My dog is a rescue, who had some pretty severe separation anxiety when I first got her, and was on daily Prozac, and trazodone as a PRN. She had to be crated any time she was left alone, because she would be destructive, and would get diarrhea, and not be able to hold it.
After about 9 months, she could be left alone without being crated, and was doing really well. No destruction at all. If she was going to be alone for more than 8 hours, we took her to a dog daycare, and she got some time socializing with other dogs as a bonus. She loves going to daycare.
I’m worried that she has now gotten used to someone being home all the time, and when we go back to working more hours outside the apartment, she’s going to be back to square one with the separation anxiety.
She does get left alone occasionally right now, and I’ve noticed her looking anxious when she does, which wasn’t the case before-- she had gotten to the point where she’d settle into her futon before I was all the way out the door.
Anyone got any suggestions for preventing backsliding on all her progress?
I’d do daily exercises, leaving her alone for a length of time you know to be “sub-threshold”, then returning and treating her. Gradually increase the length of time you are gone, trying to stay sub-threshold.
So, week 1 you go out for thirty minutes each day, week 2 is 45 minutes each day, etc. Each return you show affection and give a treat. Each time you leave, use a phrase, “be right back!” for instance (it’s the phrase I use). The important thing is to always remain sub-threshold.
I’ve read about this approach for loud noise fear. They used a professional quality sound system to play thunderstorm sounds, starting at the lowest volume and interacting with the dog while it played. The volume was turned up every week, an imperceptible amount. After a year the dog tolerated volume that shook the windows.
ETA: if you cannot do this while keeping the dog sub-threshold, ask your veterinarian for some alprazolam (Xanax) (for the dog).
My cats are going to be pissed when I go back to the office. By that I mean they will physically be pissing on things like the doorway when I’m gone. They haven’t done that in nine months as we have gotten used to being around each other and they get snacks and let outside whenever they want.
As much as I want to go back to the office it’s going suck in a lot of ways. I think I will have the opportunity to only go back a couple of days a week since I’ve got this working from home thing down.
Getting another dog might make a big difference. If she has a buddy, then she will likely be much more relaxed when you’re not there. You can talk with foster organizations to try to find a dog which would be a good match. You could actually just be a foster home yourself rather than adopt if you’re not sure if you want to take that step right now. That way you could have another dog on a temporary basis to see if it would work out. If you consider this, you might want to get a boy dog rather than girl. When I’ve had two girl dogs, they more tolerate each other rather than love each other. Girl-boy or boy-boy combinations seem to work out better in terms of building close connections.
But crating can also be a solution. We humans often view it from our own perspective, but in my experience dogs don’t really mind it all that much. It’s just another kind of bed to them. If she already has experience being crated and did well with that, it can be a perfectly fine solution for when you’re not there.
Indeed. I once had a dog that was crated until housebroken, after which I just kept the crate’s door open and she’d go in and chill occasionally. I sold the crate and the dog was forlorn. She’d go to where the crate used to be and whine, so I bought another crate.