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collie with separation anxiety

5 replies

heididrink · 30/05/2014 11:50

Hi can anyone give me some ideas on how to deal with my collie who hates to be separated from me.
This probably stems from the fact that I am at home all day and she is very rarely left alone.
It has now become ridiculous as she is now refusing to sleep alone .
She has always slept in the kitchen but when she was sick we allowed her to sleep in our bedroom.
She bangs continously on the kitchen door from about 3am onwards .
We have tried blocking in her in and placing a chair against the door as a barrier and this worked for a while but not last night.
We have tried allowing her to sleep in our bedroom but she wants to sleep right up against me in our bed. Every time we tell her to get down she will for a short time but then she is on the bed again almost on top of me.
Any iideas ?

OP posts:
moosemama · 30/05/2014 12:45

She needs to be taught the skills for spending time alone, no amount of barricading her in or blocking her access to you is going to work unless she learns the skills she needs to cope. Basically what should help is a programme of desensitisation, starting with giving her something yummy like a stuffed kong or long lasting chew/bone that she will concentrate on and stepping away while she's busy.

If she's as bad as you say, you may need to start off just moving a couple of feet away from her, then very gradually move to the other side of the room, then the doorway, then through the threshold, etc, building up to being able to shut the door with her on the other side.

When you return to her, make sure it's no big deal. Don't specifically ignore her, you can say hi or whatever, just don't make a fuss. Walk in, quietly remove the treat and go about your business - it's useful to have a bag to unpack or put the kettle on or something when you do this.

Then you need to get her used to being the other side of a door to you while you have a cuppa, read a book or watch tv.

It will be slow progress and there will be a bit of two steps forwards, three steps back, but this does work if you keep at it consistently.

I feel your pain. I am home most of the time and have found it very difficult to get my pup used to me not being there for that reason. Having worked up to it, I now make sure he has at least an hour a day in the kitchen with our other dog and me elsewhere in the house and he'll sleep quietly while I do that, but I had to go through all the desensitsation stuff with him to reach this point and I still can't go out for longer than an hour, even after 10 months.

It may help to try a couple of things that are available to reduce stress levels in dogs. There's DAP collars and/or diffusers which mimic the pheromone given off by bitches when they feed their pups and induce the release of stress relieving hormones in the pups. DAP didn't really help with my pup, but he was found abandoned without his mum at less than 24 hours old, so perhaps that's why. What has worked with him is Pet Remedy. We use the spray, rather than the diffuser and it definitely relaxes him. Other options are a Thunder Shirt. Pets at Home sell them and honour the money back guarantee so if it doesn't help it won't cost you anything. You could also look into supplements like Zylkene (a milk derivative that's available via vets or online) that help relax anxious dogs, but these can work out very expensive, so it's worth seeing if you can help her without in the first instance.

If you want to get your head around Separation Anxiety, it's causes and treatments I highly recommend Nicole Wilde's book Don't Leave Me. It really helped me to understand and treat the SA my older boy developed when our other dog died last year.

heididrink · 30/05/2014 13:35

moosemama thank you so much for the advice there is certainly enough for me to try.
She is currently following me about so I will try putting her in a different room for a short time later and work up to longer periods.
many thanks again

OP posts:
moosemama · 30/05/2014 15:35

No problem.

You will need to start off with literally just a few seconds to begin wtih and putting her in a different room straight away may be a step to far, in which case, just try sitting on the other side of the room or something.

Good luck.

heididrink · 31/05/2014 12:40

bought the thundershirt which arrived today. Planning to put it on her later for short periods of time and leaving her.......fingers crossed

OP posts:
moosemama · 31/05/2014 15:23

Get her used to wearing the Thundershirt without leaving her to begin with or she may start to associate the shirt with you leaving.

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