Dog suffering separation anxiety

Quin_Dub

Question for you all..

We just got a new dog , a lovely 14 month old Golden Labrador rescue.

She has a great temperament and has settled in to the house really well (we've had her about a month now) with one exception.

She loses the plot if left alone for more that 15-20 minutes - She will starts pulling things down from counter-tops and ripping them up - Just yesterday she chewed the side off a small coffee table!

When you come back to the house she is beside herself with excitement and jumps all over you etc. etc.

Generally there is someone at home all the time ,I work from home ; But obviously there are times when we need to go out for a short while.

I've tried leaving down all her toys , feeding her just before we leave , leaving a radio on etc. She has the full run of the downstairs of the house , so isn't cooped up particularly..

So - Any suggestions on how we get her to stop doing this?

Thanks in advance

tk123

I have GR with separation anxiety too. The best piece of advise I can give you is to get a behaviourist out to the house to assess the situation. If you can record the dog when you're out it'll help a lot too. I've managed to get to one hour (or longer depending on how long the treat lasts! ) of leaving my guy at home and it was a LONG process - starting off with seconds, then minutes and slowly slowly staying out longer. Do you leave anything for her - treats/kongs etc to work on while you're out? If not I'd introduce a kong to her and start off with an easy to get treat and work your way up with difficulty/find out what works best. A frozen/stuffed kong like what's normally recommended by everyone won't last my dog long - a treat jammed down into lasts much much longer. I've had the best results with stuffed hooves (my own stuffing not the pet shop crappy stuffing), long pizzles and long beef scalp. I'd recommend the hooves over the others because they stink lol!

robocode

What do you mean by 'stuff hooves'? I always leave 2 kongs with frozen bananna/carrot/yoghurt in the morning, but he gets through them quick enough!

tk123

Sorry that was a typo - stuffed hooves - http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/dogs/dog_treats_chews/beef/beef_hooves/216868 I stuff them with soaked dry food/wet food and peanut butter. The LOVE them - especially the pup!

aonb

tk123 wrote: »

Sorry that was a typo - stuffed hooves - http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/dogs/dog_treats_chews/beef/beef_hooves/216868 I stuff them with soaked dry food/wet food and peanut butter. The LOVE them - especially the pup!

Oh yuk! the thoughts of hooves but then Im a bit squeemish about most meat products - anyway, do you refill these TK? I assume your dogs dont actually EAT the hoof - as in they are just chewable? Because the zooplus page says:

Please note: This product is not intended for consumption. Please supervise your pet to prevent accidental swallowing of hoof chunks.

so do they go soggy and white like rawhides?
My stupid youngest dog just doesnt 'get' rawhides - doesnt seem to realize that he is supposed to chew them - he walks around with them in his mouth all excited and stressy!!

Sorry, back to the OPs seperation anxiety solutions!

tk123

aonb wrote: »

Oh yuk! the thoughts of hooves but then Im a bit squeemish about most meat products - anyway, do you refill these TK? I assume your dogs dont actually EAT the hoof - as in they are just chewable? Because the zooplus page says:

Please note: This product is not intended for consumption. Please supervise your pet to prevent accidental swallowing of hoof chunks.

so do they go soggy and white like rawhides?
My stupid youngest dog just doesnt 'get' rawhides - doesnt seem to realize that he is supposed to chew them - he walks around with them in his mouth all excited and stressy!!

Sorry, back to the OPs seperation anxiety solutions!

They chew/break it down a good bit and leave a hard bit at the end..so the do eat some of it but no problems so far.

robocode

Those hooves sound great! Are they safe to be left alone with?

denismc

There is a book called "The Dog Listener" by Jan Fennell that we found useful.
Also have a look at Cesar Milans website, some good stuff in there.
http://www.cesarsway.com/

Nody

denismc wrote: »

There is a book called "The Dog Listener" by Jan Fennell that we found useful.
Also have a look at Cesar Milans website, some good stuff in there.
http://www.cesarsway.com/

What ever you decide to do please do not bother with anything from Cesar Milans; he's so clueless on dog behavior (Alpha behaviour, pack theory etc.) that it's scary that he's allowed to be talk about them in public.

cjf

I had same issue with one of mine few years ago I introduced a crate (very slowly) and it was a great success - as you are only gone for short periods it could be ideal. Trick is to make it a great place for relaxing with a few treats. Have his crate going on 5 years now and there is not a scratch on it. It's great piece of mind that he is not stressing when I am out of the house. He runs in himself when he sees me getting ready to leave to wait for his treat :-)

Stheno

Leaving the radio/tv on helped me deal with seperation anxiety in the past.