Anyone deal with a dog with separation anxiety?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I have a two year old boxer who is damn near the sweetest dog in the world. But, he HATES being left alone. I’ve read all there is to read about separation anxiety, and none of it works. They say that you should leave for very short periods of time, and increase the time. My dog reacts every time I stand up, because I MIGHT leave the apartment. As an aside, we think he might be retarded (in a clinical sense, not in any Ha Ha sense), and he just might not be able to understand things as well as other dogs.

Anyone successfully deal with this?

2

Nope, sorry. But I wonder if an anti-anxiety drug might help? I have a dog with anxiety problems, and while I don’t have her on any regular drugs, I do have a mild tranquilizer for when I know she’ll be in a situation that will upset her.

3

Oh, and she’s always calmer when she’s with my other dog, who she seems to think is her mother or something. Maybe your dog would bond with another dog and not mind being left alone?

4

I looked into that, and am still considering it, but I was looking around and some sites said that almost never works, because the problem is that he is so bonded to me, and will be upset when I leave. I’m considering renting a friend’s dog, and seeing how it works!

5

Well, good luck with it, anyway, and maybe you should consult with your vet and maybe a really good dog trainer to see if they have any suggestions.

6

Uggghhh, yes. I had a dachsund that had it bad. I loved that dog to pieces, but man, was he a PITA.

I had to leave him for most of the day while I worked and my kids were in school, and I had to crate him. If I left him in the house he would scratch the door to shreds, rip up anything that he could find, chew stuff, etc.

Even if I walked out to my car for a few minutes, and he thought I was leaving, within those few minutes he’d find something to shred, or he’d pee on the floor, even if he’d just been walked.

A few people told me that drugs were an option, but I never looked into it. And people also suggested another dog, but with my luck I would have ended up with 2 dogs that tore up my house, so I never went that route either. Crating was all I could do, and I absolutely hated it. I am 100% done with dog owning.

No advice, but you sure do have my sympathy.

7

Just an anecdote but… Our Jack Russell had separation anxiety. We tried many different things. Then we got a cat. She’s OK now. (We have another dog, but she’s old and too much like furniture to count as “company”.)

Don’t worry about your dog being “retarded”. He understands that you get up before you leave, so he’s anticipating your departure. He might not be the brightest dog on the block, but he’s smart enough.

8

I have to advocate crating. My fiancée’s dog got so nervous when we put on our shoes ('cause that meant we were leaving) that she would shake. This is a 40 lb dog, not some shivery chihuahua. If she had roam of the house when we were gone there would be poo all over, things eaten and torn up. We finally did crate her when we left, and it really has helped her. She is much calmer and actually goes into the crate when she need a little comfort—like when strangers come over. It’s also super helpful as a cue, she knows when we crate her we are leaving, but if we just put on our shoes and don’t crate her we aren’t. Actually then she gets happy because it usually means walkies.

Bottom line is, if dogs are introduced to their crate properly the actually like it. Lucy sees it as a nice, comfy, safe, quiet place mom and dad leave her until they come home. I say give it a shot.

9

My dog is agoraphobic. He didn’t mind when we left the house, but he’d freak out if we tried to bring him with us. He’s on Prozac now, and let me tell you, its a goddamned miracle drug. I don’t know if it will help with your pooch, or if there’s another drug that might work better, but its definetly worth asking your vet about.

10

I’ve dealt with this with several dogs, since I have done rehoming for a couple of rescue groups. What follows is my opinion, backed up by other people I have talked to and various behaviorists. YMMV.

Drugs work sometimes. Drugs are management. Management always fails. Training the dog past this is much better.

Most people assume that the dog has SA because the dog is so bonded to the owner. I don’t think so. My observation is that dogs with SA are dogs who should be middle or low ranking pack dogs who are trying to fill the role of a higher level dog, and know they are way out of their depth. More than anything else, reassuring the dog that you are in charge and they don’t have to worry about it will help you.

THIS DOES NOT MEAN ALPHA ROLL YOUR DOG!!!

Suggestions:

Don’t let the dog sleep in your bedroom. Move his/her bed/crate out into some other room of the house.

Start a leadership program. You can find several on the net. They have titles like “Nothing in Life is Free” and “Leading the Dance.” (Check out one example at shirleychong.com.) Follow the steps as described! This sounds complicated, but will actually make your life much easier in many ways.

Your desensitization program is a good idea, but you are starting way too big. You need to start with babysteps. Make a list of what you do before you leave. “Stand up. Walk to door to put on shoes. Walk to closet to put on jacket. Go into kitchen to find keys. Walk around house turning out lights.” etc. You need to be really detailed. If you find that you don’t have a routine you always follow, make one.

Start at step one. Stand up. You have already said the dog gets upset. Sit down. Wait until he is calm and stand up again. Repeat, repeat, repeat, until he just looks at you when you stand up. Then, stand up and walk to the door to put on your shoes. Then take your shoes off and sit back down. Repeat, repeat, repeat.

If you are doing the leadership program and the desensitization program at the same time, you will start to see results pretty quickly. Don’t assume this means everything is OK and quit. Do both programs all the way through.

Consider consulting a behaviorist who has experience with SA.

Also, IMHO, male boxers are some of the sweetest dogs out there. Good luck!

11

Our dog, an 80 # lab, was perfectly fine and dandy until we had the nerve and audacity to bring home a baby one day.

After that, every time I left the house, she went berzerk. Thoroughly destroying several screened windows and doors and curtians (brought home from Germany) and screened doors. A few walls by the doors were badly scratched too. The fact that she ignored the leather couch or shoes to destroy told us she was missing us. Well, duh.

Our neighbor is a professional dog trainer. They basically said she had regressed back into puppyhood and had to be retrained.

I was on a 24 hour shift, learning how to breastfeed and I have to now deal with retraining a dog that was perfectly fine until the day I brought home a baby?

Fcuk that shit, I said grumpily.

The dog and her crate ( which she is the low percentage of dogs that cannot be crated. She hated it vemonously and learned how to escape from it time and time again, though it was locked. ) we tossed into a corner in the garage with a radio on for company. In the winter she got to stay down stairs, gated out of our 2nd level and gated into the kitchen.

Can’t remember how long it took to get her back to regular dog status, and looking back on it it was rather heartless, but she is normal and The Best Dog Evar!!!111!!!

What has helped, YMMV, especially during thunderstorms and when we do have to leave her with someone for a couple of days, is giving her Valerian Root supplement ( 1) in peanut butter. Calms her down and she is asleep pretty quickly. Good stuff, Valerian Root. I tried it on myself first and zzzzzzz very fast.(It was recommended by our neighbors, the pet trainers/Vet.)

12

Hi - I have a couple of ideas.

There is a program called Nothing In Life Is Free (NILIF) that is supposed to be good for all kinds of behavioural problems, including SA (separation anxiety), as it teaches a dog what is expected, and how to pick up its cues from you, rather than trying to figure life out on its own (at least that’s what I get from it).

There are many dog trainers/therapists that can help you with your particular dog, if you have the money to spend.

My dog suffers from the same problem so this is something I’ve done some reading on. (Since we got our cat, she’s been much better, so I’ve been putting off trying these techniques, because I have other stuff going on in my life right now, and I have to put myself first for a little bit).

Sorry for the detour there … :slight_smile:

I have read that you should try very small, short separations first, for example, going into your bedroom, leaving the dog in the hallway. When you take a bath or go to the washroom, close the door. When you use your computer, shut the door to your office, etc etc … the idea is to get the dog used to being apart from you and realizing that it’s only temporary, you will always come back.

Was this dog a “rescue” or have you had it since puppyhood? (Sorry you may have already answered this, but I’m at work and can’t take the time to go back and look).

I know a really good, supportive, dog message board … let me know if you want the link (I’m not sure if I can just post it unsolicited).

I am trying a new dog school to help my dog with her issues, if I pick up any great tips along the way, I will add to this post or see if your email is in your profile and let you know what I find out.

S.

13

Sorry Shirley - I just had a chance to read your post while the hamsters were working on adding my submission. And lo and behold, I said almost everything you said, but you said it BETTER!!! :slight_smile:

I have considered crate training my dog as well, but she is a border collie, so very active, and she also has a lot of fun playing with our cat, so I am going to ask my new doggie school people if a crate would be good, or if it would be torture for her.

S.

14

Our male dog, Dongle, had SA really bad - we had to crate him when we left for work.
He hated the crate.

One day he was so upset, that when my husband cornered him to put him away (bad bad idea), he bit him.
It wasn’t a bad bite, but a bite nevertheless, which is not a good thing.

Our solution was to get another dog, the same breed except a female.
In our case, it worked like a charm. In the 4 years we’ve had Georgie, we’ve never had a problem.

15

Ooohhhh yeah. I know all about this.

A couple years ago, I rescued a dog from a puppy mill. He was a train wreck in a dog suit. At first, I crated him because that’s how I’d trained my other dog (who is a perfect angel in a dog suit), which had gone swimmingly. Only problem was, my other dog hadn’t been left to live in a crate for five years straight. This little guy was having no part of any crate.

I could put him in the crate, in the middle of the living room and stand right next to him, talking to him. He barked. He howled. He whined. He cried. He panted and finally hyperventilated. He drooled foam. He peed. He pooped. He smooshed his paws in poo and tried to claw out of the crate, smearing poo all over. Same thing if I left him – he didn’t settle down after a while. He’d howl all afternoon. (Which is a very low pitched, gravelly howl. He’s what Lou Rawls would sound like if he was a dog.)

Every day, I would come home from work, drag the crate outside, hose off all the parts, give the dog another bath, and toss all his blankies in the washer in boiling hot water with lots of bleach. Every day, he would calm down about 30 minutes after I got home and was fine.

I consulted a behaviorist who recommended Clomipromine (or Clomicalm), the only anti-anxiety, anti-depressant that the USDA has recommended for veterinary use. Accept no dogzac substitutes. The dogzac is a tool. It was paired with a behavioral modification program that I’m sorry to say I was unable to follow through with thoroughly and completely. But the drugs enabled him to calm down enough to focus on the training, which was all about gradually introducing him to being uncrated and not destroying the place.

We’re still working on housebreaking, and may never master it completely because he does not have the same instinct for aversion to living near poo that most dogs have. He was forced to live in his own filth for most of his life and he couldn’t do anything about it, so it just doesn’t bother him.

I found that allowing him to sleep on the bed with the rest of the “pack” did him worlds of good in terms of feeling secure about a position in the pack. I had no issues introducing him with the cat because he viewed the cat as part of the pack as well. He’s now fairly well socialized and is left uncrated while I’m away from the house. He does have his accidents and you can’t leave paper lying around so the place is always puppy proofed, but he doesn’t bark and howl and freak out all day long either. This is also helped by my angel dog and her constant licking of rescued dog’s head. Nothing settles him down faster than a good head licking.

My point of this long and arduous post is to let you know that your mileage may vary. Not all cases of anxiety are the same and different things will work with different dogs. The key here is patience and try for as much understanding of pack mentality and how dogs think as possible. Try to find a good behaviorist, or at least a vet who is good with canine behavioral issues. You might also contact rescue organizations in your area as I’m sure they are well versed in what I’m told is common behavior among rescues, particularly puppy mill dogs where overcrating and negligence are prevalent.

Good luck. I found that, somewhere around 3-4 months, I wanted to cook him and eat him. Just about that time, he made a breakthrough and things got a lot better and he started learning a lot of things very quickly. He was only on the drugs for maybe 4-6 months (They are very expensive.) and then we weaned him off, continuing training. Hang in there.

16

I have a lot to go through in this thread, but just to say, he is crated during the day. Both because he gets REALLY and IMMEDIATELY upset if I leave without him in his crate and because he knows how to open doors, including deadbolts, so the front door is no match for him.

The annoying thing is that before I moved to a new apartment, he was finally crate trained and we hadn’t had a problem in about a year. I moved about three months ago, and now I have to clean up pee in the crate EVERY day. I knew he would be difficult to adjust to the move, but c’mon, it’s been awhile now!

I’ll look into these recommendations, and I guess I’ll consider Clomicalm, though if this dog were any more mellow when I am around, I would have to put a mirror up to his nose to check for breathing. He’s not your normal, run around like a maniac boxer.

17

Oh, and he has no problem with the crate. He sleeps in there all the time. He only has a problem when I try to lock him in it and leave.

18

A “natural” calming remedy you may want to try is called “Rescue Remedy” - it is safe for animals and humans and I found it in a local health food store, and it’s reasonably priced.

It’s something to consider before you resort to sedating your dog, in my opinion. It’s just flower essences etc and it certainly can’t hurt and may help.

Just my opinion.

It’s very strange that he’s soiling in his crate - most dogs would avoid that at all costs. Have you taken him to the vet to rule out any kind of health problem, like a urinary tract infection?

Is his food dish in his crate? Perhaps if you feed him in there as well, he may work harder to avoid soiling where he eats.

19

It has nothing to do with housebreaking. He NEVER has accidents outside of his crate, or when I’m home. I guess releasing the bladder is just an involuntary thing when he’s upset.

I do the same thing when my stocks go down.

20

I will add a second to this suggestion. I believe this program is built upon the research of Dr Victoria Voith, and googling her name for more details would be a start.

Other than that, clomipramine is a great drug if your veterinarian decides that seperation anxiety is truly what your dog has. If your dog’s brain chemistry is wrong, it can be corrected pharmacologically.