Separation Anxiety

[StarrLightning]

Poor gal. Lucky she's now got someone who cares who can help her out! I'd talk to a vet to see if its safe to stop the meds cold turkey or if there needs to be some adjustments to get her off of it, and along with that, just take it slow and do your best to make the world a positive place for her. With many dogs that get bounced around from home to home, it takes that comfort of stability for their true personalities to really shine.

I'm going to call my vet tomorrow or Wednesday to see what our options are because I just found out something today.

I just got her vet records today from the girl that previously had her. Needless to say I'm more than a little ticked. They got her in November and had her on SA meds within 2 weeks of getting her. I REALLY don't think she has SA at all. They didn't even give her enough time to adjust to her new home. People like that should not own animals.

Although I did find out one thing - she's a New Year's Baby - her birthday is 1/1/09.

[Stormi]

Go figure. How nice. Bring an animal into your home and immediately medicate it. Poor girl. I'm hoping it wasn't the vet they brought the dog to that came up with that brilliant plan. She's lucky she found you. And how cool that she's a new years pup!

[StarrLightning]

Poor gal. Lucky she's now got someone who cares who can help her out! I'd talk to a vet to see if its safe to stop the meds cold turkey or if there needs to be some adjustments to get her off of it, and along with that, just take it slow and do your best to make the world a positive place for her. With many dogs that get bounced around from home to home, it takes that comfort of stability for their true personalities to really shine.

I'm going to call my vet tomorrow or Wednesday to see what our options are because I just found out something today.

I just got her vet records today from the girl that previously had her. Needless to say I'm more than a little ticked. They got her in November and had her on SA meds within 2 weeks of getting her. I REALLY don't think she has SA at all. They didn't even give her enough time to adjust to her new home. People like that should not own animals.

Although I did find out one thing - she's a New Year's Baby - her birthday is 1/1/09.

Crap that was supposed to say 1/1/10 - she just turned a year old.

[StarrLightning]

Okay so we got the schedule to wean Little Bit off of Reconcile from the vet. And we started it last Friday and there have been little to no symptoms of SA. Looks like she was just never crate trained properly.

This makes me happy!!!!!! Now to tackle the lack of house training...

[Washu]

I think Ranger might have SA. He used to have "stress poops" when we didn't crate him. Sometimes he'd eat the poop then vomit. Once when he was left alone at a friend's house he broke through a window. We started crating him and he stopped the stress poops. He is crate trained, actually goes in there on his own to sleep, and he takes his chewies in there to work on. Never whines if he's in there, even right before we leave he's quiet, and right after we get in the door he quiets down quickly. He almost chewed a hole in his crate a couple months ago. I put a blanket over the sides and he hasn't chewed since. Recently, we left an ipod touch to record him and he whined the entire 30 minutes, and made sounds I've never heard from him before.

He is 6 years old and for exercise I take him for a 30 min walk a couple times a day, and a game of fetch in the backyard. He's not great at fetch, but he does run after the ball, sometimes picks it up, but never brings it to me. He hates walking when it's rainy or wet out, I'm not sure if I should exercise him anyways, or if it just stresses him out.

I had some questions about the getting ready to leave, then aborting. Should we put him in the crate as part of the "getting ready to leave", then let him out when we abort? My getting ready to leave routine is usually just putting him in his crate, then grabbing my purse. Most of the time I already have shoes on from taking him for a walk. My husband is the one with the predictable routine. I work from home so he doesn't get left to have anxiety very often.

[StarrLightning]

I think Ranger might have SA. He used to have "stress poops" when we didn't crate him. Sometimes he'd eat the poop then vomit. Once when he was left alone at a friend's house he broke through a window. We started crating him and he stopped the stress poops. He is crate trained, actually goes in there on his own to sleep, and he takes his chewies in there to work on. Never whines if he's in there, even right before we leave he's quiet, and right after we get in the door he quiets down quickly. He almost chewed a hole in his crate a couple months ago. I put a blanket over the sides and he hasn't chewed since. Recently, we left an ipod touch to record him and he whined the entire 30 minutes, and made sounds I've never heard from him before.

He is 6 years old and for exercise I take him for a 30 min walk a couple times a day, and a game of fetch in the backyard. He's not great at fetch, but he does run after the ball, sometimes picks it up, but never brings it to me. He hates walking when it's rainy or wet out, I'm not sure if I should exercise him anyways, or if it just stresses him out.

I had some questions about the getting ready to leave, then aborting. Should we put him in the crate as part of the "getting ready to leave", then let him out when we abort? My getting ready to leave routine is usually just putting him in his crate, then grabbing my purse. Most of the time I already have shoes on from taking him for a walk. My husband is the one with the predictable routine. I work from home so he doesn't get left to have anxiety very often.

Sounds like you both have the predictable routine when it comes to leaving him. The aborting part is doing things out of order before or after you crate them - depends on if you are in view of their crate when you are doing things. For instance, sometimes I will grab my keys and bag and then put them down and not grab them again for about 10 minutes - all while the dogs are still uncrated. Sometimes I don't grab anything before crating the dogs. I crate them then grab my stuff and walk out the door. Sometimes after crating I will just drive around the block. I try to make the crating experience as unpredictable as possible for Little Bit so that she cannot have the time to get worked up about us leaving before she is crated.

[AllisonPitbullLvr]

Saw a lecture at the PABA seminar this weekend by Dr. Jaak Panksepp ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaak_Panksepp )

His studies have shown that opioids are actually MUCH more effective against separation distress than the majority of medications we are using.

He has suggested that using very, very small amounts of drugs such as buprenorphine are actually the most effective, scientifically.

Apparently, here in Canada at least, Vetoquinol has come out with a buprenorphine product for separation anxiety. I'm going to look into this more tomorrow at work.

I would like to try it with Obi, who seems to have weeks of calm, and then "relapses" where he destroys his crates.

[nic]

Get the crate games dvd,it helped my anxious pup alot!

[meteoralp45]

this is a really good thread! i crate trained hurley when i got her which worked excellent no problems at all, and i moved back in with my mom a 4 months after i got her and my mom has a fenced in yard with a doggie door for her dogs and i gradually let her out on her own and she had no problems potty wise inside which was great, but days that i worked long hours or gone for long periods of time she gradually destroyed things and one weekend we went on vacation and had a family member come check up on the dogs and take care of them while were gone and she DESTROYED the house. so shes been back in the crate while im at work now, and ive also invested in some kongs which have worked well, but she destroys almost any toy i buy so its hard to get toys durable for her . but heres a picture of what she did on my vacation note this was with the couch moved, it was on the other side of the room and its no light weight couch

[Stormi]

Our trainer had us go through the typical actions for reducing the stress of us leaving the house, but she also had us do scent training for helping our dog build confidence, and for us that has made the biggest difference. The scent training also helps tire her out mentally so she'll relax more when she's stuck inside.

Very awesome. Nosework does wonders for reducing anxiety. What type of scent training did your trainer have you doing?

[StarrLightning]

I had to post an update..... We've had Little Bit now for almost 9 months and tried for the second time to wean her off of her SA meds........ and so far.... so good!!!!!

She goes in her crate no problem, no destructive behavior, nothing.

Also I think that DH's new schedule helps. The dogs are only crated 3 days a week, Mon & Tues if they are crated at all it's only for a few hours tops.

[willyg44]

I'm not sure if this falls into the separation anxiety category, but maybe someone can help without starting a thread. So due to very unfortunate circumstances my fiancee and I have been without our dog for 3 months. He never showed any signs of SA in the past. We were able to leave him home alone out of the crate, never damaged anything, when he was left with others and we left or boarded, we were always told he was great and he went with the other humans perfectly fine. Anyway, he has been with our friends for the 3 months in another state and my fiancee just picked up today to drive him back to us in our new temporary home.

She said he has been extremely anxious in the car ride (long 15 hour ride). She is driving up with her father, and her father went out of the car to walk him at a rest stop while she stayed in the car. She said he lied down and started crying out like she has never heard, and he wouldn't budge.

I realize he just got used to new humans in those 3 months, and now he's back with us on a long car ride, I would assume it's natural for him to be like what is going on people! But will this go away with time do you think? Again we never had these issues and it's only been less than a day with him, but I don't know if the situation could trigger longer term SA? Or, when he is with us for a while and on a schedule will he return to normal? Thanks in advance! Just a bit worried as he never displayed that behavior and I feel bad!

[willyg44]

Well, Leo was quite anxious when he first got here, but with some training he is a lot more comfortable when she leaves. He didn't whine at all today. She left and came back frequently so he could get used to it, and we are on a good schedule. Hopefully he continues to adjust

[petty254]

Very important information, my sister's dog used to have separation anxiety during his first one month after adoption. It took her about three months to get around the problem and train the dog. Thank you the share