Bereaved beagle constantly barking!

[Monkeystormborn]

Hi all,

We very sadly lost our gorgeous 7 year old boxer on Sunday - she got out of the house and was hit by a car. We are devastated.

However, we also have a 6 month old beagle, who since Sunday has been barking non-stop, and I mean NON-STOP, every time he's left on his own. This is even if we just go upstairs, or somewhere out of his sight.
He's also just snapped at ds (6) when he went over to take hold of his collar.

I know he must be confused, his mother-figure has been taken away and he is on his own for the first time. I just don't know how to help him best?

What should we do? I'm worried that if the barking continues it will become a habit, so how do we stop it? The only time he stops is if we go into the room, ignoring it makes no difference whatsoever.

Any idea's? We are desperate

[moosemama]

I am so sorry for your loss. We lost a dog in similar circumstances, many, many years ago when she got out of the garden where someone was dog-sitting for us. It's truly heartbreaking.

We lost our old girl a couple of weeks ago and our lurcher started howling at night and if left alone during the day. As you said he's obviously going to be a bit lost and confused and he'll most likely also be picking up on all the emotions his humans are going through as well, but it's important to keep to his normal routine as far as possible and not over fuss or treat him (even though you will naturally want to).

First advice would be to try a DAP collar (you can get them cheaper than that - it's just quick to link to their site). They don't work with all dogs, but it's worth a try.

I found with my boy, although he is older and calmer anyway, that more exercise and training seemed to help. (Essentially a combination of extra physical and mental exercise to wear him out, so that he sleeps better when left alone.)

If you could work on teaching him the 'quiet' command/cue that would help as well.

Could you perhaps invest in a dog/baby-gate so that when you leave the room he is alone, but not completely cut-off? That would be a gentle way to gradually get him used to being alone in whatever room you usually leave him in and once you have taught him to be quiet on cue, you could reward him for being quiet.

The first couple of nights after we lost oldgirl, dh slept on the sofa in the living room with the kitchen door open, but the dog/baby-gate shut and that seemed to reassure him, without actually having to reward him with attention, iyswim. Dh then came back to bed, but we set up a baby monitor in our room so that lurcherboy could still hear us and feel reassured that we are there. It's now been just a little over two weeks and he doesn't need the monitor anymore.