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Bloody separation anxiety!

2 replies

Loafline · 25/05/2015 09:15

I had noticed the dog was bonding more with me, which was a good thing because his recall improved enormously and i was finally able to let him off lead....but its gone too far. He groans and whines if I leave him with dh and the kids but he eventually settles.
On saturday we left him with family, he's previously stayed in their house with us at least 6 times so we thought he'd be ok, maybe he'd moan a bit but eventually settle but he cried all day! They walked him loads, played with him constantly but he would suddenly remember he'd been left and start moaning again.
We're doing a citibreak in Europe this week for 4 days, I'm leaving him in home boarding but i dread to think how he and the woman who is looking after him is going to cope. I had no idea how bad he has become, I often leave him at home for a couple of hours and he always seems very relaxed on my return. I'm really regretting booking the holiday now.

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niqnet1 · 25/05/2015 10:39

Prob a bit too close to your 4 day break to start some separation anxiety training but maybe when you get back it's something you should start working on. One of our dogs was like this with my husband. We started separating him for 5 mins here and there and built him up slowly. He always had a kong or bone initially so he started to learn being away from hubby was also fun. Now he can manage being away from him without treats. He's not 100% settled but getting much better. If you aren't confident enough to work with your dog without professional input, get a behaviourist in to work with you. That's what we did. I was really struggling with his behaviour before we did this x What breed is he?

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Loafline · 25/05/2015 18:40

Thanks niqnet he's a whippet. I wonder whether he also picked up my MIL's anxiety about looking after him....she loves dogs and we were staying with her, but she has a tendency to over fuss and dogs are very perceptive, she had the support of 2 sils and their kids, so she wasn't alone.
We tested hime today by leaving him and dcs with my sil this afternoon for a couple of hours and he was fine.

Bloody pain in the ass dog, I'm going to be worried sick about him.