SEVERE separation anxiety!!! Long but I need your help please

[Felton]

We have a rescue boxer, male, neutered, approx 4 years old. When we first brought him home 5 mos. ago, we tried leaving him loose in the house; that didn't work. So we crated him. That went well for about 4 1/2 months. As far as I can tell, nothing in our lives has changed. The crate is still in the same location, we give him Rescue Remedy, toys, a shirt that smells like us, leave music on, etc. He is only crated for 2-3 hrs, 3 days a week. It's not that bad.

About 1 1/2 mos. ago, we stopped giving him the Kong in the crate because he had completely scraped up his chin in his frantic efforts to get the peanut butter or treats out of the Kong. I mean, he has no chin-hair left.

Also, every time we took him out of the crate, we had to hose off the crate pan, because it was a swimming pool of drool.

So anyway, here's what he has done. Are you ready for this? About a month ago, he started to pull on the doors of his Midwest crate. We noticed that the doors were warped, so we put carabiners (mountain climbing clips) on the doors. We came home to find those totally bent out of shape and on the floor. About 2 weeks ago, he completely destroyed his MidWest crate. I mean, not only did he get out of it, it was unusable. And he destroyed the house after that. Oh yeah, and his teeth--they are a mess now.

So, then we were advised to get the best crate out there, the Kennel Aire Professional with 1" holes. He can't get his snout through the holes, we were told. Well, he was in there the first time for an hour, with no problems, but the second time, he got out. He squeezed himself through about a 4" space he had pulled apart. I couldn't believe my eyes, and I just started crying my eyes out, because I felt like I could no longer contain him. He was bleeding, and his teeth were even worse, but his tail was wagging. I felt sick.

What would you do? One article I read recommends aluminum-siding crates, like the kind hunters use. Those are cost prohibitive, $300-600. This weekend I am working for 3 days trying to keep him in the bedroom, not necessarily in the crate, but increasing the distance I can get from him. It's not going too well. We feel totally hopeless. Even reading about Clomicalm, I'm not sure how long it will take to have effect, if it works, and in the meantime, we have nowhere to keep him. Please give any advice you might have!!! Thanks.

 

[Jan]

Oh boy! It does sound like you have a bit of a problem.

Have you considered putting him in the kitchen instead of the bedroom. It might work better. You also might want to try a plastic crate, like a Vari Kennel. Some dogs feel more secure in those than they do in the wire ones.

I would also recommend that you read the "The Dog Listener" by Jane Fennel. A lot of people feel that her techniques have really helped with separation anxiety. I would definitely try the Clomicalm. Dog often do well with it as long as you work with at the same time. It may take awhile to work. I would also give back the Kongs. I think a scraped chin is a small price to pay for a calmer dog. You can actually feed your dog out of Kongs and that would keep you dog busy for quite awhile.

Make your coming and going non-events. Don't make a fuss of your dog when you leave and the same when you come home. You should actually ignore them for 10 minutes.

I really hope you can solve your boxers problem.

Good luck!

 

[Felton]

Thank you for your advice, Jan. I wish that we had a good room to keep him in. The kitchen is too open, plus it's where he's gotten into the most mischief. Perhaps the bedroom, but I'm not sure. I'm truly afraid that he will go through a window.

Does anyone have experience with using electric indoor fences for this problem?

Also, online I am reading article after article, and they are 50-50 on whether crates help or exacerbate SA. I'm so confused!!!

We might try the meds. My concerns are that they take 3 weeks to kick in & don't always work.

I will definitely check out that book from the library.

Does anyone else have any advice to share? Please!

 

[carebear8322]

Tyson had severe separation anxiety also. destroyed 2 kennels and trashed the room he was in. The vet put him on meds for it and after 2 weeks he was soo much better. he hasnt been on meds since. no more trying to escape, no more, crying, barking, drooling or anything. he just goes in and lays down. while he was on the meds i did work on re crate training, putting him in for short times while home and away. I know most people dont like to use meds but it was my last resort because not crating him didnt work. so mabye you can talk to your vet about meds if nothing else is working. the meds are only used to help you while re-crate training, not a long term thing

 

[sgbtab]

gracie had SA also. you can try the meds but you also need to work on the behavior. it can not be the meds alone. try recrating her for small periods and build it up.gracie would tear up the house broke 2 kennels and would just freak out. but after she took the Clomicalm. she started to do a little better. it takes time but can be done. good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

[Felton]

In the meantime, before we get the meds & wait for them to kick in, and while his 2 crates are destroyed...what do we do? (that is, besides working on behavior modification) Do we take him everywhere with us? That would feed into the problem. What did you do in the meantime?

 

[sgbtab]

what I did was to doggie proof the house. gracie had a thing for phones and electric cords. so when I left I would have to pick everything up and also take up the phone cords and electric cords. I know it sounds silly but I was going through phone and lamp cords like crazy. you need to survey the area and what ever your dog goes nuts for. put it away.

 

[BeckyNC]

Felton--Wow, it sounds like you have some major issues with your boy! Have you tried doing a search on separation anxiety here on BW? There will be tons of threads with information. Another option is talking to a behaviorist. At one point, I thought Tae had SA. It's a long story, but my vet prescribed Clomicalm (clomipramine), which is used to treat SA. Clomicalm must be used in conjunction with behavioral modification for success at eradicating the problem.

One other thought. Did your boy tear up the house when left loose? The reason I ask is Tae didn't, but she seems to have a problem being in an enclosed area or being crated. She drooled like crazy and bent the bars on her crate, but nothing to the extreme you described with your guy. It turns out she was never properly crate trained, though I was told she was (she's a rescue, too).

Good luck sorting this out. You may be at a point, though, where it's necessary to do the behaviorist/Clomicalm scenario, as your boy's problem sounds pretty bad and obviously you don't want him to injure himself.

 

[bucca]

oh boy can i relate to you. i have two dogs and my boxer chloe is terrible. we can not leave her alone. she does not do damage but if we go out for the day or a few hours she will pee and poop all over and when we come home it takes a good half hour to forty mins to calm her down she is hyperventilating so badly. when we are pulling out of the driveway whe is chimbing on furniture to look out the windows and crying .the girls are not caged and have free roam of our house so you think she would find something to do. i personally dont like the drugs(vet gave me them but didnt like how she was on them) so what i have done is we get a petsitter or a family member or friend to stay with the girls if we need to go somewhere as long a person is home chloe is fine. she needs human companionship. where my other dog maxi a rottie is a dream come true she is so good about us going out. many times we come home and have to wake her up. . she is asleep on one of the beds. good luck.

 

[furrykidmom]

I can relate also-- very long

We have a German Shepherd that has SA. She did well in her crate while our Boxer was alive. She would chew on the door from time to time but that was the worst of it.

Tig passed away from cancer in January. She has been like your Boxer since. She completely destroyed her crate. She broke a canine and lost an incisior. We are afraid to crate her again for fear that she will seriously her herself further. My husband built a room in our basement. It is an 8 X 10 area behind our gameroom. We have a raised carpeted area with the crates and the bolster beds. We also have a floor area for her to stretch her legs. She has some of her favorite toys, a blanket, and another dog bed as well as free water. There is not anything in this room that she can damage. There are not any cords or outlets in her reach. We did have a problem with her chewing thru the drywall around the door but this appears to have resolved.

Here is what we did. First, we tried the Clomicalm but personally we did not like the effects it had on her personality and she was still suffering from the SA while she was on it. We had her on it for a month and weaned her off it. It is a medication that cannot be stopped abruptly. I do not know of anyone else that it has not helped. We seem to be outside the norm.

Here is what did work. One half hour before we are ready to leave the house, we ignore her. No eye contact, no petting, no talking. it is like she does not exist. We calmly go about our business. One half hour before we leave we pull the car out of the garage and part way down the driveway. We come back in and continue to get ready. When we are ready to leave, we get her Kong out of the freezer. We fill it with canned dog food or the Kong stuff. It lasts longer this way. She follows my husband to her room, we turn a radio on a little loud. This way she cannot hear us leave and does not know that we are not home. Initially, we were leaving the tv on upstairs too so it sounded like we were home. Now mind you, even if I am home she does not want me out of her sight. We refer to her as Velcro when we do not want her to know that we are talking about her in the morning. Anyway, we put her in her room and close the door. We go back upstairs for about 10 minutes and finish making lunches and getting coffee. We then quietly leave thru the front door. She is not accustomed to us leaving thru the front door. All of her life we have left thru the garage. She associates the garage door opening and closing with us coming and going. So you must leave thru a different exit.

When we come home we ignore her again. This time for about 15 minutes because any longer than that kills me. We will open the door and let her out but still no talking, no eye contact, no touching.

This has been effective for us. We are fortunate that we were able to build this safe room. I realize not everyone has this option. We are in the process of finishing our game room. It is just going to be smaller now.

Another thing that I did initially was wear a tee shirt or an old pair of pajamas to bed and then in the morning I would take it off and take it down to her room and put it in her bed. This seemed to give her comfort.

We are hopeful that once we get our Boxer puppy that this problem will resolve itself again. I do not know if another dog or even a kitten is an option for you. It may or may not help.

One other option that we have not tried but plan to do with the puppy. I saw on tv a company that has a stuffed teddy bear or a puppy. It has a heartbeat. It is supossed to simulate the mother or a littermate. I do not recall but it may have had something that you warm and put back in it but I could not say for sure. It came from some company called Petlane I believe.

I also recommend that you read Jan Fennel's book. It has been most informative and so helpful. I did a lot of "Ooohhs." Sometimes you are doing things that you do not realize are feeding into the problem. And some things that I read I could not believe how easy the solution was. I thought that I was stupid for not figuring it out myself. The book has lots of situational stories and how Jan instituted her solutions. I love the book. A lot of what we did was from her book, some were things we added on our own that fortunately did not cause more harm, like the T-shirt.

I do feel for you. We were at our wits end. I was looking into buying a cage from the company that sells cages to vet hospitals. I was also looking for vet hospitals, kennels or groomers that may be closing so I could purchase one of their heavy duty cages that she could not chew thru. But this would not have been a solution and she still could have harmed herself with chewing and digging. I even found a cage on Ebay that looking like heavy duty sheet metal with holes in it but it reminded me of solitary and seemed cruel.

Kendra was raised in a Vari-Kennel when she moved in with us at one year of age. She never had any problems with this type of cage. Unfortunately, we no longer have it. One of our fosters was a 90 pound Boxer with severe SA. He ate it. When we got home it was unrecognizable. So was the door, the doorknob, the frame, the carpet and the wall. Unbelievably, he was eventually placed with a single woman who wanted a dog that could go everywhere with her and he does.

I hope that this helps you. Be patient, something will work. Also be consistent and calm. Keep us all up to date.