My dog has recently developed seperation anxiety. What can I do?
ByPlease help! I adopted my puppy from a rescue about 3 years ago. She had trouble with separation anxiety when I first brought her home. I found out from the rescue that she was abused and abandoned as a puppy. She got over her separation anxiety after a few months. She’s recently started up again. Now when I leave, she starts whining and crying, puts her tail between her legs and begs for attention from my family. I’m not sure what is wrong or what I should do. Any thoughts?
It sounds fairly minor at this point. Try to ignore your dog for the 20 min before you leave and after you come back. That will help her to know that your comings and goings are not something to be excited about or upset about. By ignoring I mean don’t even look at her or touch her, until she has completely calmed down and is no longer whining or agitated. Trust me the dog will calm down and begin to see that they don’t get what they want based on that behavior. This has helped my dog go from a half an hour of panicky barking and whining to a mere 5-10 min, which is an improvement for a dog as severely anxious as he is.
8 Comments
March 9th, 2010 at 8:51 pm
Is she getting plenty of daily exercise?
Also you can try desensitizing her.
Leave & come back several times, lengthening the time in between when you leave & when you return gradually until she gets the idea that you WILL return, reward good behavior, ignore bad behavior.
Never show her affection when she is whining or crying for your attention. Her past has nothing to do with it, dogs do not dwell on the past or future, they live in the moment.
References :
March 9th, 2010 at 9:35 pm
This can be really hard to deal with, you probably feel so guilty leaving as I did with my dog. My puppy was abandoned as well, and came home with this problem. Here is what I recommend:
- NEVER make a big fuss over leaving OR coming home (no long goodbyes, no excitement when coming home) This means no touch, no talk, no eye contact at least while you are treating this behavior. I know this is hard because you want to make her feel better, but it just makes the situation worse. when she gets better, light affection can be given upon arriving home only if she is calm.
- Boredom can be a big contributer to separation anxiety. A bored dog destroys things, barks, whines, etc. What I do is I leave both of my dogs something to do, at least as I am walking out of the door that will last them 5-10 minutes so they actually view me leaving as a good thing so to speak. You can buy fillable bones or Kongs. I fill them with either peanut butter (small amounts), canned dog food, treats, etc. Be careful not to choose anything she can choke on though (rawhide)
- Exercise. Before I leave for the day, my dogs get walked for at least 25 minutes, sometimes an hour. I know this can be hard to fit in, but being cooped up in the house all day, I would have anxiety too. Besides, this will make her tired and she will just sleep while you are gone.
References :
March 9th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
It sounds fairly minor at this point. Try to ignore your dog for the 20 min before you leave and after you come back. That will help her to know that your comings and goings are not something to be excited about or upset about. By ignoring I mean don’t even look at her or touch her, until she has completely calmed down and is no longer whining or agitated. Trust me the dog will calm down and begin to see that they don’t get what they want based on that behavior. This has helped my dog go from a half an hour of panicky barking and whining to a mere 5-10 min, which is an improvement for a dog as severely anxious as he is.
References :
March 9th, 2010 at 10:41 pm
My opinion is, make sure she has lots of toys around so she has someway to occupy herself and if this doesn’t help, maybe you should consider bring her home a playmate to keep her company. That is often the best thing to do… Just, make sure the playmate doesn’t have the same problem or else it could prove disastrous.
References :
March 9th, 2010 at 11:02 pm
My puppy had the same problem, before you desensitize her. Make sure you are giving her a lot of exercise so she can stimulate her mind, if a dog doesn’t get enough exercise, they’ll develop behavior problems. Just make sure you are also portraying yourself as her leader not her mom that babies her, so she can trust you as well.
References :
raised my puppy
March 9th, 2010 at 11:12 pm
I would actually be sure to ignore that behaviour in her and not reinforce it by giving any attention - that includes eye contact. Make sure the whole family deal with her in the same way so its consistent and everyone remains calm so she is aware that you are not worried. You dont want the dog to think that this behaviour will keep you there or that it will encourage attention from anyone.
Make sure she has a good 30 min power walk or an hours walk before leaving her and dont have playtime just before you go - then she really wont want to part….save that for later.
I would also think about crate training as that can give them the ’safe place’ feeling when you are gone and help them feel more secure. If its only mild then leave her with a stuffed frozen kong in her crate to give her something to chew (release anxiety) and work on (getting the food out gives her something to ‘think’ about other than you while you are gone) however if its severe then I wouldnt do that as toys can add excitement and also any severe issue a dog has they will quickly start associating it with things so the kong means bad things, you understand? (if not just email and I will explain) If its severe there is a lot more training needs to be done by gradually leaving them longer and longer rewarding calm……starting off just stand behind door then back to her reward, then close the door, return and reward calm………eventually to you leaving her.
References :
March 9th, 2010 at 11:59 pm
my dog was like that for 14yrs she would eat everything when i was gone blinds, couch, carpet wood trimming on the door she even ate the inside of my car! Just give her lots of excersise especially before you leave
References :
March 10th, 2010 at 12:37 am
Dog Separation Anxiety is an enormous problem to an estimated 10% of all puppies and older dogs. Somewhat ironically, it is the major cause for dogs ending up in animal shelters. I wish I could say dog separation anxiety is an easy fix, but the truth is it can be a very difficult and time consuming problem to turn around.
Here’s more details, http://short.to/199q4
References :