[kayrina]

Just looking for some advise here.
I rescued a sweet 5 months old little girl about a month ago (miniature poodle / Terrier). She is the only dog at the house.
She had kennel cough and I took her to the vet, got her on medicine and she is all better now.
She gets really anxious whenever I have to leave for work. I made her a special gated area, but she does not like to stay there all. She barks and cries a lot.
Then she ends up escaping by jumping or climbing the pet fence.
I installed security cameras so I can watch her all day during my work hours.
I have her on reconcile (medicine for dog anxiety) and she has a good behavior collar (also to help her anxiety).
She has been on the medicine for about 2 weeks now and she still acts like somebody is killing her when I'm leaving for work.
I do not do any rituals or drama when I leave, as I was told by the vet, but it doesnt seems to help.
I bought her one of those kongs and the treats or food does not seem to motivate her to stop.
She does not eat the whole time that she stays there, and when I get home she is exhausted.
It's breaking my heart, I feel like an awful mom, but i have no idea what else to do.
Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[lange]

Both types of breeds have a lot of energy. Can you try exhausting her before you leave? If you give her a good walk make it more structured as opposed to leisurely. I was also wondering if she has something den like she could hide in if she's feeling insecure? You can also try placing an article of clothing w/your scent in there for her. I recently seen these: Thundershirt | The Best Dog Anxiety Treatment I don't have experience with them but other people have found them helpful for thunderstorms. It says it helps w/separation anxiety too so I don't know if it's worth the try? You can search for reviews online. I would also keep switching up the treats or kong with different strong smelling goodies.

Best wishes!

[Daisy]

Our terrier suffers from separation anxiety as well. We felt so awful about it for a long time. We finally managed to keep her from going crazy when we leave by taking her outside and running her with a ball for about 20 minutes. We too got the cameras so we could watch her while we were gone.

Now we face the issue when we come back home. She CRAVES attention, as she should. But she shouldn't be so boisterous about it. So we began ignoring her completely when we walk through the door. We got about putting our things up and just keep walking if she tries to jump on us. We don't even say no since that is just giving her attention. Eventually she stopped jumping.

She still whines and gets very excited when we come home, but she knows that she isn't going to get her luvvins if she isn't calm and quiet. So she will follow us through the house while we put our stuff away, and then goes to the bedroom and lays down after she is calm. Then, and only then, we will lay down with her and give her a good bit of snuggle time.

[Deafdogsrule]

SA is a tough thing to deal with. I have a dog with SA, but it was really easy to fix, I started crating her with one of my other dogs, and she's totally calm... but I have 4 other dogs.

I've been using the thunder shirt with Oliver, and I'm noticing some marked improvements with his dog aggression... it may be a consideration for you.