Puppy Separation Anxiety Poll
I have consulted with a lot of dog people and my vet throughout this whole process over the last three and a half weeks. And while we weren't always sure what the issue was we have tried everything. For those of you who know me, I am very thorough and will follow instructions diligently in order to succeed. It is hard to come home every day to a distraught puppy, clean up a crate of mucus or pee and frequently have to bathe the puppy. In other words it is getting to me. He is such a wonderful puppy in every other regard and it breaks my heart to see him struggling. I have received LOTS of advice but I am looking for a light at the end of the tunnel if there is one. I have experience with separation anxiety in dogs but not such a young puppy. I would like to know what to expect or address this situation soon if it will be a long term one. Please answer the poll if you can shed any light on this issue. |
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Ah, poor fellow. I'm sorry I have no pertinent advice. Though you're missing one important option in the poll. MY anxiety being separated from my babies. It's a severe issue I deal with mondays-fridays and it seems to be persisting long past their puppyhood.   |
| Thanks David. Please vote - there IS a category for No if you never had one. That gives me an idea how small or large of a population we are part of. Thanks. |
| hum where to start duffy from day one was the worst i ever saw he fliped over his crate down steps i would come home panting nervous baby. i tryed the sprays .pills everything what worked a little was getting dreamer but you already have harry..to be honest i can only leave duffy about 4 hours a day when i leave i totally ignore him. if i dont leave by 7am he thinks i am home for the day and will howl and jump at the door.. i was lucky i gave up the crate when he was 4 months old he never did damage to anything unless i leave open food around he is now 4 and lucky i work from home and when i do art shows weekends i have a lady who stays at my house all weekend and never leaves.. when i do get home every morning he still goes nuts trying to jump me like mom u were gone too long.. not sure what to say .duffy on the other hand is a great boy i wish he would just relax ........ not sure if i helped but feel your pain |
| i know this might help he was better when i left him in a SAFE gated hallway instead of the crate. |
| Poor Bert and poor you. We did have a puppy with separation anxiety and he did out grow it. I did all the things you're supposed to do, I'm sure you're up on them, so I guess I can't say for sure that he out grew it or the strategies worked but if it was the strategies they took a couple of months to help so I'm more inclined to think time and maturity had an impact. The things that seemed to help most so I still do them were: - A leaving home routine with absolutely no fuss (initially this seemed counter intuitive to me, I would try and not give away the fact that I was leaving) - Use the leaving home routine and go out for very short periods whenever possible. I get ready to go out then leave for a few minutes walk around the block some weekends, annoying! - An extra favorite treat just before I walked out the door, every time I went out. I still do this as a matter of habit. It's very depressing, Tiggy gets soooo happy when I start the leaving home routine, it's like she's shoving me out the door 'cause she can't wait to get rid of me.  - Absolutely no fuss when I got home. I found it easier to have a getting home routine as it reminded me to to love on my dogs straight away. I did stuff like go into my bedroom and get changed, put my bag away. I made it short partly so I could stick to it. I wanted to play with my puppy ASAP. Hopefully as his health improves he'll feel better about being home without you. Could you leave him in a small contained area with Harry to see if that helps or is that just begging for trouble? Good luck!  |
| Mim, I have tried almost everything. AND this is not the first dog I have had with it but the third. Mopsy had it, Harry had it minimally but we were able to overcome it rather quickly and like Tiggy he is practically pushing us out the door so that he can have his Kong. It goes down when we leave, without a word, and comes up when we get back, without a word. But honestly, I would rather him be happy when we are leaving then stressed out. I know he loves me. I also have a variable routine when I come home - either me or Harry going to the bathroom and then me changing clothes. Harry still jumps all over me when I get home but I refuse to let him do that I usually am all business. The problem with Harry is he never gets any memo so he always does what his impulses tell him to do. But that is another dog and another issue - you have all heard that a million times. I was just reading about the leave for short bits and come back this morning so that was on my plan to start this weekend. My other plan was to stick with this new game plan for a while even if it fails initially to see if it calms him down just to have consistency. So here is the current Game Plan for Bert - 1) His crate while we are gone is in the family room where he can see Harry and out into the backyard. It had previously been a plastic one in the kitchen. He is now in a wire one - like his bedtime crate and the ex-pen. It is in the location where he would put himself for a nap in the ex-pen. The divider has been taken out because I think he actually needs it to be as close to the ex-pen size as feasible. Before I took the divider out this morning he was starting to lick his paws. 2) He continues to get the Kong only when we are gone. He likes the Kong but it was not enough to stop him from getting upset. 3) He gets a blanket that smells like me. I was hesitant to give him something soft since he had a towel in the crate at the breeders that he would pee on. He would pee on soft toys when they were in the crate. But a co-worker of my husbands said she would wear a shirt every night and leave that shirt in the crate the next day. So last night I slept with the blanket so it would smell like me. 4) We will continue to walk him in the morning right before he gets locked up. This should help him sleep. Until I know his bladder can go the 8 hours I am at work I will continue to go home mid-day and I will attempt to give him a little activity just so he is a little more tired when I leave. I hope that I can eliminate these mid-day breaks soon as I think it will help with the separation anxiety. I will go 15 minutes later every few days. I will keep up posts so you can see if we are progressing. |
1st morning of the new game plan. Home at 1:00. I did not open the garage door as that is a trigger for him to start yapping. Instead I walked around the house to the back door and found this. He was sound asleep on his new blankie. Dry and calm as can be. When I took him out for his potty he was very sleepy. He got a small drink and then we romped out in the backyard for a little bit. He went willingly to his crate when I put him in. I did go out through the garage and closed the garage door. Then I stood outside and listened for a minute and didn't hear any barking before I left. Keep your fingers and paws crossed for us. |
| progress...... |
 baby steps~~~It looks like in the right direction!!!!! Keep us..(me) posted..please.... |
| Coming home to a dirty and/or wet crate was the norm for me for the first few weeks, maybe a month for my puppies. I expected to have to clean up the puppy and the crate...those little bodies can't hold much. None of mine "liked" going into the crate when we left. Unlike you we couldn't come home at lunch because it was too far, couldn't make it back and forth in time. I don't remember a distraught "puppy". And then we have Garfunkel who was 2.6 yrs when he came to us. The wild man. He was not housebroken. Back up went the crate. It was in my bedroom so I would know if he woke up and needed to go in the middle of the night(I don't remember that happening). I don't remember him being distraught but I did learn not to put anything with him in the crate because it got soaked...along with him. There must have been a problem though because I remember talking to the vet about Simon having free roam of the house and Gar in the crate and his advice was to close the bedroom door because Simon could be teasing Gar. You might note I keep using the work "remember" alot. Its been quite awhile. You last picture showed a sleeping puppy. I expect that after throwing a temper tantrum for a little while and realizing it wasn't going to work he just fell asleep. He will learn, in fact is learning that the crate is where he will be while you are gone. About cleaning up a dirty crate and puppy...yeah get used to it.  |
| I haven't had a puppy with separation anxiety but with my current three--when all were puppies I was working from a home office so the situation is different, from having to leave at a particular time each morning. I just wanted to offer support since I don't really have any advice on this particular situation. Glad he had a good day today--he looks calm and peaceful in his crate. I do have experience with the mucous infection  and will be glad to share my experience with that. Looks like you are making progress--hope the rest of the week goes well. |
Oh Judi, bless your heart. I do know how thorough you are, and can only imagine how frustrated  I don't have any real advice, just here to support you and Bert. Poor little guy. The last posts and pic sounded encouraging, fingers and paws crossed here.  |
SheepieMommy wrote: 1st morning of the new game plan. Home at 1:00. I did not open the garage door as that is a trigger for him to start yapping. Instead I walked around the house to the back door and found this. He was sound asleep on his new blankie. Dry and calm as can be. When I took him out for his potty he was very sleepy. He got a small drink and then we romped out in the backyard for a little bit. He went willingly to his crate when I put him in. I did go out through the garage and closed the garage door. Then I stood outside and listened for a minute and didn't hear any barking before I left. Keep your fingers and paws crossed for us. Yay stick with the plan! As I said either my pup outgrew the anxiety or maybe it took longer than I expected for the strategies to work, (A LOT LONGER). Rastus and Tiggy are habituated to the door knocker, as soon as they hear it they both go crazy, barking, running and jumping. If I come in round the back way all is calm or if a friend calls as they arrive and I let them in before they knock all is calm. If anyone knocks its pandemonium. Rastus tried it on when he first came to live with us. It was Easter so we were home for 5 days with him then went back to work. Our retired neighbours met me at the front gate the first two evenings when I got home from work to worriedly tell me how much howling and crying had happened after I left. (not sure if they were worried about the dog or themselves  )I apologised for the noise, told them he was fine and asked them to ignore him. They looked at me as if I was the biggest, meanest witch on the planet. Now they rave about what quiet dogs I have and go on about how they never hear them. It looks like you're on the right track and maybe his being ill just ramped things up a bit and now he'll have a chance to settle. |
| Fingers crossed that it keeps on improving! He is so cute that it must be hard enough to leave him let alone leave him thinking he is fretting. |
| Day 2 - off of the work day plan because we had an agility & obedience trial. He went to the trial with us and although it is not "legal" to have him there everyone takes their dogs under the radar because this is prime trial socializing so that dogs are used to the sights and sounds. This was his sixth time in the soft crate and he was so good even when we were not there. I was a little worried since I needed to focus on Harry but everyone who was "supposed" to keep an eye out for him trying to get out of his crate said they never once had to correct him. I say supposed because several times when we were ringside there was no one within correction distance. Between our times in the ring, I made a concerted effort to wear Bert out by walking him around. He was a big hit with everyone. We are the only Old English competing in trials in this area and with Harry high drive and enthusiasm he draws "just a little bit" of attention to himself. So they were excited to see Harry's new puppy. When we got home from the trial I thought they would be exhausted but a burst of energy resulted in over 45 minutes of wrestling. I fed them and then put Bert in the crate. When I noticed he had fallen asleep I snuck out to the store. When I returned an hour later he was still groggy and didn't even wake up when the garage door went up. So I was glad that I was able to use the exhaustion to my advantage. |
| Sounds good so far!!! |
| Poor you and poor Bert. Glad things seem to be getting better. All of my sheepdogs have adjusted to my crazy swing shift. They are never on the same routine for very many days in a row. I had someone come and let Teddy out after about 5 hours when I was on day or afternoon shift. Night shift would be no different than if I was home sleeping so crated for the night without letting out. I did this until he was about 6 months old. Then after vacation I stopped and he would be crated for my 8 hour shift with no problem. Thank goodness I wasn't on these god awful 12 hour shifts then or I would have had to have someone come twice a shift for the first several months. Good luck and hope it gets better! Cindy |
| I've never experienced separation anxiety in any of my puppies but except for 2 times I have always had more than 1 dog at the time. I think the pups key onto our "feelings" for the situation. In my case it was housebreaking of 2 littermates I kept. I was SO concerned about getting these 2 puppies housebroken that I think I actually made the situation worse because they were trying so hard & couldn't seem to please me. I finally sat myself down & said "mopping up a kennel isn't the worst thing in the world". I was so fixated on the situation that I wasn't really enjoying the puppies. And it actually was easier for me when it came to cleaning than most because I wasn't dealing with a crate I had to crawl into to clean. I have 5' X 5' chain link kennels. Once I adjusted my thinking & scheduling it was like they were able figure out what I wanted. Your little guy is still adjusting to his new surrounding & not having littermates to play with. I'm sure Harry is fun to play with but it's just not the same as their littermates for some reason. It sounds like you are making some decent headway. I've seen you in action Judi. You do a fantastic job training in performance. Maybe just sit back a bit & realize it is going to take a bit longer than you originally thought. From your updates I see a lot of improvement. |
| Day 5 report. My intentions to leave in small bits over the weekend went out the window with the trials. We had to leave them unexpectedly on Saturday afternoon and while we were out my sister-in-law popped in the front door to drop something off. She thought we were home and called out but only heard Harry bark at her from behind the family room door. I thought that would have messed with Bert but when we got home he had done fine, Today was the first weekday since last Thursday's success. He did very well. I came home in the middle of the day and ran a little late at the end of the day. Both times he was dry - his muzzle, paws, etc. I really think the biggest difference is that he can see Harry. Next week will be a better test because this week we have an all day funeral and the holiday. Thanks everyone for your good thoughts and help. |
| So glad things are going well! |
| Wonderful!!! |
| This was supposed to be our normal week but yesterday I had to take Bert to the doctor so we had an upside down day - short morning and long afternoon. He did fine though. Today I am going to go home at 2:00 for the potty break. I worry so much if I am pushing the limit on his little bladder. He seems to be handling the separation part fine for now. I do think being able to see Harry and outside is making the difference. Back to his bladder, do any of the full time out of the house workers have any idea how old a puppy can be to hold it for a full work day? |
| Fred made it through my work day from 7:00 to 3:00-3:30 by 15-16 weeks. I would still go home at lunch for a break as much as possible but the days I couldn't she was fine. Re: separation anxiety.. Fred doesn't like to be away from me but settles down fine...but I'm a wreck when I need to leave her with someone while I'm at conferences etc.. |
| Leslie, that would roughly be my work day. Bert was 16 weeks on Sunday. Thanks for answering, that helps a lot. |
| How is Bert going? Is he getting used to you leaving? |
Mim wrote: How is Bert going? Is he getting used to you leaving? He is doing really well with his routine. Tim puts him in the crate in the morning and Bert usually goes right in. This morning Tim forgot his phone and went back into get it and there was no squawking. We haven't actually had a full week since we realized what was happening and started the new routine. This was to be our first week. But everyday I come home to a well adjusted puppy instead of the upset mess I was finding. Last night he was ready for bed but I was still in the family room so he put himself to bed in his daytime crate. He went in and laid down with his head on the blankie. I took that as a good sign. If we can get through this week without an incident I might try to leave him all day next week. We try to keep him busy in the morning so he doesn't get much rest and then after we get home he is hardly napping until it is time to go to bed. That is of course what all dogs with working parents do but I didn't expect him to get into that routine so quickly. |
| All good news!!! So glad that things are going well with Bert!!! |
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