Dog breaking out of crate when left alone

krlyr

How thorough a check did the vet do?

zaksmum

Just listened to his heart, felt along his body, looked in his mouth, checked his ears and moved all his joints to check for stiffness or injury.

aileth

If it is separation anxiety, I heard a good trick was to go out for increasing increments giving a treat each time, e.g. put dog in room, go out main house door, close door fairly loud so they can hear, leave it a minute, go back in, treat, and keep repeating it till it's the approximate sort of time he'd normally be left in small increments. Of course if this is a few hours, pop to the shops for example.

zaksmum

aileth wrote: »

If it is separation anxiety, I heard a good trick was to go out for increasing increments giving a treat each time, e.g. put dog in room, go out main house door, close door fairly loud so they can hear, leave it a minute, go back in, treat, and keep repeating it till it's the approximate sort of time he'd normally be left in small increments. Of course if this is a few hours, pop to the shops for example.

Thanks aileth. I'll start doing that tomorrow. I've got to get this thing sorted somehow. Apart from the massive hassle of having doors wrecked, the poor dog is so stressed it can't possibly be doing him any good at all.:(

MrsAtobe

We are considering rehoming a spaniel with SA, and I can across this in my research:

http://www.petforums.co.uk/dog-training-behaviour/112552-how-help-dog-separation-anxiety.html

HTH

zaksmum

Thanks for that link Mrs Atobe. It made interesting reading. I'll do whatever I can to help Jack with this problem. I can't bear to think of him being so horribly stressed.

MrsAtobe

We used to live in a terraced house next to a rottie with SA, he used to howl if he was put in the garden for too long. It broke my heart, listening to him. . The neighbours were told, but did diddly squat about it.

zaksmum

MrsAtobe wrote: »

We used to live in a terraced house next to a rottie with SA, he used to howl if he was put in the garden for too long. It broke my heart, listening to him. . The neighbours were told, but did diddly squat about it.

It's so upsetting when they get that distressed.

I just have got to get something sorted to help my dog. It's unavoidable that he'll have to be left with my son from time to time and before the next time I will have to find a solution that works.

Raksha

Agree 100% that you need to teach a dog to be relaxed about being alone BUT even a minute may to too long to start with, can you take a step or 10 without him wanting to follow? If not, why think he'll be able to cope with a minute? You need to start right at the begining, teaching him to be relaxed about you walking away from him (or in this case, your son walking away from him)

ToryB_2

We have two rescue lurches and one is left to herown devices when we are out but the other is too destructive and so we crate him...he was a Nightmare at first and would also break out the crate but I used cable ties round the edges. We started giving him his meals in there and made it a nice snuggle/safe place to go and we went from there..now when I put my shoes on he goes in there of his own accord and he just can't cope left out in the house at all...I'm a SAHM so only ever out for a couple of hours max but if I don't crate him he digs holes in the sofa, chews everything and is actual a danger to himself!

Quite often I find him asleep in there when we are home and the door is wide open...it's just become his safe place/his den. I would stick with it...crate train properly (google it for the proper steps if you haven't)...it will help your dog to feel safe xx