Separation Anxiety

[Guest BorzoiMom]

I voted "Yes, it started within one month after adoption". I adopted him at the begining of vacation and spent the entire week in the house (had no place to go and no money after adopting, lol). Next week went to work as usual, a walk in the morning (15 min lap around the pond), dogpark after work, walk at 9 pm. Next week his neuter site opened and needed to be stapled, so no dogpark. His after work and 9 pm walk extended to 3 laps of the pond. He had been baby gated in the kitchen without a problem until that point. Two days after staples he jumpped the gate and pooped on the carpet (and burried it with junk mail I thought the cat had burried it.) Next day, same thing, but burried it with the toys he hasn't touched. The neighbor commented that he had been crying and carrying on while I was gone. I started leaving the tv on and gave him 2 benadryl before leaving for work and added a walk at 11 pm. He got a little better after that, but pooped one more time (I gave up gateing him as it was pointless at this point. He also opened the cabinet and chewed through a can of tomato soup. After his suture site closed for good we were able to get to the park every day and he has had no more "outbursts". I do still leave the tv on though and gate him out of the kitchen, lol.

[Guest FastDogsOwnMe]

My Whippets have SA, the show breds. No other dogs.

[Guest Eyeblaura]

Knock wood, we have had Enzo with us since early January and he has not had any SA. He is perfectly calm when we leave, watches us out the window and I am assuming sleeps while we are gone. He does meet us at the garage door when we come home and will bark until we open the door but I am pretty sure he is sleeping until he hears the garage door go up because when we open the house door he is stretching and wagging his tail. Our pit bull had awful SA that we dealt with for 13 years, it can be so tiring.

 

didn't realize this thread was so old when I posted.

Edited March 30, 2012 by Eyeblaura

[Jimbuck]

I've been dealing with SA with Freddy now for over 3 months. It has been very exhaustive on both Freddy and myself. While we've made strides in progress, he has regressed here and there making the improvements very hard to recognize. Still seem to be stuck at that 30 minute mark before he goes into a whining/barking fit. Currently a behaviorist has helped with the process but it seems like it really just take time/love and patience......and tons of alone training.

 

I knew the possibility was there with any breed when I began looking into adoption. But I never thought it would consume me the way SA has. It's nice reading stories from others who have really dealt with some serious cases and overcome the anxiety. It gives people like myself hope and strength to keep with it, even when things look grim.

[RedHead]

I was lucky to be off on a months holiday when I adopted Teague. I made sure from the start that he wasn't overly clingy (not hard ) by leaving him be most of the day and gradually left him alone for short periods of time. I run him 2-3 miles every morning before work, and leave him with his breakfast just as I leave. This seems to work out really well. I don't know what I would have done if I only had a weekend or even a week to work on this though.

[jaym1]

i am about to get a second to cure my dog. ive had him for six months. for the past 3 months he hasnt ever been alone for longer than can tolerate, which is fairly short. with 10 mg of fluoxetine per day, he is much better, but still not perfect. today i took the training wheels off for the first time, and left for work, leaving him behind and alone. he did have some barking and whining fits, but was mostly quiet. however, he was very reluctant to rest, and spend much of the time staring at the door. with another dog in the house he falls asleep immediately after i leave and is completely calm.

 

i feel that, given time, he may get better. but as others have said, this issue is more exhausting than anyone can really imagine until theyve experienced it. and my dogs case wasnt even particularly bad.

[GeorgeofNE]

Your poll is missing an important choice, which would be "Yes, he did, but he got over it." I think most do, with the proper conditioning and just TIME.

[Hubcitypam]

Okay so I know this is a really old thread.

and that was 4 years ago....

[Guest kjmom]

max has severe SA.... hes on clomicalm now along with a dap, stuffed kong, rescue remedy, and some of his favorite treats, marrow bones..... its a constant struggle to keep him calm in the crate....

 

 

Kj started in about a month after we got her. She ate her way out of a wire crate and broke a tooth in the process along with eating about 500.00 dollars worth of new window blinds. We had her tooth pulled and left her out of her crate since she destroyed the one she was in. We baby gated her in our den so she has room to move. She is on Soloxine 2x a day and Clomipramine 50mg 2x a day and has been GREAT out of her crate. We bumped up her Clomipramine after about 3 months because she was showing signs of stress she was then taking 100mg 2x a day. She has been on it for a little over a year now and we are backing her off the Clomipramine she is on 50mg 1x a day now and still taking her Soloxine. Our goal by the end of next month is to have her off her Clomipramine completely. We want to see if she is ready to be free of medication ( she has been spitting out her pill ) like she told us she was done with her crate we think she is telling us she is done with her meds. She has been doing great so far with backing her down. Your Max may not want to be in his crate anymore and if you give him some more space he may calm down alittle. Keep him on all the meds treats and everythng else but it may be worth a try to leave the crate door open so he can go in and get out.

 

KJ's routine is I leave the room because I am the one she is the most attached to. My roommate gives her her peanut butter kong and says goodbye and we leave for work at 6 am. we return from work at 4 pm and she is fine. calm but glad to see us and ready to run the yard.

 

Maybe max needs his med adjusted because they do get use to them, maybe he wants out of his crate, maybe he is just going to be one of those dogs who have severe SA and nothing you do will help him calm down. Everyone told me to get another grey which i would love to have but that wold not have helped KJ and her SA. It could have possible given me 2 greys with SA.

[Guest ztirpak]

I thought Case had some separation anxiety when I'd come home to a pile of #2 on the floor or a mess of torn up garbage he was rooting through. I came to realize however that this was 90% my fault. Case needed move his bowels a little more frequently in the morning and if he didn't, he'd make up for it after I left. As for the trash, I simply was giving him too much opportunity to get at it (leaving it on coffee table, not throwing leftovers away, etc). So, my philosophy is that some bad behavior is simply a result of m not paying attention to the cause of the behavior being something I could change I understand, though, that many dogs do have anxiety and that my thought-process may not always apply.

[Guest sirsmom]

Things are much better now at age 4 but the first years were shredding paper towels, toilet paper, bathroom rugs. We couldn't even leave to go to the grocery store nearby without coming home to a mess. And constant barking if left alone in the car for 10 minutes. My advice is just keep leaving them for periods of time (even if there is a mess) so they get used to it.

[Maddiesmom]

Maddie is my resident SA. She is well known for her SA ask anyone about BBH 2007. We have it under control now.

[JohnF]

Peggy was OK for the first few weeks and quite happy with an hour or so; but then someone took a bad fall and had to go to the ER and Peggy was left alone until late evening for the first time.

I came back to this

[Guest mbfilby]

Loki has some SA, he chews. It started right at about one month in our home. No elimination, just nervous energy. His seems to be getting a bit worse and he will chew now if closed out of our bedroom at night. It's nothing major and he is fine crated.