Help rescue dog suffering with separation anxiety

toejumper

Really hoping some of you have some good advice, I rescued a 6yr old jack Russell 7 weeks ago i thought hed settled in nicely until i heard my neighbour complaining to another neighbour about the noise. so the next day i set a video camera up in the room to see what he`s up to, he`s whining howling and pacing the room constantly until i get back from work i'm gone about 3 hours. hes also with our other dog lucy and this is also upsetting for her. has anyone cured there dog with success, its heart breaking to watch him.

vicx

We are the most important thing in our dogs lives and they become dependant on us. If your dog had a choice he would spend every minute of the day with you. When you leave him at home, he gets distressed, wondering where your going, why he can't be with you and if/when you will be coming back.

There is no quick and easy way to treat this problem so whichever method you choose to treat the separation anxiety you need to stick with it and not expect immediate results.

Is your dog always by your side when your at home? You need to slowly teach him that he does not always have to be close to you. Ignore his attention seeking behaviour - jumping up, barking etc. Slowly extend the time and distance you's spend apart until he's happy to be left alone for up to 30 minutes.

Get him used to being outside when your inside. Start off with small periods apart and gradually increase the time over 2 weeks but don't leave him and let him get all worked up and distressed. Maybe start by leaving him outside for a few seconds.

Eliminate the distress caused by you getting ready to leave the house. Note what is triggering his anxiety, like putting on your shoes, picking up your car keys. Make a list of all the things that trigger his anxiety then do these things but not actually go anywhere. Put on your shoes but dont leave the house, Pick up your car keys and carry then around the house, put on your coat then sit down and watch tv or read the paper.

When you notice a change in him and he's much calmer. Then you can start to leave the house for short periods, like 30 seconds to start with then gradually increasing the time.

skintandscared_2

Would he be too old to have a go at crate training him? I'm about to do it with our jack russell pup and from what I've been reading it helps enormously with separation anxiety.

krlyr

I had to deal with separation anxiety this year with one of my dogs.

My first piece of advice would be a thorough vet check. I wish I'd done it earlier, as it turned out Kiki had a medical condition (hypothyroidism) playing a huge part in her behaviour - on medication, she is 200% better. When her dose needs adjusting, her behaviour degrades, so there is a real correlation.
I would go with a thorough examination (manipulation of joints etc. to check for pain/stiffness), blood panel (including comprehensive thyroid panel) and possibly even x-rays if there's reason to believe there could be something going on with the joints/internally. It may seem like a big expense, but if it prevents Environmental Health telling you the dog has to go (because, ultimately, that's what it could lead to) then it's priceless.

I would also really recommend getting a behaviourist to confirm the diagnosis. Separation anxiety is quite a serious issue but often misdiagnosed. There are varying degrees of separation issues, as well as other issues that can look similar - boredom, for example, can lead to vocalism and destructive behaviour. A fear of something else, not being left alone, could be to blame - for example a certain noise the dog hears could trigger off a reaction due to noise sensitivity. I'd recommend finding a behaviourist through somewhere like APBC, to be sure they use kind, fair methods - http://www.apbc.org.uk will have a list of ones in your area.

I would also really recommend two books. The first is a short but concise booklet by Patricia McConnell, called I'll Be Home Soon. The second is more in-depth, by Nicole Wilde, called Don't Leave Me. I think both (if not, definately Nicole's) are available on Kindle, so fab if you want something to look at right now (I know how stressful it is once you're aware of the issue!)

Like vicx said, it is a time-consuming issue, there's no overnight fix. If you can make alternative arrangements so he's not home alone while you're doing the behavioural training, that's great. If not, try to find other ways around it - I, for example, worked from home initially so that I could give her a chance to recover from the daily stress she'd been experiencing (unknown to me, until the neighbour told us) and then work on getting her happy to be left, without having to then go ahead and leave her every day. When she did have to be left, I left her with my nan - we soon found that even if my nan wasn't home, Kiki would actually settle in my nan's house on her own with no issue (I think partly due to the fact that we often visited my nan before that, and the dogs would be shut in the kitchen out of sight for a while, so Kiki didn't necessarily twig that no one was home).

Another thing I found helped vastly was to teach her to relax. A "settle" command is similar to telling a dog to go to its bed - but you actually reward/teach the act of relaxing, not of going to a specific spot. There's videos on Youtube for this, you basically go step by step (so she went near her bed, I gave a reward, she went on it, reward, she sat on it, reward, she laid down, reward, she rested her chin on her feet, reward, she shifted her weight onto her side, reward...gradual steps towards actually being relaxed). I noticed on the daily videos I made, the more I practiced the settle training with her, the faster she would then go on her bed and settle, and over time, the longer she would remain settled rather than pacing around the room or barking. It wasn't instant - I was happy if we improved a minute from the previous day to be honest! But it certainly helped her.

Kongs helped as well. I worked up the difficulty - mine can empty a Kong in 5-10 minutes, but I started to freeze them, and now a Kong tightly stuffed and frozen overnight will last about 30 minutes. I put down one each as I leave, and this prevents the initial worrying, and once she's finished the Kong she'll curl up and snooze most of the time.

Good luck, it's not easy, but if it's any reassurance I can now leave Kiki day-to-day with no real issue. We're not 100% there on leaving her at weekends (she knows the difference somehow!) but she's getting there.

toejumper

thank you for all your replys, I rang the rescue centre this morning for some more informations on max and was told that he use to use a cat flap and some of his anxiety could be that hes feeling trapped and not being able to get out when he wants. it looks like he might of been a farm dog. I have also bought a crate for him and trying to get him feeling safe and happy with that before i use it, i suppose its going to be a slow process but theres nothing i can do about a cat flap though.

krlyr

If it makes you feel any better, I don't think it's particularly safe to let a dog have free access in and out of a house unsupervised. Too many risks for me - potentially escaping the garden (climbing the fence, breaking a panel, digging under it, someone leaving a gate open, etc.) or being stolen, of a vindictive act (especially in cases like this where neighbours may be frustrated/annoyed by the noise) such as poisoned meat being thrown over the fence, risk of the dog barking more (at squirrels, people passing by, noises nearby, etc.) and obviously the sound travels more with a dog outside. It may be a quick fix, but it's not the best fix IMO.

toejumper

I totaly agree i couldnt settle at work nowing my 2 dogs could be running free through a broken fence.

paddypaws101

As a non dog owner myself, can I suggest that you approach your neighbours in person and explain the situation, offering an apology for the disturbance?
I am sure they will be far more sympathetic once they understand that you are now aware of the issue and taking steps to correct it.
Good luck with the little fella, and I hope he soon settles for you.

Mojisola

toejumper wrote: »

thank you for all your replys, I rang the rescue centre this morning for some more informations on max and was told that he use to use a cat flap and some of his anxiety could be that hes feeling trapped and not being able to get out when he wants. it looks like he might of been a farm dog. I have also bought a crate for him and trying to get him feeling safe and happy with that before i use it, i suppose its going to be a slow process but theres nothing i can do about a cat flap though.

Wouldn't putting him in a crate make him feel even more trapped?

Pixiechic

I have used a Feliway diffuser, plug in thing for my cat before and it was really helpful when we moved to reduce his stress.

They do one for dogs too, I think it's called Comfort Zone.

It might be worth looking into

krlyr

The dog version is now called Adaptil (previously DAP). I tried it and it actually worsened Kiki's behaviour (I'd seen the collar have the same effect trying it on her for something else in the past), but it affects each dog differently so may well be worth a try