Jake And His Separation Anxiety

[Guest Jakestheman]

hi all,

 

My wife and I just moved into our first home, so of course Jake came along with us. Since moving we have noticed that his separation anxiety is through the roof.

 

There are a few differences in his routine that may be causing the problem. Obviously the house is different than our apartment, and the apartment was where he first came to live when we adopted him last June, so I'm wondering if he is still not settled after living at the new house for 2 months.

 

Next, he has to stay in the crate for longer than he used to because we live further away and don't always get home for lunch breaks.

 

 

I have a couple of thoughts - he seems to be less nervous and less anxious when he isn't in the crate. It has gotten to the point where today he actually destroyed his crate and somehow got out. I put it back together and now have to repair the wall where he dented and scrapped it up from the crate sliding around.

 

He seems to be most comfortable in the living room, but very uncomfortable when alone in the bedroom. The bedroom tends to be where we put him during the day because of the air conditioner going to keep him cooler.

 

 

If we leave him out in the living room while we are at work I worry about him chewing things from being anxious even though he never has done this. Should I muzzle him? Is there any worry that he could hurt himself by somehow trying to get the muzzle off and choking himself or something else?

 

 

I would appreciate any thoughts on this, I'm a little scatter brained because I'm sick of having damage to my walls from his crate and I don't want him to be upset all day either.

[Guest june]

Sounds like he doesn't want to be in the crate. Yes, you can muzzle him while he is loose. They can still chew wearing the muzzle so maybe since this is a holiday weekend you could try leaving him loose but muzzled for short periods of time like 1/2 to 1 hour several times and see how he does.

 

Also, you could give him a Kong stuffed with treats and peanut butter for him to work on while you are gone. Freeze it and he will have to work harder to get the goodies. They can get to the Kong with the muzzle on. You could also baby gate him in a room where there is less for him to get into.

Good luck,

june

 

edited to add:

I also leave a window for my dogs to be able to look out of. Be sure to move curtains or blinds so that he doesn't damage them trying to move them to look out the window.

Edited July 2, 2011 by june

[GeorgeofNE]

Well, that's not separation anxiety--that's "I hate this crate" anxiety! And I've yet to meet a dog of any breed that likes being closed up in a room with a shut door!

 

Suggest two things: one, if he's housebroken, you don't need to use the crate since clearly he doesn't like it. Two, you buy and read the Patricia McConnell booklet "I'll Be Home Soon" and do some "alone training" as it is called. That'll help eliminate any possible SA he does have--but I'm guessing he's just trying to tell you "enough with the crate."

 

In my experience, puppies chew, not so much adult dogs who are given proper toys to chew, if they want to chew, and sufficient exercise before being left for the day. However, if you have a known chewer, many folks use the muzzle. My dog never chewed a thing, not even paper, from day one. Maybe I was just lucky? But it really never entered my mind that a five year old dog was going to chew things.

 

That's key, IMHO. Dogs who stay home while their human works (including mine! so please don't think I'm against that) REALLY need a good, long walk before you leave.

 

A tired dog is most likely going to sleep most of the day, especially if he has his favorite comfy place to sleep (not the crate in your dog's case--and my dog howled for HOURS in his crate, so I know what it's like!), and perhaps a Kong toy with a generous dollop of peanut butter smeared around the insides to keep him busy while you depart.

 

Good luck!

 

George had an absolutely miserable start to home life, but once I ditched the crate and he learned I was ALWAYS going to come back, he settled right in!

 

Oh, make sure anything edible (food) is PUT AWAY. That includes boxes of crackers on the counter, fruit, anything! To avoid the temptation to "counter surf" while you're not home!

[Guest Shermanator]

Sherman was exactly the same way with his crate. It was horrible. He broke teeth chewing on it, explosive poo, you get the point.

When we started alone traing outside of the crate, we did not want to muzzle him. He hated his muzzle, and would leave a path of destruction while trying to get it off. We were also afraid of him injuring himself, he was that carzy about it.

We started video taping him. We left all his bones and toys out for him. We always ened up with the first 5 minutes of him staring and whining at the door, and the rest of the time, lounging in his bed.

Now, when we adopted the girlies, we did not use a crate or muzzle, either. We close off 3 out of the 4 bedrooms, and leave the master bedroom open, because that's Travel's 'safe spot.' She goes in there when anxious. When we video taped them, they were more active, and hysterical. 10 min after we leave - its a par-tay! Both get the zoomies, dance on the counch, pull out every bone and toy out, and scatter them all over the house. We learned our lesson to close the closet door, since they once pulled out every piece of clothing in their reach, and all the shoes, and scattered those throughout the house! After that, its snooze time.

[Guest twogreytkids]

After my boy destroyed his crate, I decided to put him on the honor system and told him that he was in charge of watching the house while I was away. I went out for an hour and prayed the whole time that I was gone.

 

Came home to find the house just the way that I left it. Wait!!! One of his toys was on his dog bed.

 

He's never been crated since.

 

Marcy

[RobinM]

What George said.

 

I have 5 hounds no SA.

 

I brought in Ponch and crated him in the room with the 5 hounds and I watched while I was at work on the webcam. 6 hours of him FLIPPING OUT.

 

I took him out of crate. (muzzled everyone) and he is fine.

[seeh2o]

Carl had terrible SA and hated his crate. When I came home and found him waiting for me at the front door (which he had nearly destroyed) I saw that he had dismantled his wire crate - actually breaking apart the soldering to get out of it. I started muzzling him after that. He still gets muzzled when I leave home. The first time I did it I felt awful about it, until I saw his reaction - he sort of physically relaxed when I put it on. It gives him freedom from being confined, but keeps him from being naughty.

[Guest the1sen]

Hi,

 

Part of the problem with crating a dog sometimes is that they really don't have any value assigned to the the crate.

 

Our dog trainer helped us to figure out how to assign value to certain items, behaviors, etc... the crate is very easy.

 

Suggestion 1

 

1. Lock the crate. Make sure he can't get in the crate at all.

 

2. Drop SMALL treats into the crate when he isn't looking.

 

3. Wait until he notices there are treats in the crate and paws at it, or stands near it glaring into the crate.

 

4. Open the crate door. When he goes in, praise him over and over. When he exits, say nothing, but drop more treats into it

 

5. LEAVE THE DOOR OPEN... when he goes in on his own, close the door for 15 minutes.

 

6. When he leaves the crate leave the door open and drop more treats into it. He will eventually begin to think that treats GROW in the crate...

 

REPEAT. Sometimes open, sometimes closed.

 

 

Suggestion 2

 

The crate is a place for treats, and bones, and chew toys, beef pizzles... the dog will wind up going into his crate when you are HOME searching for yummies! Mine does. We have to keep his crate door closed so that he doesn't go in there looking for treats, and waiting, even though we stopped putting treats in there so frequently.

 

Suggestion 3

 

Leave a radio on softly. If he hears something, he will be at ease.

 

Good luck.

Edited July 4, 2011 by the1sen

[Laurenbiz]

hi all,

It has gotten to the point where today he actually destroyed his crate and somehow got out.

 

 

My two cents: Do not put him into a crate ever, ever again.

 

I *like* to consider myself a separation anxiety expert, considering what I learned about SA causes, options, and treatments, for the first five or so months that we had Bernie. Bernie didn't just chew things up in the house out of the crate, or bend the bars and escape his crate, he also urinated and/or defecated in the house, in the crate, on the furniture, on the wall, whether he was alone for 3 minutes or for 5 hours. We did the exercise, ignoring him before leaving, calming dog music, DAP diffusers/collars/sprays, Rescue Remedy, giving him toys/treats to keep him occupied while he was alone, an the list literally goes on and on and on. Our final resort was medication, and after exhausting what we felt were all our options, we now have him on antidepressants.

 

With that said, I don't think your guy is a candidate at all for anti-anxiety meds! If you continue to crate him after he escaped the crate, though, I think you are continuing to put him into harm's way. You are risking an injury, a skin tear, cuts, etc. If you forget to take his collar off and he tries to escape the crate, he is veeeery much at risk.

 

I would suggest alone training outside the crate, like some other posters have suggested. If you want to muzzle him, do that. You could also teach him that he only gets yummy treats and/or filled Kongs when you are gone. Give him the treat, then leave for alone training. Come back and take it away. Same thing later, again and again. The Kong and/or other treats would keep his mouth busy so he would not chew while he is alone.

 

Exercise, exercise, exercise! Give him a walk before you leave! (I don't remember if you said this or not.)

 

I hope this helps!

 

And PS - Don't be worried all day. Your worry likely starts as you are preparing to leave the house, and he probably picks up on that nervous energy. Then, his pack leader disappears, and he has already been nervous! Just be positive the best you can!

[Guest giantsfan]

Our goal was not to crate long term when we got ours, so although they didnt seem to hate the crate we transitioned to babygating them in the kitchen during the day. We don't come home to let them out mid-day, so this allows them some freedom/movement if they choose. As George mentioned, exercise is important...ours get a good walk every morning before we go to work.

[Guest Jakestheman]

thanks everyone I will take these suggestions into consideration and let you know how it goes!

[cometdust1]

I've had my grey, Sargent, for 2 years.He has moderate separation anxiety,constant, frantic howling and barking,standing on the dining room table to see out all windows at once,but no destructiveness. Niether of my 2 present greys were ever crated.My 1st 2 were crated, and they hated it and did much better outside the crate.I put him on prozac from the beginning and he does really well on most days.However, if my husband and I go out together,he knows we are going someplace other than work, probably someplace fun, so he wants to go too so he will bark all day.My mother-in-law lives in an addition of our house,so she walks & feeds them most days and she hears when he is acting up.I just bought an anxiety wrap for him and used it yesterday when we went to a friends' house for about 6 hours.She said he slept in the same spot on the couch the whole time so this looks like it might work! I am hoping to use it and be able to wean him off the prozac.I'd like to know if anybody else has used the anxiety wrap.

[Guest BrindleBoy]

Rather than start a new thread, I thought I'd jump on this one.

 

My grey has only been here 5 weeks... pretty new still. He's mostly housebroken, only the occasional accident when very stressed or anxious. At first, crated him while gone, no problems. But felt bad, so started leaving him out. No apparent problems. Then I decided to film him while gone... every so often he would "roo"- as if crying because we weren't hone. I don't know if he did this in the crate or not, but did do it outside the crate the last time we left him alone & filmed it. I can only assume he's been doing it all along.

 

I'm guessing it's SA, and I'm wondering if he would actually feel safer in his crate? I guess I'll have to film him in his crate and see....

 

A little background: he's a pretty mellow dog, EXCEPT any time we come home, AND almost every morning when we wake up (and sometimes when he wakes up from a nap), he is overexcited, nitting, jumping, etc... and that seems like it might be getting worse.

 

How long does it take for them to really learn you'll ALWAYS come back? I'd hate to think I'm causing him more anxiety by letting him roam the house.