Dog Community

Separation Anxiety

Posted : 2/4/2013 2:40:17 PM

My partner and I adopted a 2 year old Shih Tzu from a rescue organization in Minneapolis two weeks ago. Herman is a wonderful dog, but he suffers from extreme separation anxiety. He follows me around the house constantly and will panic if he can not see me, even if he is being held by someone else. We have to crate him sometimes and leave the house. He barks and paces back in forth in the crate and when we return home we have to clean the crate and wash the mat because he has pooped and peed in the crate. I am trying to get him used to being in the crate when we are home - I feed him in the crate and he will sometimes go in by himself and sit down on the mat. He is fine if I am in the room. If I leave the room he starts barking and pacing. The crate is in the bedroom with us and he is fine all night long. I am considering taking him to the vet for medication. I don't want to drug him to make him lethargic, but I have to leave sometimes and I hate to see him get so frantic. Does anyone have any advice or experience with this? Thanks for reading and your input.

glenmar

Posted : 2/4/2013 4:01:24 PM

Herman hasn't been with you very long so give him a bit more time to settle in. You might want to try Calms Forte or Valarian root. These allow the dog to relax, but don't make them relax.

Some of our members who have had severe SA issues will be along soon with more and probably better help.

Thanks for saving Herman.

JackieG

Posted : 2/4/2013 4:28:35 PM

Order the booklet "I'll be Home Soon" by Patricia McConnell and follow the protocol. You can get it from dogwise. It's under $10 and is well worth it. SA can be overcome with some training and time. Best of luck.

calliecritturs

Posted : 2/4/2013 4:32:52 PM

There's no "magic" answer here -- re-training and desensitizing this will take a long while.

My first question -- was he crate-trained before you got him? Or is this something new you are trying? de-sensizing the SA is something you will do 24 / 7 -- literally ALL the time. you constantly will be telling him what's going on, you go behind a door (and at first re-assure him with your voice) and then come back.

Essentially you have to set him up to 'succeed'. Meaning in the beginning you keep the duration of 'separation' small enough so he can handle it (as in the length of time it takes him to inhale to bark??? and you step back and say "good boy" when he doesn't bark.)

Others on here are WAY more the training guru than I am (some of these folks are freaking AWESOME trainers!!). However -- one thing I would encourage you to do -- IN ADDITION to all of the SA training - train him in other "easy to win" things at the same time to build his confidence. Easy stuff like "sit" ... "lie down" ... or maybe some really elementary tracking kinds of things (yes, even a shih tzu can track!) -- you'll eventually be able to have HIM voluntarily leave the room to go 'find' an object.

Whatever you do to train -- take baby baby steps. keep in mind always you want to "win" -- so if he did something ok after 5 seconds last time -- don't go to 10 seconds .. go to 6 or 7. And if he screws up -- go back to where he did it successfully and get him back to "good things".

SA tends to have a lot to do with a lack of confidence. And MUCH MUCH MUCH of that is impacted by the fact that he's gone to yet another home less than 2 weeks ago. So he's still shaken -- and he's terrifed you'll get away from him.

YOu may well need to use drug therapy -- but you may want to try something herbal or homeopathic first and see if it will work. But bottom line -- you want to back off his stress level to the point where he CAN do something right and feel secure as you build on the positive.

But at the beginning when he is so terribly afraid, if you have to sedate him to be able to leave the house without huge trauma then you need to do that unless there is someone who can step in and be with him.

Thank you for giving this little guy a chance -- he needs you.