Separation anxiety...kind of

Hi

Hoping you guys can help me with a problem i have.

I have a 4yr old Golden Retriever (Amber), had her for 3 yrs now. We got her from Battersea Dogs Home and although she is a very nervous dog, i don't think she was abused.

Now, when i go out to the shops, she is fine. I leave the living room door open and she stays on the chair near the door. No barking, no whining, nothing. If i'm gone for an extended period, she will go upstairs, but still....no problems.

When i'm at home, she will follow me around sometimes, but not excessively (i can go upstairs without her following me). I can even close the door with her IN the living room while i answer the door and she's fine.

BUT...if i want her out of the room for some reason (last night, i had a male friend over and without being too explicit, we wanted some alone time)....she whines, scratches at the door and generally manages, in the end, to open the door anyway.

This has happened before. Me and the kids were putting a games table together and shut her out of the room so we had more space. You'd think we were killing her or something!

So what's the problem here? It doesn't seem like separation anxiety to me, just a case of her thinking..."that's my room, i want in"

Any ideas on how to stop this. My night (the first for a long time ) was a bit ruined last night and i need help.

Thanks

Hmm Jelly is exactly the same in that I could leave her whilst I go to work with no problems at all. But when I have a shower or go to the loo she will whinge outside. Luckily for me, she is a jack russell and she can't open most doors. Perhaps you ould try giving her a treat and closing her in rooms so she sees that not following you is a good thing... I don't know if that would work?

Childgates can be more helpful than closed doors sometimes. We don't have children but do have 2 childgates The dogs can look in and don't feel so left out. Some dogs can see being moved out as a sort of punishment and so wonder what is up.

I'd teach/train her to enjoy being outside because it means she gets a long lasting stuffed kong or raw recreational bone. Do this often whilst you are at home, then when you have visitors let her meet and greet, relax a bit normally, then later ask her to move out the room and give long lasting chew/bone as normal.

It will then be something normal and not unpleasant

Hth a bit
Wys
x

With a couple of my dogs they went berserk if I closed the back door at first because they had been shut out for long periods. (I got a dog flap!)
The dog doesn`t know it`s just for a short while. He doesn`t know if you`ll ever return, come to that.
If it`s something that is going to happen regularly ( sorry), maybe you could desensitise the dog to it by shutting the door for a few seconds, then making it longer periods. Giving her a nice place to go to rather than making it a `go away` command would help as well. So maybe train a go to your bed and put a biscuit in it? Then combine it with the door thing?

Maybe get a Kong and fill it with tasty treats. Give it to her for the first few times in the same room as you so she doesn't associate it with being in another room.
And then put her in another room, get her in a sit and pull out a really tasty Kong. Make a big fuss. Give it to her and retreat into the other room.
Worth a go?

As an owner of a dog with true separation anxiety, I would agree with you, this dog is not a candidate.

This sounds very anthropomorphic, but if your dog is a bright, clever girl, which it sounds like she is, it could be that she knows exactly what's going on, and is either anxious to protect you from this "attack", or more likely, is just plain jealous !! With our old boy Hal, he would get terribly jealous if my husband and I started kissing or cuddling ... he would muscle in, and try and separate us. Not to put too fine a point on it, as he slept in our bedroom, normal sexual relations were a tad tricky!!

I think a stair gate type barrier is definitely the answer. Our current dog, Tai, suffers terribly from SA, even when he is in our conservatory and can see us through the lead lighted patio doors! He still frets, scratches the doors and paces. But at the end of the day he can see us, so we make him stay out there whilst we are in our sitting room. He does eventually settle. You could do a similar thing with Amber. Particularly with her being a bitch, this could well be linked with basic drives!! Is she spayed?