longboyz100

I think it is heavily dependant on the dog really, if you are rescuing you should be clear with the shelter this is your plan and they can try match you to an appropriate dog. My boy comes into the office most days,overall it works well - he has a quiet corner and loves the attention. While most of the time he just sleeps, a few times a day I have to leave him for meetings, this is fine if others are around but if no one is around (rare) he can get a little stressed and vocal. This could go away when he gets fully settled in. I will say this, while it's amazing to have your dog with you at work, it is another responsibility and can be quite stressful at times (depending on your work). I will most likely leave my boy at home most days once we have a walker sorted. I will reiterate what others have said too, he wants to be around people and close to whats going on.

A few things on SA I found useful - my boy only really had moderate SA which we have more or less overcome. Even still, I found it super tough but followed patricia mcconnels book very closely. What is worth pointing out for me is the training was not linear, it took a long time to get comfortable with 5 minutes alone but the step from 5 minutes to 20 minutes was much faster, as was 1 hour to 2 and so on and so forth. So while it feels like you aren't making any progress and can be demovitated - it can change very quickly. That was my experience at least. The second point is around routine. I found my boy got used to being left alone in the morning as thats when we did our training. Even when he was comfortable being left for hours in the morning he would get stressed if left in the evening. He adjusted to this quite quickly with splitting the training. I work from home but if I had to leave and return every day at similar times I think he would adjust to this quite quickly as once it becomes a set routine it becomes normal. Good luck!

hi everyone, I am making good progress with my boy in other areas but one thing I can't seem to get him to adjust to is not waking up so early. We used to get up around 6.30 to 7 which was perfect but since the clocks went back and he had a bit of disruption from hurting his leg (now absolutely fine) and moving (several months ago) I cant get him back on a similar schedule. He will begin stirring at 5am then by 5.30 he will come over to the bed and wake me up after running round the house for a bit. I try to ignore him but eventually he will get frustrated and start barking loudly which isn't fair on the neighbours at that time. I make sure I get up when he is quiet though. I'm confident it's not toilet related or hunger, he just wants to go out for a walk (based on his excitment when I get up). I've tried the alarm trick which worked insofar he now associates it with definitely getting up and goes a little beserk when it goes off but he'll still be up at 5 whatever. Our schedule is quite rigid, once we are up the first thing we do is go out for a 30 min walk then feed when we get back. He will get another walk at lunch then the evening lasting 20 to 30 mins. Another feed at 6.30pm then a snack and final out at 10pm and sleep for 10.30pm. Running out of ideas and starting to get a bit sleep deprived...any help or tips would be very appreiciated! He was up at 5 on the dot today then refused to go out because it was raining

Definitely smelly cheese and ham. It become quite obvious based on my boy's reaction what he valued the most

As a new owner I can sympathise with your situation. Having your dog growl at you or someone for the first time is scary, especially if they haven't exhibited any such signs prior. However, as you say, they are just attempting to communicate with you - it's not overt aggression and is very common. Educating myself and learning to respect my dogs boundries was key, as was reading up on resource guarding. I put myself in my dogs siutation, I wouldn't be too pleased if he suddenly came up on my bed and jumped on me. So that's it really, I accepted that he didn't like it and respected that. Now when he's on his bed I leave him be, when he has a special toy I leave him with it (if I really need it back I will trade it for something better).

Apologies for another SA post and thanks for the help so far. I'm a still lost and confused (again). We have made some good progress after weeks of working hard with the alone training. My boy will now happily let me leave and settle down with his kong. He will even follow me to the door and race back to his kong when he realises whats happening. After 4/5 minutes with his kong he will go up to the window and stare out for awhile then he'll retreat to the sofa and sit looking out the window with his ears alert. I am a bit confused if this is still anxiety or something else (some kind of guard duty??), the reason I ask is because he doesnt exhibit the typical symptoms you read about or that he used to get like the panting, barking etc. He will whine a little but not a great deal at all. He also doesn't get hugely excited when I return (he used to go crazy and was panting heavily), he will just come stick his head in the shopping bag and wag his tail. I am guessing it is still SA just not as pronounced as he used to have it? If so I need to time my returns before he goes to the window? Sorry if this is basic, in all the guidance I've read I didnt come across such symptons. Thanks!

Thank you for the help. You are definitely right he is nervous and the cold is probably a seperate issue. I'm pretty sure its when he got spooked by a firework on a walk the other day. We will work on that! Thanks

So we have had a turn in the weather here in the UK and temperatures first thing in the morning when we usually walk are down to 1 degree. My grey will go out but has began freezing early on the walk and refusing to move. I can only put this down to him being too cold, he has a warm coat of course but still seems to be shivering. I obviously don't want to force him to go out walking when it's too cold. I'm more worried about getting him the right amount of exercise. Any tips on what to do with exercise during the cold months? I'm guessing 2x 10 minute walks isnt going to be enough. We are also working through seperation anxiety so I'm trying to tire him out too. Thanks!

Thank you for the pointers they are have proved very helpful. You have been right - he reacts very differently when I actually leave him (and now he can see me leave with the blinds open), he won't go and listen by the living room door now but sit on the sofa listening very alert or watch out the window for awhile. Time to get to work to get him to fully relax!

I know there are a lot of topics on SA and alone training (believe me I have read most of them!) but I am not currently sure what I'm doing is helping and wanted to check if I need to amend anything or just keep going. For context my boy has come a long way in the last two months, at the worst he would bark, whine and pant so much he'd leave puddles of drool while alone. I put this improvement down to him settling into a house opposed to the flat we moved from 3 weeks ago rather than my alone training (it literally approved the day we moved and he really didnt like that flat!). I haven't seen any noticable improvements using my training technique since I've had him 8+ weeks ago unfortunately. Currently when alone he will abandon his kong/licking mat after 30 seconds or 1 minute and sit on the sofa alert and staring at the door for the whole time he is alone (and whine). It's this last part I am struggling to get over and get him 100% comfortable with being alone. I want to get to the point where he is happy to just sleep or lay down on the sofa or his bed which is what he would do if I'm there. I do the obvious advised things, give him a kong, ensure well exercised, calm comings and goings and leave him alone most of the day I'm home (he spends the day in the living room sleeping while I work upstairs). For the training I typically try and do x2 30 mins sessions a day at random times. Calmly give kong or licking mat, he'll settle down with this to begin with Draw curtains and walk out living room door, closing it behind me. (This gives him the run of the conservatory and living room rather than whole house) Leave out the front door and usually wait in the porch or garage for anywhere between 30 secs to 5 mins. Or just walk up the street and back. Calmly come back and take toy back, relax normally for a few minutes then repeat up to 30 minute session By the time I get back he mostly will be either waiting behind the door having left his toy with his ears perked up or he's on the sofa watching the door intensively. He will remain like this for the whole time I'm gone (the most has been an hour). He just isn't comfortable and remains uptight the whole time. Is there anything I'm missing or do I just need to keep going at this stage and get in lots of repititions? I'm spending a lot of time doing it each day, which I'm fine with, but don't want it to be wasted. I’m up against the clock as I need to get him happy before I go back to the office. Any help or pointers will be greatly apprieciated! Thanks !

Thank you so much for the replies, they have been very useful. We have since moved to a house where he is much more comfortable. I have done a lot of alone training and there is more to do but am comfortable enough leaving him for longer periods if 100% neccessary. However, I suspect this is because he hasn't realised I have fully left him as I shut him in the living room (with access to large conservatory) so he doesnt see me actually leave out the front door. He was a lot better in my previous flat before the one day he saw me head out the front door and went from SA to full blown bad SA. So my next question is, should I just continue as is and not let him ever see me leave or let him see me leave and have to work through a worse SA but ultimately fix the problem properly? thanks!

I am working through early wake ups with a bit of barking too. A few things that have helped so far; Brisk 10/15 min walk and wee/poo very last thing at night before Blacked out room completely Sending back to their bed until the alarm goes late Good luck, a difficult (and tiring!) issue