Housebound due to dog's separation/isolation anxiety

GBNI

I know her issues are severe and tablets/remedies won't stop it, but would a plug in maybe help a little? Adaptil made no difference with mine, but they like the Pet Remedy one. You can get sprays or plug ins.

jumpedtheshark

Just wanted to wish well on this voyage, OP.

PersonOne, I'm inspired by your attitude!

Our older dog (11 yrs, large lab-shepherd-dane cross) has underlying medical issues (Addison's disease, heart problem) - 1x ACL replacement, chronic nerve damage - some damage to her spine, losing muscle on back end. We keep her on-leash most of the time to protect her joints - she's at risk of slipping and falling, and doing real damage, especially as her muscles deteriorate further. We let her off leash where we know the ground is stable and quite flat. We try and walk her on dirt tracks, rather than hard pavement.

We also found that, contrary to the usual advice, she's a lot less anxious when we go out following a clear routine. We were also pretty sure that she was picking up on my stress about going out, and it was making her more stressed, so I try and make sure to leave myself enough time to be able to get ready super-calmly - no rushing about looking for things, etc!

Poppy3008

My dog is on Zykelene daily - it is expensive I agree but takes her down a notch so she can make 'better choices' (this seems to still include taking my sheepskin slippers for a chew though!) but I sometimes top her up with Johnsons calm-eze or Vets Best comfort calm tablets. These seem to get her to relax very well. They were from pets at home and not pricey. Might be useful to try just for the days you need/are desperate to get out of the house. My vet told me these tablets are pretty harmless and was absolutely fine with me using them. Plus my behaviourist suggested them too.
The is a Facebook group called 'reactive dogs uk ' which is very good for advice and you will see you are not alone. It's run by trainers who are very good with advice.

Caroline_a

A thought GR - have you ever tried hydrotherapy? Oakley was getting a bit wobbly on his back end when he came back from foster care - not that they did anything wrong, but he's nearly 8 now and is exceptionally long! So we had a go at swimming for him (and Sid has to go too of course as he never wants to be left out and adores swimming!). Initially Oaks was a little tentative but after one or two sessions he really got his confidence. We now go every week - it's not the cheapest thing to do - but I have to say it exhausts them both! and the effects last for 2 days!!

Of course the added bonus is that the wobbliness around Oakley's hips seem tons better!

(won't stop the barking of course, but I thought as we'd moved to keeping Zara busy!)

krlyr

gettingready wrote: »

So what do I do if she does start barking then?

You learn your lesson, and don't leave her for as long next time. You want to teach her that being alone is good - you need to do this at her pace, and extend slowly. If she's barking then she has become stressed, so it's been too long for her.

gettingready wrote: »

Unfortunately Zara does not eat or drink when I am not at home - she ignores any food/treats left for her.

Fairly common with seperation anxiety - or any stress in dogs. As you go through the process, you will hopefully find she relaxes enough. It might need to be some really high value treats left really easily accessible at first, but you should be able to progress to more challenging things like a stuffed Kong to occupy her.

gettingready wrote: »

So that is yet another dilemma I have - how to get her tired without affecting her joints/hips/

Brain games! Tire her out mentally, it will have a physically tiring effect too. Also, it won't raise her adrenaline like running about, which can then in turn increase her stress when left. I even completely stopped walking Kiki in the morning when her seperation anxiety was at its worst, the adrenaline would make her worse (especially if we saw other dogs - she became dog reactive around the time her seperation anxiety started too)


If you didn't get along with turmeric, you might want to see about sourcing CBD oil. It's another 'trend' at the minute but is getting rave reviews. It's an extract from hemp - but don't worry, it won't get the dog high! It's used a lot for inflammatory issues so may well help her hips/spine/etc. but I've seen people using it for reactive/stressy dog issues so may help with the seperation anxiety too.

If you do make one small investment though - and this is under a tenner - I would highly recommend Malena DeMartini Price's book on seperation anxiety. She's a behaviourist with a focus on seperation issues - she does actually do Skype consultations too, but the book is very comprehensive so as a fairly savvy dog owner you should be fine understanding it on your own.

In regards to monitoring how she is when doing the training etc. - do you have a webcam on your laptop/computer, and a smart phone? Sign up for two Skype accounts, add each account as a contact, and allow in the settings for calls from contacts to automatically connect. You can then call Zara any time from your mobile and watch her on webcam, as long as your computer/webcam is on and logged in to Skype.


There is hope - Kiki developed separation anxiety when we moved house and her hypothyroidism started (that's what resulted in her diagnosis, I had a full blood panel done - though medication didn't cure her anxiety behaviour, just reduced it slightly). She couldn't even cope with me going out to the bins at first, or even upstairs for a bath with the hallway door shut. I worked slowly - firstly separation in the house (stuffed Kongs lined up in the fridge - put down every time I nipped to the bin or upstairs!), then just me going out of the front door for 10 seconds and back, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, etc.

Ideally you need to avoid leaving Zara for any period of time - even half an hour to Tesco if possible. It is very tough - fortunately I managed to arrange to work from home for a bit and then had family either pop over or I dropped the dogs over. Now is the perfect time to work on it, but you will probably find you have to make a lot of compromises for the short-term.

But now, I can leave Kiki while I work all day (family pop in for pee breaks) and she's good - so you can get there with Zara.

mtbbuxton

gettingready wrote: »

https://www.petfinder.com/dogs/dog-problems/dog-barks-left-alone/

Quote:
Leave for a brief period of time. Just a minute or two to start out with. If you wait for an elevator, ring for it and get in. Go one floor down and come back up using the stairs. Wait 1-2 minutes. If the dog has not barked, return and gently praise. If you hear him begin to bark, mark the behavior by a sharp rap on the door with a solid object like a brass key ring and start timing again. Each time the dog barks, rap on the door and set the timer back to zero. It may take a half hour to get 1-2 minutes of silence. When you do, go in and praise. Leave 15-30 minutes later and repeat.

The underlined bit is the bit I was clearly missing - homework for tomorrow.

Question though - if I leave Zara locked in the back room, which door do I rap on? My main door or the back room door? Hmmm

I was advised to do the rap on a wall/door thing with my Lurcher for his SA. However, I than had to go in as soon as he fell silent, not start the clock again. Unless something happens within about a second, they don't make the same associations we do, so Zara won't connect the banging with you returning (that's what I was told anyway and thankfully it worked for us ) The other issue may be that her stress hormone levels are really elevated now and Zara needs a bit of time out from the rest of the world to let them drop again. My friend's dog had to have really boring walks, meeting no other dogs for about 6 weeks as she was getting really wound up when she met other dogs. I really do hope you find a way to help her settle as it's absolutely exhausing for both the hound and human involved.

M x

sheramber

gettingready wrote: »

Sheramber - I have been doing all this with Zara all her life and honestly it really does not work with her. And I live alone with Zara and the cats.
Borrowmydoggy - I have tried this before but with Zara I need a mon-fri regular sitter and this is not how that site operates. Very random requests from people who want to have a dog for odd days.

PersonOne - I have zero savings, I have been out of work for few months now and when I did work - my expenses (especially for Zara) were sky high.

Zara starts barking/howling about 10 minutes after I lealve. I tried locking her in one room and leaving her with the run of the flat - makes no difference. TV on, lights on.

You cannot have been doing it all her life if she has never been left alone, as you say above.

you also say you have tried all the recommended things of kongs, ignoring her etc.

No routine will work instantly. It will take time.

She is in a new house which can also be a reason for her feeling insecure now.

The book I'll be Back Soon by Patricia McConnell has been recommended elsewhere and is available on Amazon.
https://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=DTB667EBK

krlyr

sheramber wrote: »

The book I'll be Back Soon by Patricia McConnell has been recommended elsewhere and is available on Amazon.
https://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=DTB667EBK

I personally found this book good but very basic - of more use to pass to the OH to read to reduce his frustration about the seperation anxiety (so he knew she wasn't being "naughty") than for the fix. I think lots of the information in the book could easily be found online (though it as least filters out the aversive type methods you might also stumble across on Google)

Another book - kind of inbetween Malena's and Patricia's, is Nicole Wilde's "Please don't leave me" - again, a kind of instruction manual through seperation issues.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Leave-Seperation-Anxiety-Nicole-Wilde/dp/0981722733

tacpot12

I saw an advert for a dog crèche today and.wondered if this might be a solution for you?

gettingready

OMG I do not believe it - I typed like a page and then clicked on a link to one of the books and all dissapeared