Help with Seperation Anxiety?(Updated)

Hi guys, were still having a few problems with Roxy and Im not sure what the next step will be now?

Basically when we first started leaving Roxy at about 4months we put her in our bedroom with a kong and various treats hidden, she howled a bit but used to settle down. Then at 6 months she destroyed our room.

So at 8 months we left her the whole house (some of you may remember the posts I put on here about how she was doing) we left the TV on but took out the kong as she had started to assosiate this with us leaving. At the beginning of the week she howled a lot, nothing was chewed or even touched, and by the last day the lady downstairs said she was silent the entire day. I thought we'd cracked it

Then she wasn't left on her own again for a long time until yesterday, I did the shut, wait 5 mins then go back, leave it a bit longer then went back in, then me and my OH went shopping for an hour (she was left with TV on, her bone and the DAP Diffuser plugged in). We came back and the lady downstairs said she was really worried because Roxy didn't let up howling from the moment we drove off.

I dont know what else to do now? OH thinks she'll be fine when we get our next dog but that could be 1-2 years. And I dont want to worry about her whenever I just want to nip down the shop (at the moment I usually end up taking her with me ). Roxy is ten months now. I was considering one of those alarms that emits a high pitched noise when the dog barks, whats people opinions on these? Any help appreciated.

One of the biggest problems with the alarms is that they don't allways work how you want. What if she barks because she percieves some kind of threat outside? She will then associate any kind of barking with the bad noise, sometimes they can be triggered by other noises also, they are too random and there is too much margin for error and could make her worse. The only way to beat seperation anxiety is to convince your dog there is no need to worry.

You need to address the seperation anxiety rather then just the barking if the barking is a symptom of her anxiety about you going you may stop the barking but she will still be no beter off and could display the anxiety in other ways like wrecking things!
Have you discused her seperation anxiety with your trainers?

Not convinced a second dog is the answer or will make a difference. Rio can howl for England when she thinks she been abandoned. That is with Syd present and I may have only gone to the loo I'm not even convinced it is seperation anxiety in her case, more a case of how dare you not take me with you, when you know the world revolves around me. She does love to be the centre of attention and struggles to wait for her turn in anything. In saying that she is also very random in when she does and doesn't howl, If I go out, they are always quiet when I get back, she seems more bothered if I go off to make the beds than if I leave her to go shopping for hours on end. I also think once they start to howl they tend to keep it up rather than settle down, although if they don't start then they are fine. They are of course very vocal dogs and she expresses everything vocally whether it is pleasure or displeasure it makes no odds only the sounds change.
You probably need one of those cctv camera's that Victoria Stillwell uses to guage when she is actually doing it and what is setting her off if anything.

I wouldn't advise any high pitched alarm - if it is sep. anxiety she may stop, but may direct her anxiety onto chewing or destruction. Also if she is anxious, you need to tackle it at source (ie change her emotions about you leaving) as this is the only way, long term

I get the impression (sorry if it isn't right) that you leave her sporadically? Ideally, dogs are trained from pups slowly over time to accept owners going out, and so get used to it as part of life. If you've been with her for ages, (ie weeks) and only then gone out, it may really affect her as she's so young and not really sorted out regarding how life is.

There are some good books on SA, would you consider a reputable behaviourist? I'd really want to work on this now, as a year down the line it could be much worse (not trying to be negative, just trying to be honest ).

Actual howling does sound like distress to me, i have to say. I agree with Trouble that a camcorder or cctv thingie would help to see how she reacts, and would be helpful for a behaviourist to see if you wanted to go down that route

Wys
x

This is the impression I get too. Ideally it would be better to get her used to being left for short periods on a regular basis. Can you start trying to leave her for a few minutes at a time every day, and gradually build the time up. Leave and return without any big fuss and leave her something to keep her amused.

If you can afford it, get the help of a reputable behaviourist who can assess what is worrying Roxy and help overcome it.

I've not read every word of the posts in this tread but we had problems with Fingal when we used to leave him.

I think somebody touched on building up the length of time Roxy is left for. This is good advice but the trick (that worked with Fingal) is for Roxy to have no idea how long you're going to be gone for.

Example - when I left for work - it was a routine he knew - same clothes same bag same everything = unhappy dog. He'd kick off straight away even though I'd only been gone a minute or two because he knew from my 'getting ready' routine that i would be gone a while.

If on the other hand I just walked out the door with a bag of rubbish - no fuss at all because (although he didn't know I was going to the wheelie bin) he knew i would be back in 30 seconds.

The trick is to 'fool' Roxy so she has no way of knowing how long you'll be from your 'getting ready' routine so she has no idea how long she is being left for. That way regardless of whether you've been out for 3 mins or 3 hours you could potentially be home any minute now !

That worked for fingal.

Just out of curiosity do you take her for a run before you go out and leave her?
Talk us through what you do with her on a typical day before leaving for work.

Correct it is sporadically as my OH works shifts so although I am pretty routine my OH is not. But the problem only occurs when my Sister cannot have Roxy like goes on holiday for example and my OH's shifts co-inside with that then we are stuck. So she is not left unless, like this weekend for example me and my OH wanted to pop down the shops, it wasn't very long at all, and she wont be left again until way after christmas now??

Do you think maybe this would calm down with age?

The problem is we rarely go out, not due to her, thats just the way we are? so how would I be able to build this up??

I would be more than happy to pay for a behaviourist, we already have two trainers, but they are not much use with this kind of training...

Trouble - when I had to leave her for that week it was interesting that on the days I got up really early and took her for a good hours walk she was silent apparently. The days it was only a quick ten minute throwing the ball was the problem.

However I cant really take her for an hours walk before I need to nip down the shop