Gamo The Galgo - Please Help- Possible Sa

[AEB]

As some of you may know Gamo came home Monday night. He is settling in pretty well. He will cry if one of us disappears into the bathroom. And he will continue to cry for several minutes even with the other person right there. That is improving.

 

We started alone training yesterday. Stepped out, then stepped out and walked around the house. Then stepped out and walked down the drive and back. We did maybe 2-3 minutes at the max. Today we did our first session of the day and things went awry quickly.

 

I recorded when i left this time. I was gone maybe 4 minutes total. Gamo started crying within a minute or so. Then started barking then they both started barking and whaling like coyotes! It was deafening and it went on until i think they heard or saw me returning. i paused and waited until they stopped and then continued walking back. They were loud. As in I can hear them loudly 500ft away. I am not sure how to modify alone training to remedy this! We will get complaints (i should say the police will get complaints) from neighbors. kevin used to get anxious and howl when we went outside. But has been over that for a long time. Now gamo is getting him going. Any suggestions?

 

His foster mom did not have this problem.

 

I don't have "I'll be home soon" with me at the moment. So I am looking for suggestions as to how to make this more successful training. But I have read it.

[kudzu]

Too much too fast, perhaps. Often in training you have to back up & start at an easier point than when you left of in the last session. So if you were at 2-3 minutes one day then the next day your first time or two out of the house may need to be 30 seconds or not even completely out the door.

 

Also, I had a pup who did best if the last "away" was the shortest. So if she'd done well for 4 min. without me I needed to then do a quick 30 seconds & then 10 seconds. We'd finish there. Part of it is the varied &, as much as possible, randomness to the duration of time I was gone. Another part was, in retrospect, I realized that even though she may have been quiet for 4 minutes the day before she was still stressed. So the next time I went to leave that stress came back faster, "Oh no. Last time she was gone for sooooo long!"

[robinw]

Be patient. It's only been a few nights.

[mom2four]

Poor Gamo! What the others have said- plus lots of patience and time.

Is he separated from Kevin or are they together?

 

Good luck with your beautiful boy.

[Guest grey_dreams]

It sounds that you will have to go very slowly with alone training. He's been through quite a bit lately, and it might take a little longer for him to settle in. Zuki had strong separation anxiety when he came home that he expressed with howling for hours. It took time, but we did get through it.

[Guest DeniseL]

I had this exact same problem with Izzy. We started alone training the day after she came home. The first time we left her for more than 5 minutes, it was a howling session. I walked back up to the house and it sounded like a kennel. All three were going crazy and I had never heard my two greys howl like that before.

 

I just continued the alone training and the howling stopped after a day or so. Izzy would get very nervous in the beginning when either one of us, me or my DH, would leave. She would pace and whine. When we left to go out she would get nervous and stare out the window at us.

 

After a couple of weeks, she settled in and it all went away. Now she curls up on the couch when she sees me getting ready to leave for work.

 

I think it was just all the upheaval in her life. Once she got more comfortable her symptoms went away. We did do extensive alone training for the first 3 days (we were home from work).

 

Maybe he just needs to settle? I imagine all the changes really have him nervous. First the plane, then Sara's, now home. They are so adaptable, but that's a lot for any pup.

 

Hoping for the best for you guys

[NeylasMom]

Are you giving them something when you leave? Like I stuffed kong?

[Saffron]

This sounds familiar. It's a sort of ululating wail in several keys -- I remember being grateful that we had no close neighbors. Olly has been known to sound like a whole pack of coyotes all on his own and definitely had some SA at the beginning. He is a lot better now, but it took some work.

 

I agree with others, you are doing too much too fast. This is what we did: The goal is not to have him start yowling in the first place. Start by doing all the usual things you do before leaving the house, walk to the door, touch the handle but don't open it. Walk away. Repeat many times. Eventually he'll get bored watching you.

 

Now do all the above and open the door. Close it without exiting. Repeat many times. Work up to getting out the door and closing it -- then coming back in immediately. Do it again. And again. And again. Now you can wait outside the door for a moment and gradually extend the time by a few seconds and minutes. Vary the amout of time you are out. Sometimes come in again in 2 minutes, and at othertimes leave it 10 or 15. Work up to half an hour. The next step is to get in your car, get out again, and come back in, but you get the picture! I'm lucky in that I work from home and could do this for several days. Tiring but worth it!

 

Specific to Olly and not necessarily relevant to your situation, but worth a mention. When we first brought him home Olly was still in a splint from a badly broken leg, and just getting over a subsequent resistant staph infection in the leg. (It is a long story, he was in a cast and splints for 5 months and very nearly lost his leg.) He was still on restricted activities and had to be kept calm when he was pining to gallop around. I had to tether him to me 24/7 and/or crate him to keep him quiet. I don't know whether this helped with or actually exacerbated the SA. I know that crating is not always the way to go with Galgos but it was necessary for Olly and he is quite happy in a crate these days. He is still not overjoyed when I leave, even with the two greys for company, but nothing like SA.

Edited March 27, 2013 by Saffron

[AEB]

Thanks everyone. I don't know why I didn't think he'd have a hard time. I packed the kongs (great idea Jen) and "I'll be home soon" and can't find them. I guess I have to buy more kongs. This will make my husband insane. But in the meantime I will work up to standing outside the door. He needs to be able to stay home for several hours by April 11. I hope we can do it.

[AEB]

Found the kongs and the Dap collar arrived! I will be walking toward the door periodically tonight. They probably won't car since DH is home now and won't do the walk to the door more than a few times.

[galgomum]

You've been given some good advice but mostly, it has only been two days.
Give him some time to adjust.
This boy has been through hell, went into foster care for a bit, than on a scary plane and now is on your home for two days.
His word is upside down and he needs time to settle, to adjust.
And overall he is being a good boy.

Give hime time…

[kathleenmaeve]

Haha, oh boy, maybe I should prepare myself for practicing alone-training with Berna (this is Katie; Hi, Denise, Petra, and April!) Granted, I fully expect Berna to need a while to fully settle in so this kind of thing wouldn't surprise me too much. But, we never went through it with our grey, Castle, so I'm pretty unfamiliar with practicing alone training, though I get the basic idea. I know I have to teach on campus for a few hours a couple days after she comes home from JFK but I could ask my DH to stay with her during that time if that's too soon to leave her and Castle on their own.

 

Just curious: for those of you with confident dogs in the house, do you find that it helps prevent SA or stress in a new, less secure dog? I practiced leaving Castle alone on the first day and while he'd look out the window for 10 seconds, he'd lay back down and go to sleep almost immediately. He's a pretty comfortable dude so I'm hoping that he will help Berna to adjust when we get her.

[krissn333]

When I first read your first post, my thought was that they were just singing together. Mine sing several times a day. One of them will start it (usually Ace or Fritz) and pretty soon they're howling away. It usually lasts a minute or two. If I leave them inside while I'm out doing yard work, I'll hear them sing two or three times in the span of a couple of hours.

 

I know they sing a couple times a day when I'm at work too - I've left my laptop recording them for the day and I'll hear them take off again. I don't take it as an indicator that they're upset about anything, but, they're a pack and they like to sing

 

Does Gamo do anything else besides the howling? I'm wondering if this is even really a full-on anxiety reaction or if it's just something he's used to doing when he was in the shelter?

[robinw]

 

Just curious: for those of you with confident dogs in the house, do you find that it helps prevent SA or stress in a new, less secure dog? I practiced leaving Castle alone on the first day and while he'd look out the window for 10 seconds, he'd lay back down and go to sleep almost immediately. He's a pretty comfortable dude so I'm hoping that he will help Berna to adjust when we get her.

Treasure, my calm, confident greyhound, was already with me when I adopted Iker, my very shy Galgo. She has been wonderful for him and has basically done all the work

[galgomum]

Haha, oh boy, maybe I should prepare myself for practicing alone-training with Berna (this is Katie; Hi, Denise, Petra, and April!) Granted, I fully expect Berna to need a while to fully settle in so this kind of thing wouldn't surprise me too much. But, we never went through it with our grey, Castle, so I'm pretty unfamiliar with practicing alone training, though I get the basic idea. I know I have to teach on campus for a few hours a couple days after she comes home from JFK but I could ask my DH to stay with her during that time if that's too soon to leave her and Castle on their own.

 

Just curious: for those of you with confident dogs in the house, do you find that it helps prevent SA or stress in a new, less secure dog? I practiced leaving Castle alone on the first day and while he'd look out the window for 10 seconds, he'd lay back down and go to sleep almost immediately. He's a pretty comfortable dude so I'm hoping that he will help Berna to adjust when we get her.

 

 

Yes Katie, you will have to do some alone training with Berna.

Having Castle there will help a lot.

 

Give me a call one of these days and we can talk it through.

 

[Guest DeniseL]

Just curious: for those of you with confident dogs in the house, do you find that it helps prevent SA or stress in a new, less secure dog? I practiced leaving Castle alone on the first day and while he'd look out the window for 10 seconds, he'd lay back down and go to sleep almost immediately. He's a pretty comfortable dude so I'm hoping that he will help Berna to adjust when we get her.

 

Hi Katie!!!

 

I'm sure having Castle there will help a lot. I'm sure Izzy was more comfortable with two other hounds home, both of which have no SA and usually are sleeping when I leave the house. To be honest, I have never left Izzy completely alone since she came to live with us. I am not really sure how that would go...I would imagine I would need to do real alone alone training.

[robinw]

Everybody, just relax!

[kathleenmaeve]

Haha, thanks guys- we new adopters sound more anxious than the hounds are! Petra, I'll give you a call sometime in the next week or so. I'm not super worried about it; was mostly just curious if others had experience with a confident reisdent dog helping a newbie to adjust quicker. We've been lucky that Castle's been so unflappable (aren't the first ones always easy?!) Plus, Berna could be confident as well; all I know is that she gets along with everyone and doesn't eat kitties, lol! Very exciting times

[kudzu]

Already had my anxious, SA prone, dog when I brought in a confident dog. He was the best gift I could have given my poor little bundle of nerves. He was like a security blanket for her.

[Guest DeniseL]

Everybody, just relax!

 

:hehe thanks, Robin

[robinw]

 

:hehe thanks, Robin

I guess I can be a little blunt

[kathleenmaeve]

LOL, shall we form a virtual calming circle?

[robinw]

imagine how much that would scare our chicken dogs?

[galgomum]

 

imagine how much that would scare our chicken dogs?

 

 

 

That would send Cara back up the walls.

Duh, it would send my husband up the walls

[AEB]

Update-

 

We didn't do a ton of training yesterday- just grabbed my keys and went to the door a bunch of times. Today I went out to the garden and DH was with them and Gamo started crying and got Kevin crying too. But eventually they settled. Then I asked DH to come out to the garden with me and help me with something. I gave them their kongs and it took Gamo a while to get interested (he was more concerned with where I was going) but eventually he did and then we left and went outside. I didn't hear any loud howling or loud whining and we were not far from the house. We were there about 5 minutes. DH went back in to little fanfare. It gives me hope. Tonight I will stuff the kongs and freeze them again and I will work on leaving the house for short periods. Hopefully we will continue the progress! Now I just have to get them to ride well together in the car (Gamo snapped at Kevin). The second muzzle arrived today so we can try again in a couple of days.