Dog Has Separation Anxiety?

[Greenday]

So I got a dog Dec 19th. My wife was home on winter vacation from school so all week, someone was home with her. We tried to crate train her, but she'd freak the hell out just getting her anywhere near the crate. First time we left her alone in the crate for maybe an hour, she escaped. At night, I'd work on the crate with her, having her go in for super short periods while I was around so it wasn't like we were abandoning her but it wasn't working and finally she crapped all over it. Being 2 years old, I wonder if her previous owner used to use it as punishment. It's true fear of it.

My wife and I went on vacation for the week after Christmas and my mom watched my dog while we were gone. Constantly peed in her house, despite ample opportunities to go outside, peed with my mom in the house, chewing stuff up. Stuff she didn't do in the apartment and my mom was home like 99% of the time. When we got back, some of it kept up. She chews stuff (she chewed up the windowsill at the front door, coasters, destroyed the blinds at the front door). Past two days she hasn't chewed anything besides the windowsill and I got bitter apple for that.

Two weeks ago, I got a phone call at work letting me know my dog barked. No real details other than my kitchen window was open, the leasing office was showing off a model apartment, and my dog saw them and barked. Also, my neighbor mentioned she's barked. No other details.

Just got an email today saying my neighbor complained that she hasn't been able to sleep due to barking. She's clearly talking about during the day because I'm home after 5pm and home until 7:30am and she's barked ONCE between those hours in the past two weeks. The leasing office has no info on what times this is happening. I replied saying I need more details than she just barked to figure out the problem. If it's separation anxiety, I expect constant whining. If it's her seeing someone from the window and barking every now and then, I honestly don't give a crap.

I went to Pet Smart to enroll her in behavior classes and stopped at Target to grab a few things. I was gone for an hour. I left my laptop's webcam running the whole time. While I wouldn't be able to see anything, I'd be able to hear barking and crying. First 45 minutes, not a peep other than her walking around. Then all of a sudden a small cry, followed by 10 seconds of silence, some more crying which gets louder and eventually a mix of whining and barking. That went on for the final 15 minutes. I'd be pissed too if I had to listen to that. It wasn't the sound of barking at strangers. This was definitely crying. I don't know how long it would have lasted if I didn't come home.

Usually during the week I go to work at 7:30am, get home around 11:45am, walk her, go back to work around 12:15pm, and try to get home no later than 5:30. Most days I was home by 5:15.

I'm just trying not to freak out and it's hard. My wife is finishing school in a state 6-7 hours away. It's just me. I only have my income and I can't afford doggy daycare. I have no help with bills so things are tight. I have a high pressure job. I'm stuck asking my friend's wife to walk the dog on days where I have meetings during my lunch hour. I don't have time to be constantly working on training her all day every day. I don't want to piss off my neighbor, I need my apartment, and I don't want to return my dog back to the shelter I volunteer with. I just feel like it's all beyond my control and I'm fucked.

[dendawg]

My suggestion is trying to find a trainer with a specialty in behavior.

[Greenday]

My suggestion is trying to find a trainer with a specialty in behavior.

That'd be the woman at Pet Smart. She's at the point she trains other people on how to train dogs as a professional.

[Aragarthiel]

Hold onto the papers showing her enrollment in the class. If the landlord comes after you about the barking and you can prove that it's an issue you're working on, there's not much that can be done against you. The neighbor will just have to put up with it for now, and actually might appreciate it if you go over there and tell her "Hey, I'm sorry about the dog barking, but she's enrolled in training classes. If you could bear with us while we work through this issue, that would be great."

[Greenday]

Yea, I already notified the leasing office of the classes. Wanted to maker sure they know I care and am trying to do something about it.

[lvsssycat]

How about having your vet put your dog on an antidepresent? I was having behavior issues with one of my cats and within a week on the drug, she stopped the behavior and is happier. The drug is not expensive. Good luck!:wave

I also got her a calming collar. It has pheromes and lavender infused into it. Can be purchased at pet stores.:

[Seshat]

Our dog will bark a notification bark (even if home alone) when she sees/hears people within 'her' territory. Unfortunately, 'her' territory extends beyond our property line. Since we 'own' our home, a high, opaque fence reduces the problem, as do opaque curtains.

We don't personally have a separation anxiety problem, but I have had some luck distracting Vi from misbehaviour with puzzle toys. The cheapest sort we use is to put some of her daily ration inside toilet roll cores (the cardboard tube the roll gets wrapped around) and squinching the ends together.

There are also MANY puzzle toys which can be bought; but I suspect your behaviour specialist may already own some that get shared (and washed!) among the dogs she trains. If so, try asking her to help experiment with the toys and find out which ones your particular pup enjoys.

Or since you volunteer at a shelter, again, you may be able to experiment with toys there. Purchased toys that your pup doesn't play with would be appreciated at the shelter, but that's an expensive way to find ideas.


As for the crate, pick a t-shirt or two, or other things you don't mind getting pet-hair all over. Wear the shirt while doing something that'll make you all sweaty. Put the unwashed shirt in the crate, along with some treat food. (Dry treat food, it might be there for days at first.)

The smell of Pack, plus the presence of Food, might help the pup overcome the fear of the crate. At first, pay no (apparent) attention to whether or not the dog is in the crate. Don't praise. Don't reward. Don't even noticeably look in that direction.

When adding more treat food, or replacing a too-smelly shirt with another sweated-in old shirt, do so when the pup isn't in the room.

Eventually, pup might start to feel comfortable in the crate, choosing to be in it. If that starts to happen, you can start looking approvingly at him, and using your reward voice, when he's there.

If he continues to relax, start sitting some distance from the crate and doing something normal, just being in the same room. If he leaves the crate calmly and comes to you for attention, behave as you normally would - presumably loving him and rubbing his ears or whatever.

Eventually, you can sit at 'conversation' distance from the crate and offer to give him attention; but let him be the one who chooses to come out of the crate. Ideally, it's 'his' personal territory, and thus you shouldn't 'intrude'.


Naturally, any of this advice is amateur. If your professional disagrees with me, give their ideas greater weight.

[jedimaster91]

The training is a fantastic idea. Just be sure it's all positive reinforcement and absolutely no punishment based training; that will just make things worse. Positive reinforcement training will help build the bond between you and your dog, which will help her feel more secure and less anxious when you leave. I'd also recommend giving her something to do while you're gone. Stuffed Kongs are the standard go-to and the internet has tons of recipes. Stick it in the freezer overnight and it will last twice as long. If the Kong's not her thing, there are a gajillion intelligence toys on the market. I wouldn't leave her with alone with anything she can chew up, though. Bitter Apple didn't work for me (my dogs think it's a tasty condiment), but since yours likes to chew, make sure she has stuff she's allowed to chew on like a NylaBone. Nature abhors a vacuum, after all, so snuffing out one behavior may cause the stress to manifest in another way. Instead of telling her what not to do, teacher her something to do instead. No, you can't chew up the baseboards, but here's a squeaky toy.

It may not be too late to crate train her either. If you want to try it, start feeding her in the crate. Set the bowl just inside to start and gradually move it farther in as she gets more comfortable. You can also toss really yummy treats in there and her reward for going in the crate is more treats. I trained one of mine that way and she was loving the crate within the afternoon. Now I can't get her out of it sometimes, lol. Be warned, though, that some dogs can overcome their denning instinct if they've gotten used to pottying in a crate. It happens a lot with shelter dogs that may not get let out as often as they need. If that's the case, you can try an exercise pen or get a baby gate and barricade her in one room (like the kitchen or bathroom). Don't put her behind a closed door; that makes it worse too. And be sure you have the right cleaners for any potty accidents in the house. The cleaner should be enzyme based to ensure you're cleaning up the proteins in pet waste. Dogs can still smell them even when we can't. But until she's housetrained reliably, she does not get run of the house. She either goes in the crate or her exercise pen when someone can't have eyes on her. Put her on a potty schedule and take her (on leash) to the same place in the yard every time. Once she potties, she can play or come back inside, whatever makes her happy.

I did volunteer dog training at the humane society for a couple years and learned a lot. Feel free to PM me if you want. I'm not gonna lie, you're likely in for a long road. Separation anxiety is a tough problem to deal with, but it can be done. Reward based training is really fun once you get the hang of it and you will be amazed what your dog can do. Good luck.

[Barracuda]

Several ideas that can work. One is to fill a dog plug chew toy (like a Kong) with peanut butter and leave it. The dog will become focused on the treat and since it's not easy to get out of the toy it will distract the dog for some time.

Another is to buy a bark stopper. There are both collars and stand alone devices that respond to barking with either a high pitched noise humans can't hear (and dogs don't like), an electric shock, or the release of a scented spray that dogs can't stand (it's almost undetectable to humans.) This will train the dog not to bark as there will be negative reinforcement when they do, and they have adjustable sensitivity in a lot of cases so the dog can bark occasionally without punishment as long as they don't keep barking. As to the peeing....that's a tough one. Don't have answers for that.

[Seshat]

Peeing: get an absorbant surface she's allowed to pee on. (Towelling with waterproof backing, maybe. Cat litter in a large tray. Whatever.)
Get something that TOTALLY cleans up pee - "Urine Free" works for us.

When he pees, mop up the surface pee with the absorbant substance, and put the soiled thing in the proper place where he is allowed to pee.
Thoroughly sop up remaining pee with an old towel (stomp all over it to get as much as possible into the towel), then clean the area with the urine-cleaner.
Sodden towels and reusable pee-surfaces can be cleaned with the urine cleaner as a pre-soak or pre-wash, then normal cleaning.

This will either teach him the surface he's allowed to pee on, or the place he's allowed to pee. Some dogs, column A. Some, column B. Some a bit of both.

This does mean that if he's allowed to pee on towelling and you leave towelling on the floor in the wrong place, he's doing the right thing peeing on the towelling!
Likewise, if you teach him he's allowed to pee in this corner of the laundry room and you forget to lay down his pee-pad and he pees there, he's doing the right thing.
Changing what's "right" is likely to take time, patience, and a repeat of the pee-training process. But it'll be faster the second time.

[DataHound]

I'd definitely recommend calling around to find a veterinarian who treats animals with behavioral problems. One of the veterinarians at the largest clinic I work at is specialized in behavior (among other things). A veterinarian will be able to help you work with changing the behaviors and can also rule out potential health issues causing the behavior and prescribe medication to facilitate the process. Animal trainers are great and definitely no disrespect to them but most trainers only deal with obedience training. It sounds to me like it's the anxiety causing the bad behavior, not so much a lack of training so I'm not sure how much good a trainer would do.

Keep in mind, changing dog behavior can be a long and tedious process. Consistency is key, so hang in there, work with your pup as often as you can, and don't give up! It may take a while, but you both will get there.

[Greenday]

Did a few things which I think has helped a lot. I began crating her at night, but in my bedroom. This way she gets used to her crate but doesn't feel alone every time she's in it. She chews stuff up too much to be trusted outside the crate when I'm out. Within a week, things drastically improved. I put a blanket in there and her two favorite toys which she only gets to play with IN the crate.

We also started lessons last week. She needs the socialization because she is rude (Though my friend in the rescue says she thinks she's just trying to protect us which gives me some ideas). We learned "Sit" and "Look at me". She does great at home. Responds well to the clicker. I was hoping it'd work well on walks so she could ignore distractions but they are just too tempting for her.

[Seshat]

Spend some time in the middle of walks practicing 'Sit' and 'Look at me'. Especially if you can bring treats on the walks; and she gets a clicker reward followed by a treat!

Wait until there's a not-distracting portion of the walk, do some practice. Walk a bit further. Do some practice. Make sure it's randomly over the course of the walk.

Sometimes a dog can get the idea that a command only applies under certain conditions (inside the house, or in the house/yard area, or at behaviour classes). Performing the command in all places the dog goes will shake that idea.


That said, some dogs are more exciteable than others. It takes a LOT of effort on the part of her humans to get Vi to sit when something distracting is occurring.
If it's potentially dangerous as well as distracting, we just pick her up. Much easier, and she has learned that when she's picked up on a walk, she is supposed to behave. I don't know what size your dog will be when she's adult, but if she's a small or toy, consider that as an option.


With regard to protecting you: Vi protects the house by alerting us. We figured that out! So we're controlling her alert-barking behaviour with both her 'stop barking' command, and a 'thank you girl, I'll handle it' in a reassuring sort of tone. Usually done while we're walking to the front door. It helps; it's not perfect yet, but it definitely seems to help. She stops once she's convinced one of us is handling a situation.

[jedimaster91]

We learned "Sit" and "Look at me". She does great at home. Responds well to the clicker. I was hoping it'd work well on walks so she could ignore distractions but they are just too tempting for her.

It's a bit too soon to try that on a walk. Dogs don't generalize well (unless it's something bad), so what they do really well in the kitchen, they completely forget when you move to the living room. Seriously. So work her in different rooms of your apartment, then venture just outside or somewhere else where she's been there, smelled that. Once she gets good there, you're ready to try it on a walk. Though, if she can do it well in the class at PetSmart (with who knows how many other dogs, people, toys, etc), that's really good.

One of the most common questions we get in class is how long do I have to carry a clicker and treats with me? The answer is it depends. For high distraction areas (like a walk for instance), I personally always carry treats. You never know when you will need to get her attention away from something else by waving a hot dog in front of her nose. Also, she's a beagle, right? They live to follow that cute little nose wherever it takes them. Give her some opportunities to sniff things on your walk. I heard a trainer call it "pee mail." A straight line march next to their hoomin is insanely boring for a dog, so give her the chance to sniff around for a few minutes as a reward for walking nicely with you.