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Separation Anxiety - need help!
Hi all. We have an 11 month old Golden/Great Pyr mix and she is a total sweetheart. So well-behaved in almost all ways and very easy to deal with. Except - she is a rescue dog (we adopted her about 4 months ago) and she has severe separation anxiety issues.
The anxiety is mostly manifested by barking and whining for hours while we are gone; luckily she is not destructive or self-injuring. The huge problem is that we live in the city in an apartment, and we have neighbors who are home during the day while we're at work. They have been nice but I know it is bothering them, and at least one of them has mentioned it to our landlord.
We had been crate training her, but now that she's potty-trained we'd been leaving her out of the crate during the day and I honestly thought this had cured the problem. She seems calmer when we leave and she's not barking right away, but I just talked to one of our neighbors and I guess the problem is still ongoing. We leave her with plenty of toys and a kong while we're gone. We've also tried Bach flower (which seemed to do nothing) and she was even on Prozac for a few weeks, but she had an episode where she was uncharacteristically aggressive to another dog and our vet recommended we take a break on the Prozac. I'm not sure if she was on it long enough to have a positive effect on her anxiety.
At this point, I'm wondering if we should give Prozac another shot. I'm even to the point where I'm thinking maybe we should get a second dog to keep her company, but I'm really not sure if I want us to be a two-dog household. One of our neighbors is a big animal lover and offered to have her come up and stay with him during the day while we're gone, but I am concerned this - or doggy daycare - isn't going to resolve the bigger issue. I sort of think she needs to get used to being alone, but she hasn't made a ton of progress yet.
Sorry this was so long! Anyone else go through something similar? Any words of advice or encouragement?
ETA - here she is:
Re: Separation Anxiety - need help!
How much do you exercise her? Is it possible that she's just a bored puppy and it's not SA? If you think it could be boredom, you could try doing doggy day care a couple days a week and see if she starts being quiet on the days she doesn't go.
I don't have SA experience, but Patricia McConnell's I'll Be Home Soon is the reading usually suggested by the board for owners of dogs with SA.
Good luck!
I'll check out that book definitely, thanks!
She goes to the dog park for 30-60 minutes every day, during which time she runs constantly. But H normally takes her in the afternoon/evening when he gets home from work. Do you think it matters WHEN she is getting the exercise?
I agree with Sparrow, more exercise, especially for such a young dog.
If you like running or jogging, you could try taking her with you in the AMs in addition to the time YH takes her to the dog park at night. My dog and I try to go in the mornings because she is less likely to pull or bark, and I can tell a difference in how tired she is before I go to work on days we run vs. days we don't run, but I have no idea how long it lasts, since by the time I get home from work, all of the benefit of the jog is gone.
Yeah, we both like to run. Ellie, unfortunately, does not. She tires very easily (she was a very sick pup when we first adopted her; she is only recently back to nearly full health) and whenever I've tried to jog with her, I end up dragging her after the first 5 minutes or so. But I do think I'll give the AM jogs another shot with her. I'd like to do doggy daycare too, but we live in a very HCOL area and it is extremely expensive. I'm not sure if we can come up with an extra $250-$300/month to take her twice a week.
Thanks so much for all the advice thus far!
Us, too. If there is a Petsmart with daycare nearby, they tend to have nationwide pricing so daycare is a relatively cheaper.
It took us little while to work out the kinks of jogging with the dog. With Gloria, I've noticed that a short walking break will go a long way towards giving her a second wind if she starts to lag. Taking the route for awhile might help Ellie get used to it as well. Good luck!
Great ideas! Will definitely look into that, thanks so much.
Have you seen my monkey?
I've read that too, and that's another reason why we haven't really done AM runs with her much yet, and why we have always stopped the jog as soon as she slows down. We live in the city and don't really have the option to keep her running on grass since there's not much of it around. Do you think a slow jog that would keep her at a trot is ok? She just doesn't get that tired from walks; running around at the dog park is the only thing we've found to exhaust her so far.
Have you seen my monkey?
Oh this is a good point, G is small/medium dog, so we were able to start running at less than a year. :S
You might try feeder her with something that will keep her occupied and make her work like a Kong wobbler or some other puzzle that can be used without you there.
Is there a tv or radio on while you are gone? It could be that she hears things outside or in other apartments and barks. If there is usually a tv on when you are there, I'd try to have one on when I'm gone so that the sound drowns out outside noises.
My dog is on prozac and from what you are telling us, it doesn't sound like she needs to be on it.
HTH
Have you seen my monkey?
Thanks, I'll pick up on of the more "interactive" Kong-type toys this weekend. She doesn't really touch her Kong or her regular food and water when we are gone though - which is one of the reasons I'm concerned it's an SA issue rather than mere boredom. We have left the TV on for her before and it didn't help, but I will give that another shot too.
She doesn't seem to be going PSYCHO anymore like she used to a few months ago, so I think maybe we are at least making some...slow...progress. I am definitely hesitant to gvie the meds another shot, too.