Cocker spaniel suffering from separation anxiety would you get another dog?

[retiringthewineglasses]

Hi, we have a 5 year old Coker spaniel who is great but gets very anxious when left alone. Licking his paws, drooling scratching at the front door and of course barking. He is very attached to my husband and can whimper if anyone else in the house gets near him and he will try to jump in between the person and my husband. My husband is keen to get another dog to help with the anxiety when left alone but I am not sure it will help and I am also concerned at possible jealously issues. Does anyone have any experience with this, does getting a second dog help?

Behaviourist is he's resource guarding DH. It's all anxiety related and another dog may well make it worse. Get professional advice.

NOOO. You could end up with two like this. You need to look at dealing with the issue dog training support and advice on FB have a solution. But you need to stop leaving the dog to get upset.

No. Absolutely not.

Hell no. Your husband is deeply misunderstanding what’s at the heart of the issue. Instead you’re likely to end up with two dogs with issues. As others have said, it’s not just separation anxiety here, it sounds like some serious resource guarding and this has the potential to escalate.

Get professional help and get the problems sorted before even thinking about adding another dog to the house hold.

No! My neighbour's cockerpoo barked and howled constantly when left alone. They got another one - now they have two dogs that bark and howl constantly

Thanks for the replies. This was my concern that he wouldn't accept the new dog or that both of them would howl together. He is only left alone maybe once or twice a month as we work from home or use doggy day care. Even then it's only for 3/4 hours as he gets so upset.

No, absolutely not.

Separation anxiety generally occurs because they are away from you, not because they don't have canine company in the house. You also run the risk of the new dog learning the anxious behaviour of your current dog, and you'll end up with two dogs with the same problem.

I would recommend getting a behaviourist in to deal with the issue as it's very unlikely to improve otherwise. Unfortunately, separation anxiety is very hard to treat and (assuming you do it properly) it can take months if not years to get the dog used to being left. I speak from personal experience with this!

The behaviourist can also help you deal with the issues around the dog guarding or protecting your husband. Make sure whoever you contact is either IMDT or APDT registered. Anyone can call themselves a behaviourist as it's not a protected term unfortunately, so you need to make sure they're trained with the right organisation :)

This is not a resource guarding issue it is a separation anxiety issue.

You have an already fearful dog and adding another dog into the mix could go terribly wrong.

A behaviourist will help you increase your dogs confidence and get them into a better emotional state to be able to benefit from a SA program.

APBC is a good place to start. Do not worry too much about location of the behaviourist as this is an easy issue to get advice with via zoom if necessary.

@retiringthewineglasses that’s too long. A dog with true separation anxiety suffers awfully when left. Think of having a panic attack. They must not be left for longer than they are happy with. At first that may mean not at all. Every time they are left it reinforces the anxiety.
I’ve been there. It’s awful. Cured now. But it did take bloody ages. I used the advice from that FB group.