Separation Anxiety

[shelldockley]

We left FDog for the longest we've ever left him yesterday-3pm -6pm and I'm so worried that he was stressed because once we got home, and after a short walk, he was zonked all night, didn't even get up to eat his dinner DH is home with him all day and we tried to ease him into being left by starting with 10 mins and working up, we've filmed him a few times and whist he's very good and quiet, he doesn't rest, his ears are constantly pricked and he's up and down to the door the whole time, poor baby ð??¢

[shelldockley]

Meant to add, has anyone got any tips? We've tried easing him in as I said, tried leaving the radio or TV on but that doesn't seem to help. We don't know what he's been through before he came to us and I just want him to feel safe

[moosemama]

If he's quiet and not destructive he's managing to cope, but like you say, if he's pacing and on high-alert the whole time he's obviously not relaxing.

You could try a DAP diffuser or collar.

Also some treat toys, like a treat dispensing ball or stuffed kong might help keep him distracted. One of mine has quite severe separation anxiety but he manages to stay focussed on a frozen kong (stuffed with his usual kibble mixed with a tin of sardines in tomato sauce) for about 40 minutes, longer if it's been frozen for an extended period. We also use a Kong Wobbler, kibble/treat dispensing ball and Buster Cube to keep him busy.

Another good thing to do is to teach him to settle himself. You can do this by buying a new mat or blanket and teaching him the 'settle' cue. Some advice on how to do this here. This is a really useful thing to teach anyway, as it means you can get them to lie quietly and be calm wherever you are at any time.

The most successful thing we've done for getting our anxious boy to relax when we're out happened purely by accident. We bought a vintage caravan and have been busy doing it up on the drive. We started off leaving the front windows open with the dogs in the kitchen behind the dog gate and regularly sticking our head in the window to remind them to settle. Then one day the weather wasn't great and we didn't open the windows, but found the dogs were so used to us being outside they actually just stayed snoozing on their beds. I now take a coffee and my laptop and go and sit in the caravan and mnet for an hour every day (great excuse to mnet without feeling guilty) using a baby monitor to check whether or not they're being noisy and so far they've been great, so I'm gradually increasing the amount of time they're left. You could do something similar by sitting in your car and reading.

[shelldockley]

Thanks very much, just reading through that link. He's not very food orientated so I haven't tried the stuffed kong, but I think it might be worth a go with the right kind of stuffing. We do have an adaptil diffuser which we used when we first got him, I don't want to have to rely on it though, so the training in that link sounds like just the thing. I might even try him with a stuffed toy rather than a blanket but I'll read through first.