Separation Anxiety!

Hey guys, I'm a proud new owner of a 5 month old lab/shep mix and he is awesome. Today is the third day for us and he is exhibiting high anxiety when I leave the house... I've done some research on the web and I have seen a few recommendations to COMPLETELY IGNORE the dog for 3 weeks (besides food and potty breaks obviously) to get him over seperation anxiety. I'm curious about this bit of advice because it's just me and the dog living in the house and the only advice I've found refers to households with more than one person in the house. From what I've read: I know not to scold him when he acts out after I've been gone (thank god he just bounces off the walls and doesn't pee or poo everywhere ). I've also come across some advice which instructs me to start by leaving for a few seconds unannounced and coming back to check the doggy's anxiety level... Then when I'm sure he's not stressing out, I increase the amount of time a little bit until I can eventually leave him alone for at least 1.5 hours. What do you guys think? Tomorrow is Sunday and I have to work on Monday... Should I have someone watch him? I really would like to avoid crate training... THanks a ton.

 

I am very tired so I don't have energy to write too much and I apologize if my spelling is lacking, but for starters, the notion to completely ignore the pup for the first 3 weeks is absolutely ridiculous. This is when the puppy needs your love and affection the most, and ignoring it will only create further social problems for the dog, especially in the case of adopting a puppy that has probably already gone through tought times in his life. As for the separation anxiety, I know it can seem restricting to teh dog, but crate training is really best. That way you can rest assured that the dog is safe while you're gone and plus it really helps with housebreaking because dogs are less likely to soil in the area where they sleep. In terms of how long you should leave him and how you should work up to that, slowly increasing the amount of alone time like you mentioned is a good idea. Start with a few minutes, then a 1/2 hour, then an hour, and eventually you can leave him alone for a few hours. How long are you at work during the day? Until he is at least 8-9 months dogs really can't be expected to "hold it" all day (though this can very depending on teh dog), so you will need to have someone let him out every few hours. Congrats on your new addition!

 

P.S. See the post titled "cry baby puppy" because there are some good links posted dealing with separation anxiety. Hope this helps

 

Congrats on your new puppy!
In the book, "The Culture Clash" by Jean Donaldson there is some good info on alone training and seperation anxiety. If you could find this book at your local library it would probably be very helpful to you.

 

Hi Congratulations. Here is a couple of links to pages about seperation anxiety hope they help.

If your puppy cry's when you goto bed never go down to it allow the pup to cry as they soon learn when they cry you will go and they will use this to there advantage.

http://www.thedogscene.co.uk/articles/t ... nxiety.htm

http://www.k9media.net/k9online/features/ref7.htm

http://www.ukboxerdogs.com/lincsbxrrsq/advice2.htm

 

How fun, a new puppy. Since Zeke is 4 years old I can now say I miss that puppiness. However, I remember well the "issues". From personal experience I totally agree with puggleowner. Zeke was a big baby and I think that started when he got parvo at 10 weeks old. It was a rough start and he became and still is needy. I couldn't bear to leave him alone but I knew I didn't want a dog waiting all day for me to come home and do naughty things during the day. I did ignore him for minutes at a time and worked him up to hours. Luckily, my neighborhood is great. I could find people to let him out. In fact, my favorite neighbor would bring him over to her house during the day to play with her dog. And by far the best thing I did was do not give him big hugs and kisses the minute I came home. It was so difficult but I am so glad I did. Now he just lays on the sofa and let's me do whatever until I am ready to say hi. It still is difficult to this day but I know it's for the best. And ignoring your dog for three weeks just seems silly. You need to bond with your dog as much as he needs to bond with you. Time goes so fast and I just can't see missing three weeks of life with a puppy.

 

Coooool

Thanks for the replies guys. Today is Sunday and my last day off before work... What I did this morning was get myself ready for work and then walk out of the house without letting my pup know I was leaving... I waited about 30 seconds and then came back in as if I had never left and went about my business... I noticed that he already was already a little tense lol... I'll continue to do this throughout the day to see what happens and I may just end up getting a crate for him. I'm going to look at some of the links I saw provided a few messages above this reply too. THanks again.

 

http://www.auspet.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1892

There is a whole bunch of stuff on this link that I typed that I did with Harley. Took about 4 months of hard work and patience but she's great now!

Good luck!