We have a dog about 9mo old that we adopted from a family that were never home while she was a tiny puppy. Now when we try to leave her alone with our other five dogs, she tears up the blinds at the windows trying to find us. I assume she is also causing a lot of noise. We would like a human way of correcting this problem.
Sep 02, 2010 | 9 | Dog Separation Anxiety
The people two doors down left this young dog (pit bull?) chained up in an unsecured back yard for quite some time, while some serious storms were heading toward the area. I initially thought the yammering sounds were the kids out there making weird noises, but after 15 or 20 minutes I finally got off my ass to see what the heck was going on, only to see the dog out their alone, chained up in an unsecured yard, whining pitifully for company. This dog is part penguin and part hyena, I swear. It was at amusing at first, then annoying, because the owners weren’t coming out to deal with the dog, and finally I became concerned for the dog and contacted animal control. And of course, the owners took the dog back inside the apartment about 5 minutes after I dimed on them. I swear, the losers in this hood all have police scanners.
that is a highly unusual sound for a dog to make.
September 2nd, 2010 at 4:50 pm
crate training is the answer to your problem
September 2nd, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Crate her when you are gone. For her safety and your sanity/pocketbook.
September 2nd, 2010 at 5:56 pm
The kindest thing you can do is crate her while you’re gone. She will end up injuring herself at some point. Start out slowly, and introduce her to the crate with the door open & a favorite treat. Start out during the weekend when you’ll be able to get her used to it before leaving her for a full day.
September 2nd, 2010 at 6:18 pm
If she can’t be trusted, she should be in a crate or a single small room with nothing to destroy or eat. A panicked dog is a danger to itself, the environment, and other dogs.
There is no way to work with a dog when you are not home, and any physical correction of a separation anxiety problem (IE remote collar) could make the matters worse.
Exercise her before you leave her so she’s more tired. Completely ignore her when you leave (IE no big fuss), and no fussing when you get back. Leave a puzzle toy (Kong) to play with but nothing she can eat or chew to bits.
A lot of separation anxiety stems from the owner making too much of a fuss around leaving/coming home (not necessarily YOU but the previous owner could have done this.) Sometimes it’s genetic – is she at all fearful or shy?
September 2nd, 2010 at 6:21 pm
Been there! Here’s what worked for us:
http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2002/sa.htm
It’s been a while since I wrote it — the two things I would change now is to try DAP (it hadn’t been developed then), and not to do the “ignore the dog before leaving” thing — it has since been disproven to help.
Calm, casual departures and arrivals are still good, and not letting a dog out of the crate until calm and relaxed is good, but completely ignoring can be puzzling and cause further stress to the dog.
September 2nd, 2010 at 6:37 pm
Your best temporary solution would be to get a dog crate. Then she wouldn’t be tearing up the house. They have special methods for treating separation anxiety. She shouldn’t be left to roam the house though if shes messing with the windows, some dogs with extreme cases have been know to jump through windows trying to find their owners.
September 2nd, 2010 at 7:34 pm
Not forever, but until she can behave in your house, well and because she is only 9-months-old, I would crate or child gate her in a room until she can behave in your house and not eat your furniture and blinds. You have to practice how to be good in the house, so I wonder if you can pretend to leave and then peek through the window, or come back in and correct her. At one of our houses, we practiced leaving with our dogs one day. We pretended to leave, popped the garage door, when they started barking, we popped back in the house and told them to settle down, when they did we praised them and started it all over. I am not sure how long we did this, but eventually it became “no big deal” that we were leaving because we came back. You would think she would be fine with your other dogs, but there is no telling what the other people did to her. I wonder if a radio on would help her. Remember she is only 9-months-old, you still have plenty of time to work on this.
September 2nd, 2010 at 8:10 pm
http://www.wonderpuppy.net/canwehelp/1dbfear.php
Read it, study it and apply it on a consistent basis. You and your dog will benefit greatly.
September 2nd, 2010 at 9:06 pm
Either put her in a crate or leave decoys for her to chew up. I’m having the same problem with my bitch and i cannot afford a crate, so i now leave things she can chew up lying around before i go out. Old shoes, slippers, socks, cardboard. And it does work. She acts like shes caused chaos when i know she hasn’t.