Separation Anxiety

[elljay4]

Please Please can someone help us?

On friday (its now sunday) we bought Archie home from a family who could no longer cope with him. We knew he was clingy but we are slowly realising how clingy he is. He is so bad that we cant even sit in the living room without him before he starts crying. He gets up as soon as we go to leave the room and can't stand it if we go upstairs.

Friday night was the worst. We shut him in the kitchen and went to bed. He immediately started crying and ended up howling. There was abolutely nothing we could do (also very aware that he was probably disturbing our neighbours) so we ended up letting him out of the kitchen and he had the run of down stairs hall (no living or dining room) and up the stairs (no bedrooms bathroom or office). he ended up getting so distressed that he pooed in the hallway. we didnt get cross with him as everything we've read said that he wouldn't understand. he did eventually stop crying (at about 4am) and we managed to get a few hours sleep.

Yesterday we tried again to leave him in a different room and again he started crying. We took him out for walks and did lots of obedience training with him. He is actually very obedient and will sit, down, wait and leave.

Last night we again let him have the run of the stairs and after a while he did stop crying. We think he ended up sleeping outside our room but we were happy with this as we felt he had made progress by being quiet from about 11pm until we got up at 6.

today we have left him twice for 15-20mins first time, and 30 mins second time. We only feed him through a ball that we stuff with his biscuits and give it to him with his favourite soft toy and some gravy bones inside another toy. the first time we came back he was quiet, but the second time he was howling.

we have given him lots of exercise and tried the whole ignoring him when we came back, but he still cries as soon as he is put in another room :-(

i am going back to work on thursday and i know we wont see miracles before then but we have real fears that he will just bark and howl no matter what we do. he gets so stressed that everytime he has been left (even if just in a different room) he has weed.

we are planning to set up a camera to see what he does when i leave him again tomorrow.

i feel like i've read a thousand things about separation anxiety but it all assumes that he will stay in another room on his own and he wont even do that without getting stressed. it sounds like his SA is so much more severe than other dogs and we are at our wits end with him already :-(

in all other ways he is the perfect dog and i really dont want his behaviour to rule our lives.

Please help.

[Sambolinos]

Hi Elijay,
We also have a similar (though not so drastic) problem with our dog. He keens and whines whenever he is left in another room generally, but the worst time is after I come downstairs to make tea in the morning, then take it back to bed. After he has seen me or my wife he will cry and keen incessantly until we come downstairs and give him attention or take him for a walk. The thing is, I know we should not give him attention for this kind of behaviour and should wait until he stops before doing anything like touching or walking him, but I swear I have waited up to half an hour on occasion and he will just keep on at it until he gets the walk or some attention (even if it's negative attention!), and I don't have enough time for that in the morning!

I am seriously at my wits end on this, as I can't figure out what will stop him from crying when he is not getting what he wants.

I should add that he is a large gundog cross and is only a year old. He is also not destructive, and I have had no complaints from the neighbours about him crying while we are out. It seems the problem only manifests when we are in the house with him, but not giving him the attention he wants.

Someone, please give me some advice on our absurdly demanding dog!

Thanks,

Maek

[Sambolinos]

Sorry if I have stolen your thunder Elijay. I guess I'll be checking the replies to your post is what I am trying to say, as our situations sound fairly similar....

[nick_j007]

Sorry I missed this one.

What's your current situation with it please?

Nick