Separation Anxiety

[Pupster]

Hi all,

As I mentioned in my earlier post, our Una has separation anxiety. She follows us around all the time and she gets distressed when we leave. We've had her for about four weeks and have left her alone (for real) only once for two hours. That didn't go so well. Since then, we've been taking it easy and practicing leaving her alone for seconds and up to 20 minutes. She does okay for about a minute, but that's it at this point. Giving her a Kong didn't really work. However, today we tried leaving her in her crate with a bone. She was okay for about 10 minutes, but then started crying and howling afterwards (I'm assuming after she finished the bone). It's definitely a work in progress, but I know I will have to leave her alone for several hours at the end of this month (5-6 hours for two days each).

So, I'm curious how those of you that have dogs with separation anxiety handle it. Do you leave the pups in the house anyway? Do you crate them or leave them free? I've heard all these horror stories about crating dogs with anxiety (broken teeth, bloody noses, etc), so I'm a little nervous about it, but I'm really not sure whether it would be better and safer for her to run around the house either. Any help will be appreciated, along with any success stories or strategies for overcoming anxiety.

Thanks so much.

[browndog]

Our girl had separation anxiety too in the beginning. We would put her in the crate while we were home and just go about our business. It was hard as she would cry, but I knew it was best that we persevere, so I sometimes even resorted to ear plugs. We would make sure to jingle our keys and walk in and out of the door randomly so that she didn't associate those sounds with us always leaving. Covering her crate with a dark colored sheet often helped calm her down. When we left the house, we would put a radio on above her crate. We were worried too about something happening while she was in there. We sometimes got a dog walker to come in during the day when we could't come home often enough to let her out. We also found that she would follow us around and cry when we went into a different rokm etc. We invested in some baby gates and had her practice being on her own in a different room from us, increasing the time from five minutes to ten to twenty etc. We would still walk into her room every few minutes but just make sure not to talk to her or acknowledge her. After awhile she learned that it was fine to be separate from us and she gained a little more independence. We also don't make a big deal of our comings and goings from the house.. no big hellos or goodbyes. We wait five minutes before we talk to her. It feels a little weird but it really did help. After a few months, we just gated off the kitchen and put some blankets, towels, toys down and left her there when we had to leave the house. This is what we still do and she is nine months old. The kitchen is puppy proofed and we dont leave any garbage out or food in the counters etc. so there is nothing to get into. She only uses her crate at night now for sleeping. We still feed her in it during the day but she never goes in it in her own in the day. I must say the baby gates have been so worth it. Having her in a different room then us really helped tge separation anxiety. It takes time though, she still cried and we had to practice tough love but eventually she got it. Also giving her a shirt of mine that had my scent seemed to help too. When we leave the house she still sometimes cries for a bit, but I listen outside the window and it only lasts about a minute or so and then she stops. Hope this helps.
-Katey's mom

[jodysh]

I have the same issue with Malcolm (he's 5 months now). I haven't been diligent in leaving him alone or putting him in his crate (which I regret now) much. He's used to being with me all the time as I haven't been working. But I'm starting a new job soon. I'll be taking him to day camp 2 or 3 times a week, but the other days he'll have to stay alone. I want to get a baby gate for the kitchen and leave him in there eventually. I need to get started this week on working on it.

I also thought I'd try a Thundershirt. It's just a question of when I'll have the money to buy it at this point.

The other day I went to dinner with my friend and left an old tshirt in the crate with Malcolm but I'm not sure how much it helped. I also gave him a few treats in there but he didn't eat them until I got home.

I have a lot of work to do and only myself to blame!

[lindamarie]

I don't see how leaving a puppy in a crate could be bad.
The ONLY thing that happened with us (and we were home) is Bogart was chewing on his crate bars.....they are the ones with plastic white coating. I wanted a white crate instead of the stainless.
Well, Bogart got his tooth caught on that dang plastic coating and it, I found out, could have broke his neck trying to release himself.
We immediately opened the crate, calmed him down enough to break him free.

My advice is to get a crate that is metal ONLY. They can't get caught on the metal.

[jodysh]

My lab tried to stage a jail break. He bent up the door and scratched up his muzzle pretty good.

So that's the kind of thing I worry about. Jesse had the same kind of crate that Malcolm has now, the steel one. Of course Malcolm is much smaller and not as strong as Jesse was. So. Some things never change because I worried about Jesse too all the time

[Pupster]

Thanks for all your responses. I think she does okay in the crate and she is getting more and more used to it. Today I put her in for about 2 hours and she was fine. (I also had an episode of Dogtown running in the background.) After about an hour or so, I left the room and went to take a shower -and she was still okay (no crying or barking!). While I was getting dressed, however, she barked once and stopped. So, I think she is fine as long as she can hear me moving around (which is an improvement, as she used to have to be able to see me too). After she barked I said "no" - though I'm not sure whether that is bad because it's acknowledging her behavior. I will try this every day and extend the amount of time I am away. I will also try to record her while I'm gone to make sure she isn't chewing on the crate or the bars (we have a plastic crate). Hopefully she will be better by the 25th and will be okay staying by herself for several hours. Otherwise I might have to bake some cookies for the neighbors .

Also, it looks like Amazon sells the Thundershirt and also DAP collars - I'd like to try both, but they are pricey and the reviews are 50/50 on how well they work for separation.

[Pupster]

Also, Browndog, thanks for sharing and showing that it does get better! It is encouraging to hear that the process takes a long time, but that it will get better eventually . I'll try putting her in a different room too - that sounds like it would be good for her.

[Nikkiey]

Juneau was a little demon when we he was younger. His separation anxiety cost us a LOT of money. He was crate trained from an early age and we stuck with it, but every week or so he would have a freak out. Over a course of 3 months he had managed to rip up our new lino flooring, chew through the side of his plastic kennel and rip up his gums, bend and break his wire kennel and chip a tooth while scratching up his gums....we never knew what we were going to come home to.
We had a trainer that tried to help and gave us a bunch of suggestions. Some of which were:
Cover his kennel with a dark sheet - which didn't work well for Juneau because he would bark incessantly and get so hot.

Put a shirt that we had worn in his kennel with him - this only worked at night and not during the day when we were gone.
Give him a variety of treats for him to work on while we were out - Juneau never ate or drank anything while we were out. As soon as we got home he would scarf down his cookies and drink a gallon of water.

Treat train Juneau in his kennel while we were home. Give him a high value reward in his kennel while we were home, but take it away after 2 minutes (or before he looses interest in it) and let him out of the kennel. - This actually started to work with Juneau. We soon had designated "crate toys". Juneau would only get these toys if he was in his crate. His kryptonite is peanut butter so we used that to our advantage. We would fill his Kong with some PB and give it to him in his kennel, leave the room, come back after some time, take the Kong away (which he wasn't done yet) and act like nothing happened. It took almost 2 weeks of repeating this every day, almost 3 times a day to get to the point we are now. If Juneau sees his red Kong he goes straight to his area - he knows he only gets it when he's there.

Another thing that was suggested that we never tried was an automatic feeder. If you have a wire kennel you can set the automatic feeder up to release food every five minutes. You just put the feeder on the top of the crate and the dog will be kept wondering, “when’s the next treat going to fall?” It may help distract them from the fact that they are alone.

Even though Juneau has gotten better with his separation anxiety it still isn’t great. As of right now, we know he can make it 4 or 5 hours without becoming destructive and putting himself at risk of getting injured. It’s just a constant work in progress!!

[Nikkiey]

Here's some of the damage he inflicted on our home. After he tried chewing through the side of his kennel we tried putting him in our laundry room. The gates were put infront of each door to deter him from scratching at the doors. As you can see that didn't help.

[maximo]

Omg! Would you have done anything differently looking back? My little guy isn't a fan of the crate but I still put him there here there throughout the day. He barks for a bit and I just ignore him and he settles but at night he is relentless and stubborn!

[Pupster]

Oh, wow, Nikkiey - thanks for sharing your experience and the photo (that is scary ).

I have been doing kennel training this week. Una also loves peanut butter, so I've made the peanut butter filled Kong her crate-only treat. She seems to be doing okay and enjoying the Kong as long as she can hear me moving around - but she doesn't do so well in total silence. I've been trying to listen (because she stands up in the kennel first, before barking), so I would usually manage to come in before she progresses to barking.

Also, I just ordered the Thundershirt from Amazon. Fingers crossed .

[jodysh]

My cousin says the Thundershirt works for her dog and the dog will barely let them take it off her lol. I'm not sure what kinda dog it is.

I'm going to get Malcolm's tomorrow I hope.

[deepnite10]

Originally Posted by Nikkiey

Here's some of the damage he inflicted on our home. After he tried chewing through the side of his kennel we tried putting him in our laundry room. The gates were put infront of each door to deter him from scratching at the doors. As you can see that didn't help.

HOLY MACKERAL BATMAN

[Nikkiey]

Originally Posted by maximo

Omg! Would you have done anything differently looking back?

I don't know if I would have done anything different per say, but I do wish we were able to find something that worked for him BEFORE he ruined our floor. We were still in the "try anything" phase. The week before he had chewed through the side of his plastic kennel and really hurt himself so we were kennel-less for a few days because we wanted to get the wire one as it had better air flow for him. That's when we came up with the laundry room idea. We put his bed, a treat ball (as it rolls, treats fall out), his kong and even some carrots (thats what we used as rawhides when he was little) in the room in hopes that that would keep him occupied. As you seen from the pictures - it REALLY didn't work.

Once we got his metal kennel he seemed to do a little better, it was almost 2 weeks before he had another freak-out. He had managed to bend the front metal completely in. I just thank my lucky stars that we came home when we did because he could have strangles himself.

What FINALLY worked for us and Juneau was putting him in the garage. We put a radio in there, made him an area with outside access and he seemed to settle down. I don't know if it's the fact that he can watch us leave the house so he knows we aren't home and we're aren't just hiding on him, or if it's because it's dark and cool. Either way, I'm just happy that the worst thing we have come home to in the past 3 months was a little hole he dug on the side!

Even when it's really hard listening to your pup whine, stick with the crate. My only suggestion is to be open to trying new things whether that is using different treats or toys in their crate or moving the crate to a new spot. Just don't give up! Oh and if you do try something new, don't just stick them in a new spot for 2 hours and hope for the best. Every time we tried a new approach for Juneau we would start with 2 minutes and slowly work our way up.

[Nikkiey]

This was the only picture I could find of the plastic kennel. He had managed to chew through 4 slats and bend the door so it wouldn't close properly.