How do you stop seperation anxiety in a dog?

[Smartie_Pants]

Some of you may have seen my other posts, but last Thursday I adopted a 4-5 year old female beagle from the Humane Society. I volunteer at a vets office in my town, and she had come in to be spayed. As she woke up she began to cry because she was scared and hurting, so the technician asked me to set in the run with her. The more she woke up, the more she tried to climb up in my lap, so I eventually let her.

Ever since that afternoon when we picked her up from the clinic, she has been glued to me. Even if Igo into another room in the house she has to follow me. When I go outside, she stands at the door and howls and cries. If I leave and my mom is here with her, she will pace back and forth and wine until I get back. If we are outside, she will get up in the window and watch us, and cry if we get out of sight. If the blind is down, she will dig violently at the blind trying to see us. Today she actually bit and tore the blind trying to see my mom out in the yard while I was gone. I'm going to have to buy her a new one now.

I love this dog. She is sweet and smart. She already comes when called, knows what sit means, and walks perfectly on a leash, right next to my leg the whole time, and she rides perfectly in a car. We just need to conquer her seperation fears.

 

[thebritt]

I have 2 favorite sources for dog training info. The 1st is a show on Animal Planet called "It's Me or the Dog". The 2nd is a radio show on public radio called "Calling All Pets". Whenever this topic comes up, the advice is as follows:
At first, you practice picking up your purse/car keys, or whatever it is you do right before you leave the house. You don't go anywhere, you just get the dog to remain calm with the idea. This can take a long time (MANY times of practice).
The next step is to pick up the keys/purse and walk towards the door. Then turn around and don't leave. Again, practice till it's not a problem.
Next, pick up the keys/purse and open the door. Close the door w/out going out, and put the purse/keys down. Practice...
Once you can open the door, the next step is to go out the door, closing it behind you, but go back into the house after a couple seconds.
You gradually increase the amount of time you are on the other side of the door, until you actually get in the car and go around the block, etc. The #1 rule: DON'T FAWN OVER THE DOG WHENEVER YOU RETURN! Just say "Hi Fido" (no petting yet), walk into the house, put your stuff down, and when she's calm, ask for a "sit" and reward with pets. But not with an excited voice. Remain calm. This whole process can take a LONG time, but it really does work. OH YEA - they recommend a treat, such as a really good stuffing in a kong, or a raw beef bone - that the dog ONLY gets when you LEAVE. When you get home, you put it up.
GOOD LUCK!

 

[Redyre Rotties]

Great advice!

The other thing I would suggest is getting her a nice big cage, the fiber glass type, and let her get used to this by sleeping in it by your bedside.

Feed her in the crate.

Teach her to run into the crate for treats.

Play fetch in and out of the crate.

When she is comfortable in the crate and sleeping in it quietly at night, crate her when you leave. Not only can dogs with a lot of separation anxiety be very destructive, they can also injure themselves, so in a crate is much safer.

Most dogs, when properly trained to the cage will relax in there and not have as much stress.

 

[thebritt]

Quote:
And only give her the most special treat IN the cage.

 

[ninny]

Your getting good advice. I have dealt with this a lot so any other questions just pm me.

 

[tonini3059]

Good luck!! I have tried all of the tricks on my dog and he never settled down and he is almost 3.

 

[Cara]

I had a Coonhound that I adopted that had separation anxiety. It truly was awful, she would urinate if she couldn't see me, I couldn't even be in the bathroom without her. I was in college and had to take her to class with me, thank God my professors were understanding. I'm afraid I didn't get a chance to try and cure her of it, so please take this to heart so that nothing similar happens in your case. I took her with me to visit a friend, and we left her home because the house was going to be empty so her barking wouldn't bother anyone. I even had him call his roommate to let him know there was a strange dog in the house, he wasn't planning on coming home but I didn't want her to slip out the door in case he opened it. Well the dumb roommate did come home, heard her whining and thought she needed out, so he just opened the door. They didn't have a fenced yard. We found her on the shoulder about 2 miles away, headed for my house, but she had been hit by a car. I had to have her euthanized.

I sure wish I could give you advice on how to cure the problem, but all I can say is in the meantime you can't be too careful. I wouldn't wish the problem on anyone, it is incredibly restrictive. If you can get her comfortable in a crate or other secure/indestructible area that is half the battle.

A book that you may find useful is The Dog Listener by Jan Fennell. On a more light-hearted note, our local library had a copy in stock... unfortunately my dog chewed it up. There is a chapter that deals with separation anxiety.

 

[NellaBean]

Well after I lost a set of blinds, curtains, a dining room set, a crate (he tore it up from the outside) a basket and finally the baseboards.....my crazy dude is now crated when I am gone. I tried keeping him in the dining room only but he destroyed everything in it....and when I had it emptied to be ONLY HIM, he started ripping off the baseboards.

He will go in his crate willingly.........even sleeps in it if you leave the door open. I don't have to worry about him tearing the house up or hurting himself or the other animals while I'm gone. I have used a plastic airline crate for over a year and just a few days ago switched to the metal "open" crate so he is not so much locked in "the hole" aka solitary confinement. He approves!

I have also considered leaving him out in the backyard but he has squeezed through the deck railing, jumped the deck railing, tried to dig under the fence, tried to climb the fence, etc etc. We added hot wire to the top but I would not trust him for any length of time unsupervised.

I would definitely crate while you are "dealing" with this issue.

My dog goes crazy when I leave him loose in the room, but just lays down in the crate....no craziness when he is in there. It is all routine now.

 

[Cara]

Somethning else just came to mind; exercise, exercise, exercise. It's much harder for a tired dog to be bad, and it takes the edge off their frantic behaviour. Our dog park had a nice fenced in area in the woods, away from the main park. It was hound heaven with all of the smells, and letting them run in such an area may help them learn that being away from your side can be fun too.

Something else while we're on the topic of crates. I'm sure you've seen it in the line of duty at work, some dogs are crazy enough to severely wound themselves trying to dig out of a crate. I had a roommate who adopted a Bluetick that had been kept on a chain for the first two years of her life, then spent the rest in a packed shelter. He thought she was laid back, since she was just laying down while the others ran around her. It turned out she was overwhelmed. When he brought her home we had something else entirely on our hands. After half an hour of being home alone, the inside of the crate looked like someone had taken a grater to it. The crates we've had for years don't have a scratch on them! She would howl and howl and howl.

He worked on improving her confidence, and last time I saw her she was far from normal, but she was a lot better. She had a habit of circling when she was stressed (a result of only being able to circle on the chain when something worried her), and that had decreased a lot. There's another school of thought that separation anxiety is linked to dominance; the dog sees itself as leader of the pack and is anxious when one of its members has left. The dominant dog would be free to come and go. I don't know how convinced I am that it applies in every case, particularly traumatised shelter dogs. Hounds might be stubborn, but they are extremely sensitive and being abandoned or neglected seems to hit them particularly hard.

ETA The crazy Bluetick did much better in a very large wire crate (48") than a Varikennel that 'fit' her.

 

[Blue Skys]

I once had the best dog in the world, with the worst seperation anxiety. He was crate trained (that was a huge challenge - just be patient), His crate was in the living room, but I found he was much calmer when we put it in a little area right off the living room that was on two and a half walls (it had prviously been a wet bar I think). He was a lot more comfortable out of the way in his crate. He eventually was able to go without the crate when we were gone during the day - but that was a very long process and lots of people things were destroyed in the process.