Separation Anxiety And Adding A Second Grey

[Guest FritoBandito]

My wife and I adopted Frito a lovely 7 year old grey in July of 2017, he was previously in another home for 4 years but became depressed and anxious when his companion dog passed away. He is the sweetest boy who loves everyone and every dog he has ever met and got comfortable with us very quickly. He was perfectly content being left alone during the day while we were at work and we worked alone training and clicker training to build his confidence and trust with us. In mid October he started displaying classic signs of SA, urinating/defecating in the house, panting, barking, etc while we were gone. He also started statueing on walks when before he was perfect on leash walking twice a day for 30 minutes. Now we can barely get him outside without getting stuck somewhere, having my wife pick us up in the car, etc. He has been on Prozac for 5 weeks and we have been working with a behaviorist on the in home SA while trying to avoid walks that trigger freezing while we wait for it to reach full effect for him. We have resorted to potty pads in the home to try and contain the accidents as best we can.

We have friends who live nearby who have a 5 year old lab mix (Kerri) that we have dog sat for in the past. Two weeks ago they were out of town for a weekend and we watched their dog in home with Frito. Frito is much calmer and more confident (less accidents in the house, able to go on walks) when Kerri is over and we are now considering a second dog as a companion for him.

We went out of town over Christmas and brought Frito with us hoping some time away from our building might break some of his patterns but the statuing seems to actually have gotten worse since we were gone.

Our rescue group has a 5 year old brood mom that we have on hold and are looking to have them meet this weekend. I know there are some that have had success with a second dog and some that have not. Just looking for input especially because i have seen posts about Brood moms working wonders with dogs with SA.

Also attached is a photo of Frito at Christmas!

 

[Remolacha]

Brood moms are excellent companions for nervous/SA dogs. They are generally calm, confident, and unflapable. Good luck!

[spottydog]

Our Oakley has noise phobia related to big trucks, garbage pickup etc. She is on 20mg of prozac, it took months to kick in, but she is much better. In your situation Frito might also benefit from the addition of a stable Broody! Good luck!

[greysmom]

A brood Mom is a good bet, but you literally won't know until you try it if it will help him succeed. Make sure you feel that their personalities will mesh otherwise - which shouldn't be an issue with a broody. They are generally calm and adaptable.

 

Good luck!

[Roo]

Did you get Frito from PRH? He seems familiar! We do have a couple brood mamas at the moment, so thought I'd ask!

 

Typically, a second grey will help with SA. Sometimes the SA is about being away from his humans and not because he's all alone, but you won't know that for sure until you try bringing another grey in.

[Guest FritoBandito]

Did you get Frito from PRH? He seems familiar! We do have a couple brood mamas at the moment, so thought I'd ask!

 

Typically, a second grey will help with SA. Sometimes the SA is about being away from his humans and not because he's all alone, but you won't know that for sure until you try bringing another grey in.

 

Yes we did get him from PRH and we are coming to meet Sprocket on Saturday!

 

Thanks everyone else for the input on the issue, hoping they are a good match personality wise!

[claudiav]

Just curious why they placed a pup who got depressed after losing his companion, into an only-dog household... i would have thought they'd place him in a two-or-more-dog household...

[Roo]

I love Sprocket! She's a fun girl. I'll actually be volunteering on Saturday, so I'll probably see you and Frito there!

[Guest Reddebz]

I hope it works well for you too. Can someone explain what a brood dog is?

[Roo]

I hope it works well for you too. Can someone explain what a brood dog is?

 

A brood is a female who has had puppies - typically they're a little older when they're up for adoption (anywhere from 5-9 usually) and have really special personalities!

[EllenEveBaz]

<< really special personalities>> aka bossy

[greysmom]

So how did the meeting go???

[Roo]

<< really special personalities>> aka bossy

Definitely - and mine's a drama queen! Gives me GSODs regularly for very minor things.

[Guest FritoBandito]

So how did the meeting go???

 

It went great and Roz (think Frasier) formerly Sprocket is now home with us! She is quite the explorer and we are very happy to have her! Definitely can tell she has quite the bossy attitude already.

 

[robinw]

Congrats to all!

[greysmom]

How are things going with Frito now??

[Remolacha]

:yay

[Guest FritoBandito]

How are things going with Frito now??

Things have been going really well for Frito and Roz! Less issues getting stuck outside although it does happen at one very specific location so we are trying to avoid that as best we can. Monday was their first big trial being alone, we kept Roz in her kennel as she is still a bit too curious around the house and we were gone for about 3 hours, no accidents and Frito seemed relatively calm on our doggie camera. Hoping this is a trend that will continue, i will be working from home Tuesday and Wednesday and will do some short duration alone training and Thursday we will see how they do with 2 4 hour sessions while we are at work.

 

I do have one question, Roz loves climbing all over Frito when he is laying on the bed in our living room and last night she got on his bed with him in our room. This made us a bit nervous and we weren't sure if Roz was being affectionate or if she was trying to take his bed from him. They seemed fine for about 20 minutes but we couldn't sleep feeling like a fight might break out in the middle of the night so we got her off his bed and onto hers with a treat and they stayed in their separate spaces all night. Should we be concerned about keeping them separate at night at least for a while or is this pretty normal behavior?

[greysmom]

Lots of greyhounds like snuggling together, so I think it may depend on how Frito reacts. If he's fine with it, it may be comforting to him (and to her being in a new place). It's something to monitor closely, but you also may want to let them sort things out a bit. What you did - letting them stay together for a while and then moving her off to her bed - sounds like it worked fine.

 

As far as the freezing spot on walks, take along a *really yummy* bunch of small treats and see if you can lure him through the spot. Get his attention before you get to the "spot" and keep his attention with the treats by feeding him small bits as you walk forward. The treats need to be the best thing ever to him - something smelly and very tasty like broasted chicken, dried/cooked liver, cheese, etc.,.