[lilahlu]

Hello, my name is Nicole and I am new to these boards. About a week ago, my husband and I adopted a 2 year old, pit mix, rescue dog. We suspect she was dumped after breeding. She was a stray then spent 2 months in a shelter was fostered for a week then came to us. She is an ABSOLUTE angel. Walks wonderfully on a leash, completely housetrained no accidents, very sweet and gentle with adults, kids, other dogs and cats. Her only problem is her severe separation anxiety. We have only left her alone once for 30 minutes and she scratched our door and molding badly. We hadn't planned on crate training her but now we have no choice. She seems to enjoy her crate and goes in it when we are home, but when we practice leaving her for short periods of time, she howls and barks the ENTIRE time. We live in a townhouse and don't want to drive our neighbors insane. This is so hard on both of us. We have done everything we are told. Don't make big deals of leaving, don't give her attention within a half hour of coming and going, we have given her our clothes with our scent, leave tv's on, lots and lots of exercise, and tried treats and kongs of all kinds. The poor thing is just not treat motivated AT ALL. All she wants is love. Sorry so long. We are just so upset and don't know what to do! Out of ideas.

[reeskujo]

First off congrats on adopting,she's a lucky girl!...As for separation anxiety I know what you're going through...My Husky was the same way except it was only with my husband...If he left she didn't care who many people were still in the house she would flip out for at least an hour and it took several months before she showed any improvement..

You've only had her for a week so you most likely are not going to see any changes...With a lot of rescue dogs it can take a month or more before they are completely used to their new homes before they finally realize that they're there to stay...

You are doing everything right and all of the things I would have told you to do being a trainer...The one thing that I did with Nina was to leave the T.V on for her because she seemed to handle being alone a little better when she could here voices...The other thing we did with her is I would have my husband go outside wait about 5 minutes and come back in and would do it everyday until we increased the time to 15 minutes..This helped her to realize that he always came back when he left...I would also make him give her a treat right before he left so she would associate him leaving with something positive...Since your puppy isn't food motivated you can try using a toy or just a simple pat on the head..

Your puppy like my Nina has been not only abandoned but moved around quite a bit so it's going to take her time to feel secure not only in the fact that she's not going anywhere but that you guys are always going to come back...

This is a long process and not an easy one so you need to just keep doing the things you've been doing and have a whole lot of patience...Keep us updated!

[nattiej1976]

Have you considered trying some Bach flower remedies? You may have heard of rescue remedy before, this is made from the Bach flower remedies.

flower essences

Many people dismiss them, as they believe they offer only a placebo effect, however we have used them on all of our animals with wonderful results, our pets have no concept of the placebo effect, hence supports my belief in the power of these natural alternatives.

If you have a homopath near by they will be able to make you up a custom mix appropriate to what you describe the issues with your dog are, alternatively you may like to start of with the pre made rescue remedy usually available from any pharmacy.

They are safe, natural, easy to adminsiter (it is a liquid that can be added to the water bowl each day)

Using these along with what you are already doing, may help speed up the process of assiting relief from your dogs seperation anxiety.

Good luck.

[gumby]

Hi there,
I adopted a 7 year old lab/golden mix from the humane society about 2 weeks ago. I was told that she was given up due to severe separation anxiety and that she ate off an entire molding in her previous home. Like your dog, mine is a big sweetie, but she is fearful and doesn't like to be alone. I started out putting her in a laundry room. When I came home after a short time, she didn't do anything wrong, but was cowering. I suspect she was abused. I then tried giving her the run of the house for very short periods of time. She did much better with that instead of being locked up. I bought her a dog bed which she loves, and she just goes and lies in it. She gets crazy excited when we come home, but hasn't been destructive at all. I have left her for about 5 hours maximum. The humane society told me I'd have to get a crate, but at least for my dog, she seems so much happier just being in the house.
I don't know if that will work with your dog, but you can give it a shot for 5-10 minutes at first and see what happens. My dog seems to equate being locked up with punishment, which only adds to her anxiety. My current challenge that she won't go out to pee or poop by herself...I have to go with her. If I try putting her outside alone, she sits very sadly at the front door, and won't move until I come back. How does your dog do with going out? Good luck with everything!!

[Lara's mom]

I don't know if this will work for you but, it worked like a charm for my Border Collie/Spaniel X when she was a puppy and would get upset every time we left the house.

Get a hollow chew bone from the pet store. Right before you're ready to head out the door, fill it with peanut butter or cheez whiz. Give your dog the bone as you're leaving. Don't make a fuss. Wait outside for maybe 5 minutes. Come back and immediately take the "filled bone" and replace it with another toy. The "filled bone is a special treat ONLY when you're going out. Most dogs go nuts for both peanut butter and cheez whiz. Do this over a weekend when you can repeat it and stay out for a little longer each time.

It only took a few tries and my Bailey couldn't have cared less that I was going out. She wanted that tasty bone and she knew that the only time she got it was when I was gone. It may take a little longer since your dog is older and may have some abandonment issues but, most people who have tried this have reported back to me that it works, although some dogs take a little longer than others.

Just remember that the dog NEVER gets that bone when you're home. The dog learns to associate your leaving with something pleasant. BTW, I never crated any of my dogs and it worked like a charm. Good luck!!!

[acmj1985]

first i would like to see congrats on your new family member, i also have 2 pitts and love them to death!

when we took in a boxer rescue she suffered from severe seperation anxiety. the onlt thing that worked for us was to never have a leaving routine. we always leave a different exit each time we left and we started out leaving for very short periods of time. the other thing is to not get worked up if you come home and find that she has torn something up! she will think this was from something that happened when you were gone and wont want you to leave the next time. an expert told me that my dog thought of us as her children and wanted to protect us and thats why she would tear up our door. what you also need to do is make sure she knows you are the boss and when you and your family returns you need to ignore her for around 5 min no matter how excited she is. i know this will be hard but its for the best. also dont free feed her.
this helped for our dog after nothing else would but every dog is different.
hope this helps you and good luck!!

[Crystalburns87]

Congrats on the new family member!

I have a new puppy and he would do the same thing, except in a high pitched whine. What we did to help our puppy was first to put him in his cage and then leave the room. We would go to our room, or to the living room where he cant see us. He would whine and cry but stop after a while.
Then we put him in his cage all night. He now has learned to sleep in his cage at night and not see us. We had a lot of trouble with his yiping and whining, so We bought him a kong. If you do not know what it is, its a round toy with a hollow middle. You put treats in it and they will chew on it and eat them. We found it works best to use doggy peanut butter.
Try using that to occupy his attention. I wouldn't let him roam the house while you are gone. Try using a crate at first, then after a while try leaving for short spouts while hes out. If he does well, try longer periods. If not, use the crate again. It all consists of repeatition. If he still has trouble while in the crate give him a old shirt with your scent.

[poppy_chapman]

Separation anxiety and behavior problems in dogs often go hand in hand. They will often become destructive as a way of expressing their loneliness or frustration. The love and attention we give our dogs becomes something they crave and as a result some dogs will get anxious when we leave to lives our lives.

There are a few things you can do to reduce the separation anxiety and these are all easy methods:

First is to change your routines, don’t reinforce bad behavior and to try is not to say goodbye to them or give them hugs when you leave.

[Nadircs]

I also adopted a dog with separation anxiety a year ago. Not crate trained she ate everything that was small and smelled like us (despite no interest in chewing on ANYTHING normally) and in the crate she'd howl, cry, shake, scratch and bite on the bars, rip up her bed, gah it was a mess.
1st, you've only had her for a week so it COULD get better. I'd recommend having 2 places to keep your dog. One is where you will train her to be left alone and want her to eventually be left alone and the other is where you will leave her in the meantime. Because every "bad experience" home alone in the place you are training her to stay can undo any progress made. (For some this could be crated in between but trained to be left free in the house. For us it was in the bathroom in the meantime and trained to be left in the crate.)
2nd, You are doing everything right training wise. Just start doing a LOT of planned departures and leaving for 1 min, 5 min, 10 min, 30 min, etc. very often and progressing slowly. (I know, not fun.)
3rd, If you cannot even get the dog to be calm with you leaving for 1 minute (that was our problem, she went insane as SOON as you shut the door) you might need to look into some aids. A lot of people have had luck with the D.A.P. diffuser or collars, although our dog ate it when she was left alone with it. We met with a vet/behaviorist after about a month of training with no success and she put her on fluoxetine (generic name for Prozac) and we started at 20mg for 2 months, next month 15, next month 10, until we weaned her off of it. IT HELPED SO MUCH. It didn't make her groggy or weird during the day but she didn't have a heart attack when we left. The problem is that if the dog never experiences calm or safety during the training, she'll never progress. The meds help with that. Most dogs will get better and get weaned off of them.
Finally, (I know, this is long) I'd recommend the very short book "I'll Be Home Soon" by Patricia B. McConnell which was an invaluable resource on separation anxiety. It really helped with the training.

Best of luck.