Posted: 5/6/2009 6:27:12 AM EDT
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Anyone ever had a dog with separation anxiety? My Mom has a blue tick coon hound mix dog, he is about 1 1/2 - 2 yrs old now. The dog panics anytime my Mom is out of sight even if someone else he knows is around. He just paces back n forth whining and barking.
Now she just moved into a new apartment that is right above her work, it's a really sweet deal, but the stupid dog panics when she leaves in the morning and she can hear him whining and barking upstairs. He barked for over an hour this morning! So she has had to go up and get him and keep him at her desk with her all day. At her old place he would bark and whine all day too, not so much in the past months, but the neighbor upstairs would bang on the floor and he would stop eventually. Now he's in a new place and it's even worse. My SO and I were there the other day and my Mom went outside for a few minutes and the whole time the dog was freaking out and whining. My SO has watched the dog for a day while my Mom and I were gone and he said the dog did that ALL day long! I found a really helpful website with a guy who does a 4 step program, training the dog that it's ok when he leaves. It looks really promising but will take a lot of time and patience. She can't keep having this interfer with her work, and we were worried this would happen when she moved. Has anyone here been through this? If so what did you do and what worked to get the dog to calm down? My Mom can not afford to put the dog on meds all the time. I have a friend who had to medicate his dog, the dog destroyed 3 couches and all kinds of other stuff. My Moms dog doesn't destroy anything he just whines, barks and paces. He's been doing this all week, both my Mom and the dog are exhausted and my Mom is ready to give him up which would break her heart. Any help would be greatly appreciated. |
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Seems to be a difficult situation, maybe your mother should be boss and not give in though since if the dog knows she'll come get him he'll never stop and be all the more encouraged to bark and pace.
It wouldn't be easy calming him down but maybe some type of crate training could work, where she could make some type of place where the dog knows he has to calm down and wait even when she's there sometimes. |
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This takes some training. Maybe only a few minutes today. Dogs pickup on signs that you are about to leave and start to get anxious. Do this once or twice a day. I promise it won't take more than 15 minutes and after a few weeks they are usually over it. Start off acting like you are getting ready to go. Put on your shoes and coat. Grab your keys, purse/laptop, etc. Just like you would if you were leaving. Then stop. Take off everything. And sit down. IGNORE THE DOG during this. Do this at least twice a day. Even repeating a few minutes after the first time. After a few days or when the dog doesn't seem too concerned about you getting ready to leave proceed to the next step. Do everything in the previous step. But add going to the door and possibly opening it. Close the door. Take off everything and go sit down. Again, ignore the dog. Do this until the dog isn't alarmed. Now do the same routine. This time you are going to open the door. Go out and come right back. Go sit down and do the routine a bit later. When the dog starts to become comfortable with this move on to the next step. Start your "leaving the house" routine. Ignore the dog. they should be okay with you stepping out of the house at this point. But this time close the door making sure they can't see you. But then open it and go right back in and go sit down. At this point you start closing the door and leaving it closed for a minute. Then a few minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, an hour, etc. Go water the plants, or do chores around the house. Come back in, kick off your shoes, sit down, and love on your pooch. There could be several days between each of these steps. We are doing two things. First, desensitizing the dog to your preparation to leave. Second, and more importantly, showing the dog that you are coming back. Dogs are usually upset because you are leaving them and they think you're not coming back. By starting out with short trips and gradually taking longer they know if they just wait you'll be back. Its not a quick fix but it does work over time. You have to ignore the dog while you move out and back into the house. If you give them attention it will reinforce their behavior that something they need to be concerned about is happening. Praising them when you come back inside will cause them to become excited and start jumping up on people or not help with the separation problem (oh god I want mom to come home cuz I know she'll pet me first thing!). If the dog is jumping up on you when you come back turn around and put your back to them. Don't say anything and keep ignoring them otherwise. Don't pay attention to them until you have set down your belongings, coat, shoes, etc and have sat down and are ready to pay attention to them. Dogs love repetition. They pick up on it quickly. Thats why they know when you are about to leave and why training like the above works and requires that it be done several times a day. -Foxxz |
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Mine are able to go outside and play when I was gone, but they would chew on any shoes/gloves etc that smelled like me.
I fixed this my purposely rubbing two towels over my chest/arms/armpits before I left for work (I also learned to put my shoes away) and left the towels on the porch for the pups to lay on. Seemed to help. I would also leave my t-shirt/undershirt from the previous day on the porch so that they had my scent around. Absolutely no anxiety about me leaving after that. TRG |
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Quoted:
Mine are able to go outside and play when I was gone, but they would chew on any shoes/gloves etc that smelled like me. I fixed this my purposely rubbing two towels over my chest/arms/armpits before I left for work (I also learned to put my shoes away) and left the towels on the porch for the pups to lay on. Seemed to help. I would also leave my t-shirt/undershirt from the previous day on the porch so that they had my scent around. Absolutely no anxiety about me leaving after that. TRG Interesting. My Mom put her dog in her room today with the radio on. He barked off and on for a while but finally stopped and calmed down. Maybe being in her room with her stuff, and the radio has helped. Plus she has been pretending to leave, then leaving and coming back and stuff. So I think he will start to get better slowly but surely. |