Previous Foster Has S.a. In New Home

[AliWest]

My last foster went to her forever home a couple of weeks ago. Maggie is having a bad time with S.A, Here is a copy of Maggie's mom's e mail

 

"I need input, quick! I adopted Maggie (Go Postal) from TN Greyhound Rescue about 2 weeks ago. I got her on a Friday. I left her for brief periods on Saturday and Sunday. I was not aware of any problems. My husband works second shift, so he sleeps later. When I leave, she is inconsolable. Today, finally, she was better with him, but managed to mangle her metal crate between the time he went to work and I got home (about 5 hours).

 

I have tried:

Crate in the bedroom

Crate in my home office

Music

shirts that smell like me

Peanut butter-filled bones

Valerian Root (two capsules)

letting her out for extra time in the morning

not making a big deal of leaving or coming home (I have 3 other dogs, so this is routine!)

 

I have probably tried other things as well that I cannot think of in my brain-dead state. Janis has been working with me all along and has been great. She cannot think of anything I haven't done and I cannot, either. I need help and encouragement. The crate bending has gotten me down! I am starting to worry about her overall safety.

 

Thank you for any help you can give me.

Melissa"

 

Is there anything else she can do? I am hoping I can get Melissa on here to post as well.

[Guest happygrey]

How about not leaving her in the crate? Could you keep her in a room with a babygate?

 

Does she get along well with your other dogs? Are any of them greys?

 

Have you worked on alone training (leaving for just a minute before coming back and then making it longer slowly) and desensitizing her to cues of leaving? (Getting keys, picking up purse, putting on a jacket -- do these over and over but then don't leave.)

 

One second grey had SA and these things definitely helped. So has allowing him to stay in a babygated room rather than a crate. He also stays with our other grey and we follow a strict routine about how we leave. Even with all that, we did have to have him on short term meds (prozac) to help in the first 2 months. Time and repetition will be your best friends.

 

Good luck. I know how difficult this process can be.

[Guest Flysmom]

One of my former fosters had this problem not too long ago. She actually moved her kennel across the house and broke a tooth trying to get out.

 

She was completely focused on one owner, the other owner was able to come and go with out her flipping out. They tried pretty much everything that Melissa tried and nothing helped either. They took their girl to vet and found out that the Thyroid was too low, so KJ is now on Thyroid meds. They also give her Clomicalm (SP) and instead of kenneling her she has is babygated in part of the house. She is now back to her old self.

[Guest Greyt_dog_lover]

One of my former fosters had this problem not too long ago. She actually moved her kennel across the house and broke a tooth trying to get out.

 

She was completely focused on one owner, the other owner was able to come and go with out her flipping out. They tried pretty much everything that Melissa tried and nothing helped either. They took their girl to vet and found out that the Thyroid was too low, so KJ is now on Thyroid meds. They also give her Clomicalm (SP) and instead of kenneling her she has is babygated in part of the house. She is now back to her old self.

 

If you don't do a full thyroid panel (not just a T4 test) and send it off to MSU or a few other places (I believe there are only 3 places in the US that do the full panel test) then EVERY SINGLE greyhound on the planet will test with low thyroid, just an FYI.

 

I personally would not give medication for at least the first 3 months the hound is in a new home. I would exhaust every other option before even considering medication.

 

Alone training being the biggest thing to do. Without focused alone training even the medication wont help. Alone training would be my first suggestion (read up in Greyhounds for Dummies, or I'll be home soon), I would couple that with exercise before the person leaves (not just letting outside for an extra time, but actual leash walk for 30 minutes or more to wear out the pup). Additionally I would enroll the hound in an obedience class, this way the owner and hound can build confidence together (so the pup will have some when the owner leaves). A kong with treats when the owner leaves (only time the hound gets a kong and the kong is removed as soon as the owner returns). Leave a tv or music on when the owner leaves. Also, have the owner change up the routine before leaving. The hound already knows the routine when the owner is about to leave, so he/she needs to change things up. Maybe get car keys and put in pocket 20 minutes before leaving, put shoes on early, that type of thing. If the hound has destroyed a crate (broken metal bars), then unless you get a new crate, I would think that there may be a possibility of injury from the crate and it needs to be removed and not used. Personally I am a proponent of crating, but when hounds actually break bars, very extensive alone training needs to be accomplished immediately, as well as maybe not using the crate.

 

Chad

[GeorgeofNE]

Just a bit of a warning and something to ask your vet about: my vet suggested, on the recommendation of a friend of hers who was taking valerian root himself to sleep, that I give it to George. Within a month, his liver enzymes had elevated SIGNIFICANTLY.

 

The only thing I could think of was the valerian root. We stopped giving it to him, and retested in 4 weeks. Levels were back to normal.

 

I will NEVER again give a "natural" remedy and think it's harmless.

 

George had SA when I got him. It was bad. He howled for HOURS on end. I considered returning him, as I live in a condo. My group asked me to please speak to a behavior specialist before I did that. I did. She said, "Honey, if he howls when you put him in the crate, why do you keep doing it?" Well, the answer was that my group TOLD me to. As she said, every dog is different, and groups make recommendations based on what is typical, not what every dog needs.

 

I put the crate away, he never made another peep, never destroyed anything, and when I think of how miserable I made him week after week it really pains me that I didn't just go with my gut--I knew he hated the darn crate!

 

Please know I am NOT anti-crate. I'm just anti one policy fits all dogs!

 

 

[Guest TBSFlame]

Some dogs love a crate, it makes them feel safe and some hate a crate. I have had both kinds of dogs so you must do what is best for your dog. Try leaving her out for a short time and see what happens. You can always muzzle her.

[Laurenbiz]

...I didn't see 'Alone Training' in that list?

 

[Guest shanesmom]

I would try not using the crate as well. Also just "letting her out" may not be enough exercise. I found that with Elton, he needed much more and longer walks than my first greyhound did and this really helped with his separation anxiety. Especially when walked around different routes. It seemed that new stuff to sniff helped tire him out as much as the walking did.

[Guest sheila]

another vote for losing the crate. I hear that some dogs like them and all, but I've never met one of those dogs. When I adopted my first grey I had a crate all lined up and waiting because I thought it's what I was supposed to do. I put the dog in it for awhile and decided it was stupid. I returned the crate to the store the next morning and traded it in for some dog beds and I've never looked back.

I'm on my 6th hound now and none of them has ever been crated and nobody that I personally know with greyhounds uses crates either.

Yeah, there have been times of things getting chewed up and pee/poop incidents, but these issues have resolved themselves over time. I'm not 'anti-crate' as much as I'm anti 'all greyhounds must be crated' idea that some groups seem to suggest.

[Maddiesmom]

Maddie had BAD SA when I first got her over 5 years ago. She would howl, and managed eat herself out of the plastic airline crate, and 2 wire crates. Latches on one were still locked when I home- still have noe idea how she got out of that one and bent the metal on the other. I was advised tokeep her in the crate. I did not know better as I was a first time greyhound, they were the experts (I thought). I tried everything, alone training, leaving the TV and radio on, comfort Zone DAP diffuser. I finally took a leap of faith after talking to the vet, took her out of the crate and put her on clomicalm. I babygated and closed doors that I did not her going into. For a few weeks I came home during lunch to check on her and then weaned her off of my coming home for lunch. This was the best thing I did for her was taking her out of the crate and the clomicalm. Clomicalm took about a month to kick in, but I am so glad that I did what I did as I have a totally different outgoing and confident dog.

 

Tell the adopter to Take it one day at a time and have her join us here on GT as she is not the first to have a grey with SA. We are here for her.

[AliWest]

Here are a few more things. When Melissa leaves for work her husband is still home. Maggie still whines, howls and carries on. Melissa has three other dogs that are not greys. Even with Maggie in the same room with the DH and other dogs she whines.

 

Melissa plans on continuing Maggie's training and hopes to get her CGC. She hopes to have Maggie be a therapy reading dog for children. Maggie would be great at this as she really loves children.

 

But she has to get over this hurdle. What really has me confused is she didn't do any of this here at my house. She was crated when I was gone and DH said that she would whine a little if he was here without me. He told her to knock it off and she would go lie down. Why would she have SA at her home but not here?

[Batmom]

Is she crated at that time? What are the other dogs doing?

 

How much exercise does she get?

 

 

If she's bending crate bars, she really needs to be not crated. Risk of serious injury or death.

[AliWest]

They have tried crated and not crated while the DH is home. The DH works second shift so he sleeps later (or tries to) in the morning. I think Melissa is afraid to leave her out with the other dogs when she is not home. The other dogs are older and she is afraid that Maggie will chew on things or get destructive.

 

I don't know how much exercise she is getting.

[Batmom]

Where is the dog and where is the husband trying to sleep? Might try putting a nice dog bed in the bedroom and leaving her in there with the husband.

[AliWest]

They have tried that. She still whines, barks and paces.

 

I just don't know what else to tell her.

[Batmom]

Most dogs are going to fuss if separated from other dogs in the household. Many will also fuss if behind a closed solid door, even with a person there. So, might be worth trying -1- baby gating her into the bedroom with dad, so she can see out; or -2- giving her free reign with the others while dad is home, and separating the dogs when no one is home; or -3- baby gating her into a room where she can at least see the other dogs, and giving her a Kong to work on (can't give her one if she and the others have access to one another).

 

I don't know what to say about the fear of her getting into things and chewing on them. Dogs do sometimes get into things. Usually when bringing a new dog home I do a good bit of dogproofing so that anything chewed is likely to be safe to the dog and expendable to me, until I know what the new dog's habits are.

[Laurenbiz]

They have tried crated and not crated while the DH is home. The DH works second shift so he sleeps later (or tries to) in the morning. I think Melissa is afraid to leave her out with the other dogs when she is not home. The other dogs are older and she is afraid that Maggie will chew on things or get destructive.

 

I don't know how much exercise she is getting.

 

Since the dog bent crate bars, I suggest that crate just leave the house!

 

My Bernie has had bad S.A. the whole time he's been with us since October 2010 when we adopted him. We did try crating him to contain his inappropriate urinating/defecating inside the house when he was alone. (This is S.A. - no UTI or other medical problems to cause that behavior.)

 

But, just a few weeks ago, we came home to a dog wandering the house and the crate still closed and latched - but with many bars bent, white dog hair and blood inside the crate. Bernie had moderately-sized cuts and scrapes all over his body. He'd escaped.

 

Our crate left the kitchen that day! It is folded up now in the basement.

 

If this dog is bending crate bars, then I say that crate just needs to go. For me, my concern for Bernie's health and safety is a much higher priority than my frustration for doing a load of dirty laundry and mopping my kitchen after he potties inside. I just can't leave him crated knowing that he did slightly injure himself - and knowing that he is still at risk if I crate him again!

 

[Guest Greyt_dog_lover]

Does she refuse to muzzle? That should help with the worry of being destructive when being left out. Well, not totally impossible to get into stuff, but does help a lot.

[Guest Tokolos]

I would also suggest testing some time away from the house where the dog is out of the crate. When we first brought Sprinkles home, we used the crate a couple of times. Each time, this mild mannered hound became insane---howling, scratching, pooping, and peeing in the crate. Finally, we gave it a try without the crate---leaving the house for 15 minutes, 1 hour, and increasing it over the period of a weekend---and he's been fine every since.

 

It's worth a try!

[turbotaina]

Here are a few more things. When Melissa leaves for work her husband is still home. Maggie still whines, howls and carries on. Melissa has three other dogs that are not greys. Even with Maggie in the same room with the DH and other dogs she whines.

 

Melissa plans on continuing Maggie's training and hopes to get her CGC. She hopes to have Maggie be a therapy reading dog for children. Maggie would be great at this as she really loves children.

 

But she has to get over this hurdle. What really has me confused is she didn't do any of this here at my house. She was crated when I was gone and DH said that she would whine a little if he was here without me. He told her to knock it off and she would go lie down. Why would she have SA at her home but not here?

 

 

Different home, different dog. Who knows why. Refer her to Patricia McConnell's booklet "I'll be Home Soon". It's got lots of fantastic information on the prevention and treament of SA and it's a short, interesting and informative read

 

Oh, and she might want to try a DAP diffuser. Works well with some dogs, has no effect on others. Can't hurt, might help

 

One more thing: valerian has been known to cause hallucinations in humans, so I don't think I'd use it on a dog. I'm sure the dose isn't that high and I'm aware it's in a lot of herbal "calming" formulas, but still. Don't think I'd mess with it.

 

How much exercise is she getting? It won't cure SA, but it can help take the edge off a bit. I had a foster I suspected was SA inclined, but as it turned out, she just need some really brisk walks