Sep Anxiety rearing its ugly head again

I need some advice.

My three have always had various issues with being left, improvements have been made, and they are (were) getting better. However, I nipped them out for a wee wee walk (20 mins, they have had an hour already this AM), and then got Alex in his buggy to go up to the Co Op, had to abandon that, as Poppy was howling and Rupert was barking. I could hear them outside the house. I had to go back (one neighbour is elderly, the other works from home)

They had food (scattered kibble and a rawhide each) water, and the sofa. All had been for a wee and poo...nothing changed about my "going out routine" I am going to have to go out, as I have no Blue milk for Alex, but clearly cannot leave them howling!

HELP!

Oh dear... I feel for you too..

Here are some things that worked when Kismet was going through this...

An active enrichment treat... rather than scattered food, I would wrap trats in newspaper shoved in a cardboard box and let her tear it apart to find them. First time you do it make it a game you join in on so they get the idea of hunt the treats and kill the box is fun.

Then I would add a knotted towel with treats tied in the knots, Kismet will spend ages trying to gnaw through and untie the knots...

Treat ball is good too...

Its that activity that means by the time she's finished I'm long gone.

Dap diffuser seemed to help, though a friend said she thinks it caused phantom pregnancy in her bitch, so not always helpful.

Radio left on also good and for your own peace of mind if you have an iphone and a webcam, link them up. Actually really easy to do with this site: http://www.eyespyfx.com/index.php

After warning my neighbours what I was doing, I hooked the webcam up and started leaving different things and leaving Kismet for longer times watching her on the webcam... Found that often she would only howl for a minute or so then settle and after I cracked that period with the boxes or digging treats we stopped that too...


Good luck

heres to good days xxx

PS your inbox is full

I think part of the problem is, I have been home all week (had a miscarriage last week) so I have been home...not in and out as usual.

Its just the howling, tis a new one on me...they dont chew, I worry about leaving lots of items when they are together and unsupervised...Kerrie would beat the living daylights outta the other two!

Big cyber hugs hun...

They're probably upset because your upset... They know you're hurt, they want to be there for you and protect you. They will get over it in time, but for now if it were me, I'd let them howl and apologise to the neighbours. If you tell them your situation they would have to have hearts of stone not to sympathise. Just let them know how long you will be gone for and what times so they know when to expect the howling. If its only an hour or so, they really can't complain.

My neighbours were surprisingly supportive of me when my OH left. They started to look after Kismet for me over the fence.

Do as you are doing, back to basics and training. I always leave Kismet and Pharaoh separated, would not want to risk a fight when I wasn't there. so Kismet gets the garden and Pharaoh gets the house. She's happier alone and they can see each other through the conservatory door

with time and patience the house will settle back to whatever 'normal' is.

There aren't any short cuts, but I think you know that already. Back to the basics, just as you did so successfully with Rupes. It should kick in quicker this time.

My guess is that some of what you are seeing is a side-effect of the sadness that's been in the air since the miscarriage. No matter how you try to hide it, they will sense it .