Separation Anxiety

[AmyJo27]

I was wondering if anyone can give me some info on curing separation anxiety. Long story short- A friend of a friend has a dog with pretty serious separation anxiety and does not want to rehome their dog.

I had a Border Collie with serious separation anxiety years ago and we ended up having to rehome him due to his separation anxiety.

I know very little about this behavioral problem and it seems to be fairly common in rescued/shelter dogs so I was wondering what everyones experiences are and if there is anything I can tell her to do for her dog.

Is there something you can do or is this a thing that you either have to deal with or find a new home for your pet?

[loverocksalot]

Yeah once had a dobe with this she would pee and poop as soon as I went out the door. She feared the crate. But she felt comfortable confined to the kitchen where she could not see outside. I would line chairs up to block her in my open floor kitchen. She for some reason never bothered to climb over. I also had to cover the glass windows at my front door. She could see that from the kitchen and she freaked if a leaf blew by. If she was in the kitchen no poop or pee. In the mean time I used a plastic type kennel where top comes off and put her bed in the bottom. Then later added the top but only 1/4 the way across the top. over time I moved it foward a little until it was all the way on then added the door etc etc until I could close the door for just a second. Then until i could go to the bus stop be gone for about 30 min tops. She went into rescue well trained and crate trained but was still a nut case. Poor girl. She was not a shelter dog but her first home was as a pup till about 3yrs old she lived with an old man who never went out. He sat in a lounge chair and pet her. The only visitor was his daughter whom I guess was well loved by the dog. It was obivious that he had a seculuded home and yard where no cars or trucks or dogs or people ever passed. This poor dog was afraid of life. Never peed or pooped while on leash ever! I worked so hard on her and made many differences. It can be done problem for me was she became a threat to the children. Including snapping at one of my sons friends.

[loverocksalot]

Oh yeah she came to me with drugs to calm her. Those made her worse. more fear. I gave them too her once when having a bunch of kids for a movie night. Kids were outside she was confined to downstairs. She pooped all over and steped in it. Our very large play room was covered in sh*t the entire floor. As she would pace for hours. I checked up on her regularly. After checking on her every half hour or so cant believe that much poop could come out of a dog in such a short time.
Im guessing she made a good dog for someone with secluded acerage who does not want to socialize.

[adoptapitbull]

Talk about separation anxiety...Cappy just about brought the house down when we lived in MD in our rental home.

First we crated him and let Mav out. We discovered the damage he did pretty quick so we moved his crate out to the concrete patio (indoors). Yep, still got out and still damaged everything. Then we crated Mav next to him, hoping that having company would help. Nope. Finally, we learned that Cappy needs to be crated with another dog in the same crate. Whenever we leave, we put him and Mav, or him and Phyllis, (or him and Margeaux when we had her) in the crate together. I know this is a solution that would not work for everyone, but it works for us.

Do they have another dog? Maybe start by keeping the other dog in the room with her to see if that helps. Of course there are always the calming aids to give a try. There are diffusers, music, natural calming aids, etc. I know how frustrating it can be for the owner, and devastating it can be for the dog. Keep us updated!

[AmyJo27]

Yep they do have another dog so I will definetly pass that to them. I believe that this dog only cries I dont think he ruins stuff.

[adoptapitbull]

Do they know if the dog only cries while they're still there? Sometimes when we go to leave and I put Mav in the crate, I hear him barking until we leave. I've left the house but stayed near the window to hear if he barked, and he stopped. It was like while I was there he said "Let me out!", but realized once I left that barking was useless.

[michele5611]

My own dog suffers from seperation anxiety to the point where she has to be crated again.
For the past couple of months I have been using comfort zone DAP spray which I spray on her crate pad, as well as rescue remedy which I spay in her mouth before I leave for work.

[loverocksalot]

poor dogs. anxiety is rough.

[AmyJo27]

Michele, Do the sprays make a big difference? Was your dog a barker or a shredder (LOL!)?

I have had people tell me that calming sprays are a waste of money and they never did work on our Border Collie (But he was really SEVERE).

With this dog only barking/whinning when left I would think some kind of spray would end the problem.

Adoptapitbull-Im not sure if it cries when they are gone...I am assuming so. The dog cries if they leash it in another room and are only a room away.

[michele5611]

Amy Jo my dog was/is a barker/whiner/shredder...etc. Prior to crating her she was gated in my family room and I had the plug in DAP. The plug in did nothing for her. Now that she is confined to her crate and I can spray the DAP directly in the crate and on crate mat it seems to be working much better for her.

[AmyJo27]

I will definetly recommend that to them then...Is it really expensive?

[PBLove]

I had a Cane Corso with horrible seperation anxiety. He ate the trim around the doors and windows and would go to the bathroom even if left for a few minutes. We started him on Rescue Remedy and saw a difference. It did not completely "cure" him, but he stopped chewing on the trim and would focus on his Kong instead.

Now I have a dobie/pit mix that if left alone in the crate will destroy the crate to get out. She has completely broken the bars (and we don't have a cheap crate!), but if she is in with our lab/pit she does just fine. I would definitely not recommend that if you don't know how the dogs would do left alone confined in the small space of a crate together, but for us it works.

[michele5611]

Amy Jo the D.A.P. spray is about $30 for a 60 ml bottle. I can't remember how much the rescue remedy is.

[bluetrees]

I tried the rescue remedy with Jess but it didn't seem to do much for her.....she still howled like there was no tomorrow! I also got some for myself and I haven't noticed much from it either. But I do think it varies from person to person and dog to dog. It might be worth a shot.