It is serious for sure. For now, we take her to dog daycare twice a week and my mom watches her 1-2 a week but in all reality there will be times she has to be left alone so we want to deal with that too. Thanks!
Extreme Separation Anxiety - Help Me!
EDIT: Not leaving her alone ever is not an option. She is already left home very rarely but we need to work on her SA, not just never leave her alone. Thank you for all comments but please focus on ways people have overcome SA rather than suggesting we never leave her alone ever. Thank you!
This is my first time posting on this website. Our dog, Lucky, is a 5 year old mutt (German Shepherd & Cattle Dog according to her DNA test). She is spayed, up to date on shots, and has been through one basic obedience class. We adopted her at 10 months old and started using the kennel right away. Unfortunately we quickly learned she has severe separation anxiety. She goes to daycare twice a week and is kenneled three times a week (twice for 8 hours and once for 4 hours) while I'm at work. We've had her for about 4.5 years (adopted her at 10 months from a reservation in New Mexico - we live outside of Denver) and we are getting overwhelmed because we feel we have tried a lot of options.
Here is what we have tried (with no positive results):
I'm just wondering if there is anything else we can do that I haven't read on other websites or other forums that has worked for others? Thank you for all your help!
This is my first time posting on this website. Our dog, Lucky, is a 5 year old mutt (German Shepherd & Cattle Dog according to her DNA test). She is spayed, up to date on shots, and has been through one basic obedience class. We adopted her at 10 months old and started using the kennel right away. Unfortunately we quickly learned she has severe separation anxiety. She goes to daycare twice a week and is kenneled three times a week (twice for 8 hours and once for 4 hours) while I'm at work. We've had her for about 4.5 years (adopted her at 10 months from a reservation in New Mexico - we live outside of Denver) and we are getting overwhelmed because we feel we have tried a lot of options.
Here is what we have tried (with no positive results):
- Wire Kennels and Plastic Kennels (she has broken out of 3 wire kennels and 2 plastic ones - she broke three of her teeth during one attempt)
- Moving the location of her kennel (our bedroom, main floor, her room, etc.)
- Putting bumpers on the kennel front & sides to prevent her from digging (she tore through them almost immediately)
- Basket Muzzles & Plastic Muzzles (all she was able to pant completely & open her mouth)
- Noise Maker (white noise setting), TV on to "dog channel", & silence
- Different types of beds in her kennel (several orthopedic beds, pads, "snuggle beds", etc.)
- Feeding in her kennel & putting her bed in her kennel so she has to sleep in it at night
- Benadryl (or a similar medication prescribed by her doctor to calm her down)
- Essential oils (lavender)
- Fan on and fan off. Setting the furnace/AC to have the room colder or warmer than normal.
- Withholding food before & feeding before
- Extreme exercise before (to the point of exhaustion)
- "Calming Treats" (Hemp Seed Oil, Hemp Protein Powder, Chamomile, Valerian Root, Passion Flower, Ginger Root Powder, Tryptophan) before kenneling
- Plain Hemp Oil daily
- Switching foods to see if it was an allergy problem (we did find out she is allergic to red meat but she hasn't improved since switching to chicken years ago)
- Calming Collar & Calming Toy (pheromes)
- Putting a shirt in the kennel that my husband slept in, putting toys in the kennel
- "Desensitizing" with picking up our keys randomly, putting shoes on then sitting on the couch, not being overly excited when we let her out of the kennel, etc.
- Kenneling her with another dog in the house
- Putting a larger dog run type kennel in the house without her muzzle so she is free to wander/play/drink/eat in a contained area
- A Gunner kennel ("indestructible" and cost $600+)
- Thunder vest while in the kennel
- Different essential oils (I read Sweet Orange or Ylang Ylang can help too, in a diffuser in the room she is kenneled in)
- A local behavioral specialist vet based out of Boulder, Colorado (hesitant on this because the initial visit is $260, treatment visit is another $260 before including cost of medication/treatment/etc. and the possibility of it not working)
- Dog Calming CD (classical music)
I'm just wondering if there is anything else we can do that I haven't read on other websites or other forums that has worked for others? Thank you for all your help!
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Thanks for the link! I'll save that and read through it for sure. We have been desensitizing her since we realized she had SA more than 4 years ago. It was more gradual because we were in college for the first 2 years, so she was left alone significantly less because our schedules were more open. So it was more than weeks (more like months) of her having to be kenneled for 30 minutes to an hour at a time rather than what it is now which is more frequent because my husband and I both work full time. We have worked with trainers before that came to our house and walked through desensitizing with us, and spent weeks and weeks doing VERY short kenneling to see if it helps at all and it hasn't. In all reality, there will be times she has to be left alone so we are hoping to deal with that rather than just never leaving her alone ever (which is pretty unrealistic). She isn't comfortable being left alone for more than 1 minute without suffering so it's not something where we can bring someone in to walk her after an hour or more. Thanks though!You say you've tried desensitising her but presumably, you haven't done this gradually, keeping her within her comfort zone, building up all the way gradually to being left for hours at a stretch? The only reliable way of fixing SA is gradual build-up - it can literally take weeks before you can leave a dog for half an hour, and then you have to build up to 35 mins, 40 mins. If the dog shows any distress, you're going too fast. Depending on your circumstances, it might be easier to ensure that she is never left - or never left for longer than she is OK with (e.g. by someone coming in to walk her) - than working through all the steps.
There's a sticky about separation anxiety here that gives more detailed information: Separation Anxiety
This is so helpful! Thank you so so much!In the UK, Emma Judson is an expert in separation anxiety and she does remote (online) consultations at a reasonable rate. www.thecanineconsultants.co.uk
No unfortunately. We can kennel or leave her alone in a room and we can go downstairs (30 seconds later) and she is already panicking. We have home security cameras set up so we can see it. She typically panics for the first 1-30 minutes then calms down and sleeps for the rest of the day. But it's the first half hour that sometimes she gets out of the kennel and hurts herself.
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