't not crate her when we left for work because the minute we walked out the door she would pee on the carpet. We finally got her out of the crate is bad thing and she's quite happy to be in there now.

We still have an issue though, if she can't see us, she pees on the carpet. We tried a few days ago to just run to the store and back while leaving her out of the crate.. it was max 15 min. We got back and she had peed on the carpet. Ok, fine, maybe it was too long of a span of time, no problem we'll do a shorter stint again later on and see how that works.

Well, now we realize it's not just us leaving the house but if she doesn't have easy access to us she does the same thing. A good example is this morning, we were being a bit amourous and decided shutting the door was a good idea because she's got to be right there the whole time and that's a bit of a mood killer. We emerge from the room a little later to find that she's peed on the bathroom rug.

Understand, when each of these things happened, we had just brought her inside from going to the bathroom. The other day, we took her to pee, came back in, told her to go to her bed instead of her room, gave her treats like we do with the crate and left. This morning, we had just brought her upstairs not 5 minutes before that and she peed.

This is driving us nuts! We even got one of those DAP things. The thing that exudes female dog pregnancy hormones that is supposed to help with separation anxiety. She likes it and sniffs it often, but she still pees! She's housetrained and only goes when we are separated.

HELP!!!!

 

[natrhymer]

We went through SA peeing with our Dieter boy, although he did not pee while we were home, like your girl does. Dieter cannot be crated (another issue), so he has free roam of the house when we're gone. We developed a strict leaving routine where we stuff a kong, put Dieter in the laundry room and have him lay down. We close him in the laundry room and hide the kong somewhere in the house. Then we open the laundry room door (he must be calm and laying down before we'll release him -- this is also how we're working on his confinement issues) and tell him to "go find it." He'll hunt for the kong while we leave the house. We always holler a "bye, pup!" as we leave.

I think the hunt distracts him from our leaving, and that's just enough to take the edge off his anxiety. When we first started, we would stuff three kongs AND hide treats all over the house. Now, we just use one kong. To keep it interesting, we'll sometimes put the kong in a cardboard box, or balance it on a doorknob so it takes him longer to get to it.

We also had him on a valerian root/skullcap herbal extract to help with anxiety. I have no idea if it actually did help or not, but it didn't hurt.

We've had him for two years and we've been pretty much pee free for more than a year. He still does pee in the house occasionally when the schedule changes -- if we leave, come back and then leave again, he'll pee on the second leaving every once in a while.

Perhaps if you kept a couple of stuffed kongs handy to use when you knew you would be inaccessible to her, that would help.

I know how frustrating it can be... our carpet is basically garbage now; we're just saving up for hardwood!

Calming her anxiety has to be done in baby steps. If she's peeing when you go behind closed doors, then start there: Leave her outside the bedroom door for about 10 seconds (before she pees!), open the door and praise/treat her. Do it again and again so she understands that when she doesn't pee, she gets treats and that, more importantly, you will always "reappear." Then step up the time to 30 seconds, then maybe a minute... it's a long road, but she will get the hang of it.

You didn't mention obedience training, but that will help too. She'll be more confident in general, and more willing to "trust" you.

Thank goodness you got her to like the crate... that's one battle won!

Last but not least, THANK YOU for rescuing her! Give her the chance to really blossom -- I'm sure she won't let you down. Good luck, hang in there and good for you for sticking with her!

 

[buddy'smom]

Here are some links to separation anxiety that I have found very helpful with my two rescues. I always like to start the links off with the Where Am I link as it puts you into the mindset of just how the rescued dog feels. Although they are not from Boxer Related sites they still apply and helped me immensley with Kailee and Clyde.

Jean


Where Am I?

Separation Anxiety DF League

Separation Anxiety FT Network

Separation Anxiety YGRS

 

[BeckyNC]

My girl has similar issues. She only goes, though, after I've left for work. For reasons to long too get into, she is not crated (panics). Try a search on separation anxiety. You will probably find some threads that are helpful.

If all else fails, you can put your girl on a medication called Clomicalm, but it must be combined with behavioral therapy. It's $$ (cost me $45/mo for 80mg tablets). Without the behavioral therapy, I believe the behavior will recur once the medication is tapered. I should also mention the medication is not a fix all. It helped Tae a little, but she still goes potty in the house...something we are working on.

 

[cybie]

I'm not sure if I got everything right but did you try the special thing that you spray on the carpet to take away that smell that makes the dog to go pee back again in the same spot?

Well it didn't work for me
So, when I go at work, I have Cybe kept in the kitchen where in my discomfort I have no carpet or rug... only the place he sleeps is lovely and soft...
Only now that he's 1 yrs old, when I'm home, I can have him around the rest of the house without being worried about him peeing anywhere...
Until now, after lets say half an hour, I would have on mind he may pee somewhere so I had him back in kitchen (big crate for Cybe!
Until he was 8 months it was the small bathroom (crate size) with the baby gate in front

When I was training him as a pup, I was not careful enough and places like the balcony and the corridor, even a rug in the living room had been pissed many times... so even though he knew it was a good thing to pee out, the smell would keep him going to that places even after 20 minutes of coming back from a nice walk outside...

Since I moved he did it once in the carpet (which I have washed thoroughly but...) in the kitchen... well I removed it and vouala!
Now he has never done it but I'm scared of putting the kitchen carpet back...

Oh, Cybe will destroy any closed door, but he does pretty well with a baby gate, he sees and listens to everything but he's not on my feet all the time... I kept him on purpose when I was home; some time in the kitchen without giving him attention so as not to think that being alone in the kitchen is a bad thing that happens only when I'm gone.

...also the usual... no good buys, no hellos... no separation anxiety! The minute I relaxed and started giving up and talk/play with him the minute I stepped in from work, I immediately had separation anxiety’s events... barking and crying when leaving etc...

Hope I was some help