A Howling Grey When We Aren't Home

[Guest sweeps]

Hello all,

We adopted our grey, Sweet Potato, in November. She had a bit of separation anxiety after my partner and I took a trip and left her with her dog walker, but we cleared that up by leaving for a few minutes at a time and then gradually building up. We also uncrated her which seemed to make all the difference.

 

Fast forward 2 months. I come home to find a note on my apartment door that my dog is howling in the morning. I was really surprised by this as she's quiet when we leave around 8 am, and quiet when we get home around 5:30/6 pm. Today we left her with a frozen stuffed kong, a kibble-stuffed ball, and a thunder shirt and only a few minutes ago I got a text after her walker that said that she could hear Sweet Potato howling from the street. I am kind of in panic mode at the moment thinking about my neighbors complaining to the land lord and feeling like we've tried everything. Beyond getting another dog, or fostering a grey (unfortunately just not an option) do you have any ideas how to put a stop to the howling?

[carronstar]

Are you sure it is your dog that is howling? Can you leave a recorder/webcam on to check? I ask because I had a neighbor make the same complaint about my first girl, and she NEVER made noise. The super even told the neighbor that he found it hard to believe because she didn't even lift her head on the couch when they came in the apartment.

 

If it is Sweet Potato, there are a lot of good threads here on Separation Anxiety and how to work with it. I know my second girl had a terrible case but it was quiet...she just ate the plaster off the walls, the wood furniture, etc. We did a lot of alone training, class training and I found that the DAP diffuser worked wonders for her.

 

Good luck.

[Trihounds]

I'm sorry I don't have any great advice. My 4 will roo together several times a day just to hear themselves communicate and for the sheer pleasure of it. Sounds like you need to find a trigger (if it is her) and then work on that. Might be SA, might be another dog setting her off? The webcam idea recording sound might be helpful. Good luck.

[Time4ANap]

Try leaving the TV or a radio on. A little noise might be enough to make her think that she's not alone.

[GeorgeofNE]

There's already a ton written on this topic, but my question is how much EXERCISE is she getting in the morning.

 

You need to work on the alone training some more, obviously, but you also need to address the issue directly with your neighbors. First off, apologize, then explain that it's a temporary problem, you're actively working on it, and you'd really appreciate some patience. Bring them cookies! Give them your cell phone number, and ask them to please call you if they have an issue. That might prevent a call to the landlord.

 

I went through this with George when I got him. It was awful. Fortunately, I owned my condo, and as luck would have it was the chairman of the condo board, so there really wasn't anything anyone could do to me. But I still felt terrible. I came home one day and our Super was waiting to tell me three different people had complained in one day.

 

I video taped my dog. It was a nightmare. From the second I left until the tape ran out (two hours) he howled at the top of his lungs.

 

For us, getting rid of the crate and any form of confinement worked, as did increasing his morning exercise, and TIME.

 

Hang in there.