Seperation anxiety - HELP ME!!!

Briefly we had a cross terrier for 2 years took a very tough decision and incredibly painful and had him put down in August due his biting of people mainly me... Decided to try again with a choc Labrador recommended by the vet..

However she is 7 months old and has SA as determined by behaviourist... Any advice out there we are doing all the recommended things slowly ( or at least trying to)...

Feel trapped by our beautiful dog everything relives around her , any idea how long it will take to improve ..?? Will it get easier as she grows up. ??

Desperate to get some positive news !!!!

Hello Matty , what do you mean by 'separation anxiety' what behaviour is being exhibited by your dog?

This is a recent thread on a similar topic..

Possible separation anxiety

She cry and barks when I go upstairs. She follows from room to room. She goes outside and barks in garden if we leave her for a few hours say 2 or 3.... We are struggling to leave the house as she scratches at doors and crys and barks when we go out....

..Hi Matty see this previous response...
Possible separation anxiety

Ben had terrible seperation anxiety when he came to us at 13 months and so know how you feel but it can be sorted although it did take us 3 months so dont give up .The first thing we worked on was not allowing him to follow us around in the house and then when that was sorted went on to working with the issue of being left when we went out.

I went to hell and back with Dylan and SA. It was soul destroying for both of us. I hit it with everything I had. Thundershirt, valerian supplement, DAP diffuser, crate training, kongs with treats, interesting toys, walking the legs off him so he was mentally and physically exhausted, and most importantly soo much training I lost the will to live!

It all helped apart from the kongs and toys as he was too distressed to be interested in them. He did show some interest in raw bones though, so I decided the risk of him choking was worth the benefits they brought.

Hes now a year old and we have made it to the other side. It took till he was 6months ish to get to the point he didnt scream and cry and soil himself But he was still anxious and trailed round after me. What actually cured it for good was getting another dog. Even though the behaviourist said it wouldnt help, having an older rock steady bitch in the house has given him confidence, and while he still adores me he can now bear to be downstairs while I'm upstairs etc I dont think it would have helped in the early stages, but once we got to the point that he was ok to be left, the other dog def helped him

So what did the behaviourist recommend?

Crate train, get her busy working and training for her food instead of giving it for free.
Hide her food around the living room and teach her to "find", dogs love this and it uses their brain and nose..
Teach her that being left alone is no big deal. Leave for a few seconds and return (only when she is quiet) and build up the time from there.
Don't make a fuss when you return, just ignore her, it's no big deal.

Many problems that we have with dogs has it's roots in "under stimulation".
Dogs are intelligent creatures and are full of energy, that energy has to go somewhere and if it's not being burnt off with work, training and and play it will go into behaviour problems.

Far to many people have their dog doing nothing to burn energy or break boredom for most of the day and then expect a well balanced dog.
I'm not saying that this is you, I'm just giving a general opinion

Good Luck

The best advice I was ever given was that a dog that is both mentally and physically tired is rarely a problem dog!

Thinking back, when I ramped up the walking and introduced flirt poling etc was about the point that he calmed down enough for the training and other stuff to work

???

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=fli...w=1280&bih=603

I use a horse lunge whip with a rabbit skin on the end of the lash. Dylan absolutely loves it!