Separation Anxiety...Help!

[MyAmberGirl]

Hi All. You suggestions will be greatly appreciated. I have a 13 month old, I adopted her from a rescue about three months ago. This is her fifth home! She has a huge and understandable separation anxiety issue. This is my problem…when I first got her I of course tried crating. It went awful, my neighbor adjoined to me in our town home called me to come home because she was whining so bad. So I started slowly working with her in the crate, no progress. I tried blocking her to one room with a baby gate, she jumps it. If I raise the gate, she climbs it. I’ve tried blocking her in a room by shutting the door, now I have no molding. She is with my 17 month old also, so she’s not alone. Now I’ve been leaving them out just in the house. It went well for awhile, now she’s started destroying things (couches!). My trainer suggested a couple of things like leaving the TV on and bitter apple. Duh, I’ve tried those types of things. They have plenty of toys, chews, kongs, etc. What can I do? The crate seems like the best thing, but she freaks out so badly in there. Please help!

 

[mobrian]

I had a much smaller problem with Jesse and SA when she was younger. Surprisingly for me just changing her diet changed her overnight. I believe she was on a protein high eating Eukanuba for medium dogs. Now I feed her holistic dog foods.

 

[richoneill]

I'm going through the same thing with my 14 month old. Ate the molding, neighbors complaining (barking), etc... Whenever we're home now we try to get her used to us leaving periodically (a few minutes at a time and gradually increasing the time gone). Plus, every now and then I pick up my keys and just carry them around with me in the house. She used to get real nervous as soon as she heard the keys but after a day or so she barely raises an eyebrow anymore. She's still peeing on the carpet unfortunately. Not sure how to fix that. Finally, we had to resort to cloma calm (prescription). It has definitely helped. No more complaints or damage to house. It hasn't fixed the peeing but that's OK (for now). Hopefully, we'll just use this one month's worth and stop using it after that. If nothing else works than you might want to consider it. Other than that, we've considered getting her a playmate. Good luck and let me know if you find somethign that works.

 

[richoneill]

...Surprisingly for me just changing her diet changed her overnight...

a trainer suggested the same thing to us but, of course, the food he recommended was his own and it was very expensive. We heard that switching to a salmon-based protein was the key. Any suggestions on brands?

 

[Tulsa-Dan]

http://www.dogsbestfriendtraining.com/books-retail.php

The booklet is called "I'll Be Home Soon." Order it.

 

[mobrian]

Any suggestions on brands?

Jesse has been good on both 'Back to Basics' and 'Canidae' dog foods.

 

[natrhymer]

Our pup, too, had "confinement" issues -- we're still working on the crate -- it's been six months and he'll now stay in it quietly, laying down, with the door latched for five minutes, while we're home. Needless to say, the crate doesn't work for us, either. We also lost a lot of molding trying to confine him to small rooms.

We're lucky, though, other than a few, minor "destroying" episodes (no couches, just a magazine here and there, the fake flower arrangement and some counter surfing), our boy did OK with the run of the house from the beginning. He did pee, though, every day when we were out, due to anxiety (we had him checked at the vet, just in case, no UTI). We put him on an herbal supplement (valerian root and scullcap) and it worked wonders for us. No more peeing in the house!

We also did work hard on the "leaving" training. The walking around with keys, etc., is all worth working at extra hard.

Originally posted by MyAmberGirl
They have plenty of toys, chews, kongs, etc. What can I do?

As part of our crate/confinement training, we would stuff a kong with his favorite stuff, lure him into the crate or room with it, close him in the crate/room and then hide the kong (under the table, in his toy box, under his blankets, etc.). Then, if he was a good boy while confined (only as long as it took for us to hide it), he would get to go "find" his treat.

Now, whenever he's confined, he knows he's going to get to go "hunt out" his favorite treat when he gets out. That's now part of our "leaving" routine. I tell him to go inside (either the crate or the laundry room) and close him in (he goes willingly!). Then, when I'm all set to go, keys in hand, I let him out (if he's being good) to hunt out his treat. He's so busy looking for his treat, he doesn't even notice I'm leaving.

Like I said, that's our routine now. When we started it, we used to hide treats all over the house. Now, he just gets the one filled kong. He always checks the "regular" hiding spots first -- it's getting tough to "outsmart" him.

These pups we love are a lot of work, aren't they? But soooo worth it for the wiggles and kisses!

 

[gefitlepez]

Haley had big problems with Anxiety...

and hated her crate. We got her crate trained initially and she would not go to the bathroom in there, but if we ever left her out of the crate when we left the house, she would poo and pee and destroy things until we came home. On top of this, just getting her to go into the crate was a huge ordeal and she looked miserable when she was in there. We started to think that the crate was too small even though it was the recommended size for a 55 pound dog. Since the only reason to use a smallish crate is to prevent elimination and she never has accidents in the crate, we figured we could give a a bigger crate a try. We bought her a much bigger one (sized for a 150 lb+ dogs - 36"tall x 30" wide x 48" deep) and she is extremely happy with it.

Haley will now "go to bed" on command, she never cries in there anymore and she rarely if ever chews her blanket. The most exciting change of all though is that she now obviously thinks of the crate as her space. Not only does she not mind it, but she regularly goes in there to just hang out. Sometimes, if I, or one of my roommtes are playing with her and she doesn't want to be hassled, she will just get up grab a toy and retreat to her crate. I am so happy that she thinks of it as a safe place.

So maybe trying a bigger crate could work for you too. It did for us, even though the crate is way bigger than what is usually recommended.

 

[Taliesyn88]

Separation Anxiety

Hello, it sounds like your poor baby really has some issues, and probably was abused at some time in her life. I have a 5 year old female, Casey, whom I have had since she was 11 months old. She was the same way, every time that I would leave, she would destroy my things, CD's, picture frames, TV remotes, and several other items. I tried everything, leaving the radio on, confining her to one room, etc. I finally ended up putting her outside in a heated dog house while I was away at work. She was never alone, my male dog Rusty was with her. The problem is all mental, Casey is now 5 years old and although she is much better, she is still neurotic and I still cannot trust her inside. I asked my vet what to do, she suggested Prozac, which is used for humans and is now used for animals with separation disorder. I have not tried Prozac yet, fortunately, keeping Casey outside while I was at work has basically stopped the destruction. But in your case, to avoid your home totally destroyed, you may ask your vet about Prozac. Nobody likes to medicate their animal, but if your baby has had 5 homes, it is probably because her destructive behavior has caused people to give up on her. Try the Prozac, I am a pharmacist and know it works very well on people, and may really help this poor animal with her anxiety. Good luck!!!!!!!

 

[Chris W.]

DAP

I have recently heard wonderfull news about this new DAP pheramone plug-in(like a glade plug-in) several foster moms were talking about it just the other day and how after about a week, their dogs sep anxiety leveled out, they quite "marking" quit being afraid, quit compulsively licking and chewing. I am about to try this product myself soon. If you do try it, let us know how it turns out, okay?

http://www.feliway.com/html/comfortzone-with-dap.php3