Need Help With Dog That Has Seperation Anxiety

[NaOH]

Yeah, it's a weird problem if you haven't owned a dog before. But basically, my dog whines (now barks thanks to staying at the vet), and is fully destructive to my home now. She has always been whiny and stuff when I leave her alone. Recently, she was struck by a car so she's been at the vet for a few weeks. Since I have gotten her back, I've kept her in a cage for her to heal. Now that she can walk again I've been letting her out and caging her when i leave. She whined and barked......something I was never able to fix no matter how many online articles I've read. Anyways, I eventually let her free roam when I saw that she stopped barking and whining as much. Until recently, I've been seeing signs of her scratching my rug in front of the front door but nothing serious. Yesterday, I noticed bits of the carpet being pulled up. I cleaned it up and decided Ill give her another chance. Fast forward to today, she freaking tore out a chunk of the carpet (bye bye deposit). Pretty much when I move out, they have to replace the carpet. I'm at the end of my rope. She's a good dog.....................until I leave. I work A LOT and can't be doing exercises where I get up and leave for 10-20 seconds at time and slowly increase....Because she starts whining at about 10 secs and it doesn't get better. I'm starting to have thoughts of putting her down or in a pound because this is too stressful having to worry when I'm out how long i leave my dog at home for. Im thinking about perm. caging her whenever I leave. Is that cruel? I can't block off a section of my apartment because she tears through boxes or whatever is in her way. She's only 10lbs tooo........... Any advice, comments are welcome.



Cliffs: My dog is a whiny bitch whenever I leave and tears down my crib...

 

[Ns1]

How old?

Try crate training her?

 

[NaOH]

Originally posted by: Ns1
How old?

Try crate training her?

2 years

I've read about crate training. Is that just keeping her caged and getting them used to being caged? She's fine in the cage, in a separate room even. When I leave sometimes she usually just whines and barks but eventually stops....She showed signs of improvement, so i let her out. Big mistake.

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: NaOH

Originally posted by: Ns1
How old?

Try crate training her?

2 years

I've read about crate training. Is that just keeping her caged and getting them used to being caged? She's fine in the cage, in a separate room even. When I leave sometimes she usually just whines and barks but eventually stops....She showed signs of improvement, so i let her out. Big mistake.

It's getting them used to being alone, not sure about doing that on a 2 year old dog though...

 

[NaOH]

Originally posted by: Ns1

Originally posted by: NaOH

Originally posted by: Ns1
How old?

Try crate training her?

2 years

I've read about crate training. Is that just keeping her caged and getting them used to being caged? She's fine in the cage, in a separate room even. When I leave sometimes she usually just whines and barks but eventually stops....She showed signs of improvement, so i let her out. Big mistake.

It's getting them used to being alone, not sure about doing that on a 2 year old dog though...

She used to be an outside dog (bro's friend's dog), and I think by letting her inside I've spoiled her to death and it's game over. She doesn't seem to learn ANYTHING. Except I've gotten her used to peeing and pooping outside. But trying to teach her things like paw is impossible (spent days and numerous bags of treats and ZERO signs of picking up a pattern)

 

[Codewiz]

Crate the dog. Problem solved.

 

[NaOH]

Originally posted by: Codewiz
Crate the dog. Problem solved.

yeah, taht's the easiest solution is to cage her while im gone, but i was looking for advice to maybe not have to do that. It seems sad because I'm gone usually all day at work and I'd rather her be able to eat, drink, lay, chew toys on her own leisure, not be cooped up in a cage where she can't even walk.

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: NaOH

Originally posted by: Codewiz
Crate the dog. Problem solved.

yeah, taht's the easiest solution is to cage her while im gone, but i was looking for advice to maybe not have to do that. It seems sad because I'm gone usually all day at work and I'd rather her be able to eat, drink, lay, chew toys on her own leisure, not be cooped up in a cage where she can't even walk.

I send my dog to doggy daycare ^_^

 

[minime72706]

My sisters dog is on medication for anxiety supposedly. I think its chloripramine but I'm not sure I spelled it right. The dog used to drool bark and chew things like crazy when I got nervous. It packed on some weight but is much better behaved, but talk to your vet if you want to go that route.

 

[RKS]

I think they have puppy prozac to deal with SA. Our pup had issues and we tried a lot of the 'natural' remedies and nothing worked. I think after we took him to serious dog training he gained a little more confidence/independence and we are able to leave him for about 10 hours a day.

We tried to crate our puppy while we were gone but he would hurt himself trying to get out of the metal crate. One day I only latched one of the 2 latches and he got out (with a swollen and bloddy nose). He did nothing but look out of the front windows and drool on the sills. Since that day we never crated him and he just runs to the window if he hears anything outside.

BTW if we feed him and try to leave a few minutes later he gets nervous and throws up his kibble. It usually comes back as a moist half-chewed lump and he helps himself to seconds. If we leave while he is eating he is okay.

 

[ShOcKwAvE827]

My beagle has separation anxiety really bad as well.. tried everything by the books, nothing works. I had to crate him, no other choice, he would be wayy to destructive + piss and poop everywhere if I let him out. No advice for you really, maybe a TCA, or vodka to sedate your dog, I'm thinking about trying that.

 

[Howard]

What happens when there's another dog around?

 

[NaOH]

Originally posted by: RKS
I think they have puppy prozac to deal with SA. Our pup had issues and we tried a lot of the 'natural' remedies and nothing worked. I think after we took him to serious dog training he gained a little more confidence/independence and we are able to leave him for about 10 hours a day.

We tried to crate our puppy while we were gone but he would hurt himself trying to get out of the metal crate. One day I only latched one of the 2 latches and he got out (with a swollen and bloddy nose). He did nothing but look out of the front windows and drool on the sills. Since that day we never crated him and he just runs to the window if he hears anything outside.

BTW if we feed him and try to leave a few minutes later he gets nervous and throws up his kibble. It usually comes back as a moist half-chewed lump and he helps himself to seconds. If we leave while he is eating he is okay.

luckily for me she's really good in the cage. But I hate to have to be like...ok, daddy is going somewhere time to get in yo cage!

 

[NaOH]

Originally posted by: Ns1

Originally posted by: NaOH

Originally posted by: Codewiz
Crate the dog. Problem solved.

yeah, taht's the easiest solution is to cage her while im gone, but i was looking for advice to maybe not have to do that. It seems sad because I'm gone usually all day at work and I'd rather her be able to eat, drink, lay, chew toys on her own leisure, not be cooped up in a cage where she can't even walk.

I send my dog to doggy daycare ^_^

I don't have riches like you do

 

[SJP0tato]

Originally posted by: NaOH
luckily for me she's really good in the cage. But I hate to have to be like...ok, daddy is going somewhere time to get in yo cage!

99.9% of the time the dog is out when you're gone, he's lying around sleeping anyways. Or in your case 95% of the time, 5% of the other he's destroying your things. :laugh:

What's more cruel: Lock him up for his own good, or to put him to sleep in the prime of his life?

 

[rh71]

Watch Dog Whisperer... he deals with this all the time. I believe one of the things he's taught is to repeatedly walk in and out of the house without acknowledging the dog. Repeatedly as in your neighbors will look at you weird for the next half hour. Do this on a few occasions. The dog will eventually stop associating your coming and going as a time to get worked up.

 

[novasatori]

my wife has used the following, basically, you leave without making a big deal, and then when you come in you gotta ignore em until they calm down.
throughout the day you can leave and come back in and repeat whenever you can, should eventually calm them down a bit, but don't expect a fix overnight

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: NaOH

Originally posted by: Codewiz
Crate the dog. Problem solved.

yeah, taht's the easiest solution is to cage her while im gone, but i was looking for advice to maybe not have to do that. It seems sad because I'm gone usually all day at work and I'd rather her be able to eat, drink, lay, chew toys on her own leisure, not be cooped up in a cage where she can't even walk.

it's not so much keeping her caged, as it is training her to realize that the cage is a happy place for her. Dogs like to have their own home. Get her a cage, space that she feels comfortable in.

Hopefully, you wouldn't need to lock her in, but she will actually go to the cage when she's alone in order to feel more safe.

 

[NaOH]

Originally posted by: novasatori
my wife has used the following, basically, you leave without making a big deal, and then when you come in you gotta ignore em until they calm down.
throughout the day you can leave and come back in and repeat whenever you can, should eventually calm them down a bit, but don't expect a fix overnight

I do this everyday getting the mail, getting stuff from my car... I try to make it as productive as possible. I mean it's helped, but there are weird occurrences where she just destroys stuff. I'm kind of afraid to try again because i don't want my carpet to get worse.

 

[Canun]

I leave mine in the cage while I'm at work. If she is in the cage, she knows I won't be back for a while and to just deal with it. I've left her out before, and my neighbors told me she howled for close to 3hrs. So the cage was the only solution.

 

[JDub02]

My dog went through the same thing. He now stays in his crate while I'm gone. I know that he's safe and my stuff is safe when I'm not around.

Crate the dog.

Also, give the dog more exercise. Go for walks. Play fetch. Whatever it takes to tire the dog out.

 

[dougp]

We "caged" our dog by blocking off the kitchen with a movable gate system, and she learned how to get out of it ... we tried various methods of caging her because she would chew stuff up pretty badly. It finally got to the point where she figured out how to get out of anything we had at the time - she even ripped a hole in the bottom of her soft kennel and flipped it over to jump out.

In the mean time to us being able to get a metal cage, we stuck her in the bathroom - big mistake. She dug a damn hole in the wall, the size of a babies fist and also ripped off some of the Sheetrock paper backing.

She now safely stays in a cage during the day and night, except when we're home. We'll try training again, but we're not getting our hopes up.

 

[thomsbrain]

Dogs like that are actually happier in their crate when you are gone. They feel secure, protected. They know they are where they are "supposed" to be, and they're not going to get in trouble. In short, things aren't "wrong," like they apparently are when the dog is alone and loose in the apartment. The fact that she whines less in the cage is a good indication that she's actually happier there than loose. Make sure she gets some nice exercise when you get home, though.

So go back to crate training. Make sure she sleeps in there at night, and give her a treat and a "good dog!" every time she goes into it. She'll re-learn soon enough that it's a "good dog" place for her to be.

We crated our dog when we first got him for maybe 2-3 weeks, and eventually "weened" him by letting him stay out for short trips (to the store, for instance), then working up to restaurant trips, then out during the work day. We were lucky and he does not bark or destroy anything, but we also have a cat that he likes to play with, so he doesn't feel too alone.

 

[NaOH]

Thanks for the comments guys! It's been quite an ordeal having her since the move. I have resumed caging her again and hopefully she's happy this way. I've tried to barricade her in the kitchen before (hardwood floor so she doens't ruin the carpet). That ended up in failure just like you guys. I used a REALLY BIG BOX just to see if she would be chill in there. Anyways, she chewed through the box and through some of my books and there was a big mess......

 

[powpowpow]

How is it working out?