Separation Anxiety

[WoodRose]

Hi. We are considering adopting a 6mos Springer from a Rescue. We have been told by the Rescue that he was given to them because he was barking and chewing whilst his owners were at work. They have also said that he is quite nervous and hasn't really been socialised.

I have read a bit about curing Separation Anxiety and it seems to involve being confined to the house whilst you gradually get the dog used to being apart from you. A few minutes behind a closed door building up to half an hour before you leave the house without the dog, again only for a few minutes at a time and gradually building this up to longer periods. I am a SAHM but I still need to take the kids to school, do the shopping, ferry kids to after-school activities,etc. Will it be possible for me to cure this dog's separation anxiety? Also, I live in London so have neighbours on either side, so months of barking isn't really an option.

Has anyone had any experience of this? How did you manage? Were you successful? Am I mad for considering this dog?

We rescued a 6 month old lab who was rehomed for this reason. At the time I had a 10 and 8 yr old and a 3 month old baby so had similar issues to you. The first few months were hard I must admit but he became happy in the house very quickly using the method you suggest. It took a lot longer before he would go out in the garden for a wee without someone for company as he had been shut outside for hours in his first home, poor chap.

Because of his early experiences it was like having a 35 kilo (he was very overweight) puppy who jumped up, used his teeth like puppy, was barely house trained and very anxious.

He is now 9, a staid old man, has remained 27 kilos ever since and you would never know what a crap start in life he had. So I would say go for it.

He is not too old to crate train which would save you having your house destroyed when you have to leave him.

Thanks for this Batteryhuman. How did you manage to leave him in the early days without him becoming distressed? Unfortunately, it is only me during the day and I do need to leave the house to shop, take the kids to school,etc. I'm a bit concerned that the conditioning method suggests that you can't leave him alone until he is comfortable with being left.

I must say my hat is off to you coping with all that with a 3 month old. I feel like a complete namby pamby wimp

If you can quickly get him happy in a crate then that would help a lot. The crate becomes a place of safety in itself. Some one told me dogs do not have any great sense of time so once they feel safe the amount of time is not so important.

He adjusted to our home so quickly, it was only a matter of days before I was happy to leave him to do the school run. I took him with me the first week i think. It was really only the going outside on his own that took a long time. The worst was the total lack of training and socialisation - he was so uncontrolled! But like all labs he was highly food motivated and learnt really quickly.