Okay, I’m not one of these people that believes in Paxil for Pooches, but I do have a problem. My dog, Beebo, has separation anxiety.
A bit of background:
We got Beebo in January of 1999. He was a pound dog, breed unknown (or rather, mixture of unknown breeds). In his initial visit to our vet, the vet felt he was about 3 or 4 years old.
He’s a good dog, doesn’t chew on anything except his toys, and shouldn’t be left unsupervised around anything food-like.
We got a crate for him after we noticed that when he left he often went crazy around the house and did chew on things. Now he stays in the crate when we are gone. We tried to get him into the crate in a positive manner, with treats, never using the crate as punishment, etc. He still hates it. And any bedding we put in the crate he shreds while we’re gone, in addition to chewing on the crate itself. He also probably barks the whole time we’re gone.
When we return, he nearly has a heart attack from joy - even if we were only gone for five minutes or so.
Is there anything we can do? We’ve had him for three years now - if he hasn’t figured out that we come back yet, I’m not sure how he will figure it out.
I wouldn’t turn my nose up at Prozac for puppies. My brother has a dog with similar problems, and the vet put the dog on anti-anxiety medications for about a month. It made a dramatic improvement in the dog’s behavior that has continued to this day (about 2 years later).
Hi Legomancer. My pup also has a great deal of separation anxiety. Here are some things you can try. The caveat is that I’m not a dog trainer. You should really talk to your vet and a dog trainer (your vet may be able to recommend one).
If he doesn’t flip out immediately when you leave, work on extending the time before he does flip out. It took Lucy a couple of minutes after I left to begin barking at the door, so I would leave and come back. Repeatedly. All day on weekends. Stand up, walk out, walk down the hall, come back two minutes later. After that got kind of ho hum (for her), I pushed it to 5 minutes. Then 10. Then 20. 30. 45. I would get up and go down to the store on the corner, go work out, go for a walk, take a book outside and read, whatever.
You could try tiring him out a bit. Lucy responded well to playing vigorously in the morning (at least an hour before I want to work–any closer to when I left and she’d be too “worked up”), as well as long walks in the evenings (it made her happier and more well adjusted to get a daily hour walk).
Don’t make a big production of leaving. Grab your stuff and go. Don’t make a big production of returning. If your dog knows “stay”, you can try working on stay when you return home. Lucy learned to sit still for about 10 minutes if she knew it was what I wanted and she would get a treat.
Consider finding a companion. If you have neighbors with dogs, you may be able to leave the dogs together during the day.
Depending on what your vet says, you may want to consider the “puppy praxil”. Lucy took Clomicalm, and it helped a lot. The advantage of the Clomicalm was that it calmed her anxiety enough to respond to training–without it, I’m not sure if any amount of patience and training would have worked. It isn’t cheap, but it’s less expensive than a cable subscription, and your dog is probably worth that. It’s definitely less expensive than doggy daycare.
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This has worked for me in the past. If you make it seem like a big deal when you leave, and pay a lot of attention to the dog as you leave and when you return, it’s going to think that it’s a big deal. Pay no attention to the dog for about ten minutes before you leave, and the same amount when you get back.