separation anxiety? goes to the bathroom when not home

[boxerallie]

we've had our girl for almost 4 months. she's 2. when we first got her, we crated her and she never went to the bathroom in her crate. after about 2 months, she started escaping her crate. no matter how secure we made it with zip ties and extra latches, she still found a way out. each time she got out, it got progressively worse. the last time we crated her, she cut her leg and pulled out the hair on her next when she escaped and there was drool every where.

so in order to stop her from hurting herself, we started gating her in the kitchen. this was working for a while, then she started peeing in the kitchen everytime we weren't home. we took her to the vet )because the amount was small and it occured after short periods of time away) and found that she had a UTI. she was tested again last week and the infection is gone but they kept her on antitbiotics which she's still on. even though the infection is gone, she's still peeing when we're not home and she's started to poop when we're gone as well. we clean up the floor wtih nature's miracle everytime and check it at night with a black light. there are no marks left on the floor. she's left alone for 5 hours max before she's taken out again it's a pretty standard schedule. she has held it for longer in the past so i know she can hold it. she only does this when we're not home.

we know she has separation anxiety and she does freak out a bit when we leave still. has anyone had experience with breaking it? we don't want to clean up after her everytime we come home and don't want to crate her again but we don't know what else to do.

we've been leaving her in separate rooms from us for extended periods of time, don't hang out on the floor with her as much, and have the comfort zone diffuser in the kitchen which i don't think helps.

help!

 

[Furface]

Devon from day one never liked being left in small spaces - she would go beserk, barking and mess everywhere and hurt herself. So one day we just went out for an hour and gave her the roam of the house (not into bedrooms etc). When we got back she was fine and fast asleep on the chair. Every since then that's what we have done and she is fine - all anxiety gone.

We also when we left gave her kong and put the radio on for sound comfort.

good luck, as i know how distressing it can be.

 

[boxerallie]

thanks for the advice!

she had a few days with full roam of the house until the gate came in (had to order an extra high one!) and she got into trouble those days. if she had been good, we would have left her out but she chewed up stuff and peed.

we always leave her a kong with peanut butter and food puzzle toys but she doesn't really pay attention to them while we're gone. they're normally in the same spots, some peanut butter gone but not much. we used to play the radio for her too but it didn't make a difference. we also ignore her for about 15 minutes when we get home. we try to not make a big deal out of us leaving and coming home.