Separation anxiety

[soboredtonight]

I have two dogs.

Both adopted.

Our first dog came and he's been our pet for 3 years. No issues.

Bit of howling when left on the school run but it's calmed itself down over time and now there are no issues. Toilet trained. No anxiety. Good recall etc, bit stubborn sometimes but generally a well
Behaved and well balanced dog.

We decided to get a second dog and adopted him from an advert. Probably my first mistake.

He is the same type of dog as my first one. The Man came with the new dog as he wanted to check out where the new dog was going to be living as he was upset at having to re home him.

He was working away from the month after and wanted to make sure he went to a good home.

Got him castrated At 8 months. He was 7 months when we got him. he was humping our older dog, me, my DH, teddies etc. he was also marking which obv needed to stop.

I am in the house 90% of the time. I am out for the school runs and the occasional run the shops. An hour at most every day.

He is howling and barking as soon as my car is off the drive. Until he hears it back then he stops.

I've tried kong toys, licky mats, talking to him via Alexa- all of this combined worked for our first dog.

I'm 9 months in and he's no better.

I'm so lucky my neighbour is tolerant and out a lot but it can't go on. It's not fair to them, it's not fair my dog is so unhappy.

I don't want to rehome him. I can't I made a commitment to him (the dog) silly as it sounds that this was his home forever. My other dog and him clearly adore each other and he is so loved by all of us. He clearly loves us too.

He is a lovely dog but a proper little nuisance at times.

I can live with him chewing things. (He's destroyed shoes, chewed plugs off the hoover, hairdryer, corner of a cushion etc etc) he has plenty of toys but I have to get this separation anxiety sorted out.

He also doesn't like men. Growls at them if we walk past any when we are out or hides behind me to walk past them then growls when he is a bit away from them.

He has perfect recall. I think he's scared I'm going to run off and leave him so he comes back and always makes sure he can see me.

I have to get this separation anxiety sorted out for everyone's sake and my poor neighbour who shouldn't need to put up with this. I didn't know he was howling and barking until he told me yesterday. I feel terrible about it.

Any tips for me.

I have a dog trainer / behavioural lady coming on Friday but is there anything anyone has tried and it's worked? Anything I can work on with him
Prior to Friday?

Didn't realise that was so long well done if you read it I've waffled on and fucking on there haven't I.

You haven’t waffled on at all! Dog training advice and support on FB have great advice on this. For now don’t leave the dog. Unfortunately the only way to resolve this is to avoid the dog feeling the anxiety separation caused. Unfortunately neutering so early may also not have helped.

If it’s proper separation anxiety you really can’t leave them at all. It will never resolve if you do as it just reinforces how awful being left is for them. If you NEED to leave him rehoming may be kinder

Google Julie Naismith - she’s a separation anxiety expert, has written a couple of excellent books and has a really good Facebook group too. You want to solve the underlying emotion, rather than just the behaviour and her methods - if you can follow them - have excellent results.

Thank you going to have a google now.

I really liked the sound of the lady whom is coming on Friday. We had a good talk about timescales to resolve etc.

I really don't want to have to rehome him because like I say for the 10% I am not at home it seems so drastic.

I am completely committed to keeping him.

If we can't resolve with this trainer I am going to have to explore sending him to residential training which is just so expensive. It's over £1000 for two weeks.

Not even sure if that would make things worse for him in his little mind.

I also think that he may have some mental issues as he digs on the spot repeatedly quite a lot. No idea why he does this either.

It sounds daft but he gives the impression of being quite emotional with his little sad face etc when he knows he's been naughty. I don't shout but you can see in his body language he knows whatever he has done is not good boy behaviour.

He's very scatty and jumpy and gets overexcited even if I just come down the stairs when I've been upstairs. He's allowed upstairs it's just that he's chosen to sit downstairs.

Look at him. So bloody cute but just a bloody nuisance

Where is he left when you leave him?
Do you exercise him beforehand?
Is he crate trained at all?

We are working through separation anxiety.

One thing which I will say is absolutely don't waste your money on residential training for this. I don't see how it will help as there is minimal chance separation anxiety will (1) be fixed in such a short timescale and (2) you'd still have to generalise it to YOU leaving. They might not even care if it's someonelse (e.g. my parents can leave my dog at theirs no problem, but I couldn't do that in my house, or theirs).

The key for separation training for us has been starting small (we're talking getting out of the door, it was a month before we started building up and we started at one second outside the front door). Consistent training 4-5 days a week, sometimes multiple times a day. Not leaving her alone unless we were training.

I was going to say FB Dog Training Advice and Support SA Group as well and also Julie Naismith.

There is a really good behaviourist fairly local to me who specialises in SA and runs 1:1 online programmes. I’ve heard some really good things about her and her SA clients seem to make good progress. Yes Good Dog

I worked through a SA programme with my last dog. He was dumped at birth and then confined due to illness until he was 20 weeks and had a lot of issues, as well as becoming massively overdependent on me. It took almost a year, but we managed to reach a point where he was ok to be left up to two hours, which was enough for our needs.

First thing first though, a full vet check-up and while you are there discuss whether or not they are willing/able to prescribe appropriate anti-anxiety meds if your behaviourist feels they are going to be necessary.

Our 1st dog was like this, we couldn't even go for a wee, he'd almost hyperventilate if he thought I was getting up off the sofa. We took it really slowly and getting up to leaving him to go for a shower was an achievement.

We have a new dog now, he is fine being left for about 3-4 hrs with the new dog. We still have never left him alone (he's 2 yo) he is actually better if we leave the house rather than if he knows we're indoors but not in the room with him.

The trainer told us to not leave him crying or howling at all. Julie Naismith explains it all really well and gives some great things to practice.

So far this week, I have left them for the school run. I've let them have access to our bedroom and they just settle and lie on the bed. I know as I'm watching them on the Alexa.

Quick fix so far but not ideal and I'm looking forward to the lady comin g on Friday.

I will Google Julie Naismith now thank you