Housebound due to dog's separation/isolation anxiety

Person_one

gettingready wrote: »

I already have hemp oil but having given it to Zara for a bit now do not see any difference, perhaps it is not the right one.

Or perhaps there is no magical woo supplement to help with a serious behaviour issue!

Would you try to fix PTSD or depression or severe anxiety in a human being by faffing about with supplements and complementary medicine? No, you wouldn't, you'd go to a doctor or a counsellor.

Maybe a good friend or your daughter can lend you the money for a session with a good behaviourist?

PasturesNew

Have you tried recording yourself across an entire morning, singing, vacuuming, telly on etc..... then play back that recording from another room, with the door closed, so the dog thinks you're just elsewhere?

bmthmark

PasturesNew wrote: »

Have you tried recording yourself across an entire morning, singing, vacuuming, telly on etc..... then play back that recording from another room, with the door closed, so the dog thinks you're just elsewhere?

That's a good idea.

gettingready

Person_one wrote: »

Or perhaps there is no magical woo supplement to help with a serious behaviour issue!

Would you try to fix PTSD or depression or severe anxiety in a human being by faffing about with supplements and complementary medicine? No, you wouldn't, you'd go to a doctor or a counsellor.

That was following the well meaning suggestions from kind people on here re the oil.

Person_one wrote: »

Maybe a good friend or your daughter can lend you the money for a session with a good behaviourist?

Sorry but I am not going to comment on that apart from - please stop digging into my financial situation on how I manage so far and what I could/should do as I already said I can not afford it at the moment and that really should be enough information for a public thread. Dog behaviourist with borrowed money will not help much if we become homeless . So pls kindly drop this.Thanks

gettingready

PasturesNew wrote: »

Have you tried recording yourself across an entire morning, singing, vacuuming, telly on etc..... then play back that recording from another room, with the door closed, so the dog thinks you're just elsewhere?

Brilliant idea

I so feel like this sometimes - the caption said

"If you focus too much on a problem - you may miss an easy solution"

Person_one

gettingready wrote: »

That was following the well meaning suggestions from kind people on here re the oil.



Sorry but I am not going to comment on that apart from - please stop digging into my financial situation on how I manage so far and what I could/should do as I already said I can not afford it at the moment and that really should be enough information for a public thread. Dog behaviourist with borrowed money will not help much if we become homeless . So pls kindly drop this.Thanks

Happily.

Don't give up on that dog though, you should have dealt with this years ago. You owe her to do everything in your power to help her.

calicocat

Hmmmmmmm. Not easy at all.

My last dog had major surgeries , and it took him quite a while to feel confident after, plus my anxiety flying down the lead to him . In the end I finally got it that my anxiety was feeding his.

I don't know all the details, but if memory serves me Zara has had quite a bit to deal with physically and recovery wise over the years. This will have knocked her confidence, and for a while she heavily relied on you . This will have had an impact. Also, she is getting older, I found when mine got older again the confidence got less. If she isn't great on her pins, plus the age thing, she could be really taking a hit on the self esteem front.

You say she checks out the garden as if to see if it is still there, mine would do this as he got old. He would be out for a walk, and then it was as if he couldn't remember how he got there. Plus he went deaf, that was probably frightening for him. He got very clingy.

How is her sight and hearing? In the end, I worked out if I was touching him as I spoke the vibration of my voice went down to him, and he was much better. We just worked out a different way to communicate.

Earlier on though, after surgery, he was quite anxious, I had a car, so different to you, but I would just put him in the car for short nips to local shops. Would Zara be able to walk to the short shop trip with you and back, might boost her confidence a bit. She will have to wait outside 10 mins for you, see what she does then. She will have to concentrate on her surroundings instead of just you not being there. This might make some kind of change.

It's a pattern of behaviour. So the only thing that will work is to break that pattern. Very easy to say, less easy to do.

Mine also at one point became terrified of being in a car after a crash when he was 10 months old. Took till he was around 3 to have him totally over that, and I used to look like a right lune. I worked out it was the noise he didn't like, so I sang the whole time, quite loudly....
.

I looked after a friends dog who was scared of the car, a dollop of ice-cream in the car soon cure that, but he was just a baby so easily fixed.

Going to the shops thing might be worth looking at, might change the whole 10 minute thing anyhow which would be a start.

I'm not expert though, just saying things that worked for me in the past.

sheramber

No way would I leave my dog tied up outside a shop.

It can be mobbed by a child, open to teasing or worse , or stolen.

gettingready

I used to leave Zara outside a shop with all glass frond door and till just by the door but she was younger then and I did not tie her to anything. She was good staying and waiting. Very rarely, maybe once every 2-3 months.

I would not leave Zara outside Tesco or the likes.

We go on buses quite often, she likes it and she likes people making fuss of her.

She is doing absolutely great with "look at me - treat" and has not barked at a single dog today and we had a lovely walk for over an hour (with stops to lie down) passing a lot of dogs. None run up to her which was great.

We came back and she was straight by the garden door and then flat out on concrete bit for a while, now back in sleeping the walk off.

Her sight and hearing are fine, she just really dos not like being alone.

calicocat

sheramber wrote: »

No way would I leave my dog tied up outside a shop.

It can be mobbed by a child, open to teasing or worse , or stolen.

I guess that depends where you live to be fair. I lived in a tiny village, tiny shops, most people knew eachother, not really any vile badly behaved kids to mob the dog. Most people knew the dog more than me. No threat of theft, plus he would have probabky bitten anyone who tried to pick him up he didnt know.

But i do get your point, lots of places you couldnt do that. Clearly i meant if it was safe to do so.