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Separation Anxiety

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kellysomer

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Lottie seems to be suffering with this... badly!!

Last night she cried and chewed and barked and scratched and wrecked until 3am, she just seems to hate being left alone. She is as good as gold when we are about but when we went to bed oh my goodness she was not a happy girl. It happened again at 2pm this afternoon when i popped to the hospital for 35 mins. She trashed the place, chewed, emptied water everywhere and weed and pooed for britain, it took me 45 mins to clear it up.

We have now got a crate and are going to make it into a 'snug' for her to make her feel more secure, and leave the radio on tonight but does anyone have any other tips or has anyone had this, i completely understand WHY it happens and sympathise with her, but we do not feel that letting her sleep on our bed is the answer as this wont help during the day when we need to go shopping or pop out.

Anyone know how long this sort of thing can take to get better. 3 hours of sleep have left me shattered........ :blink:

Also she wont wee in the garden for on walks so how on earth do we begin to house train her? I get the whole praise like mad thing when they go outside but we have yet to get her to go anywhere except on the carpet. :wacko:

This new dog stuff sure is complicated...... :sweating: :p

Any advice greatfully received....... :D
 
hi there - sorry to hear you've had a rough night kelly - and poor wee lottie too

if she has a serious separation anxiety then my advice would be to build up the time she's on her own very gradually. By this I mean starting with only a couple of seconds; leave the room, shut the door, return

and very very gradually increase from there. the crate seems like a very good idea too - maybe with a cover to make it extra cozy

I see your problem with the wee thing - hard to praise when she's not been outside at all. :oops:

One thing you could try is to pick up her poo, take it outside and leave it somewhere where you want her to go. Same with wee - soak as much up as you can on a cloth and take the cloth outside to the spot you want her to use - and leave it there.

Then clean up the house with bio wash powder in secret (dont let her know you're doing this!)

As your garden starts to smell more like a toilet than your house does (to Lottie, I'm not being cheeky here!) she should get the message

good luck :thumbsup:
 
When we first had William he would only wee out on walks in fact for the first 2 days he wouldn't wee at all. Once he was more settled he started to wee in the garden we had other dogs already and we let the others out then cleaned up and put disinfectant down were the males had wee ed and he eventually got the idea the other dogs were dominant so he wouldn't wee were they had been.

He also suffer from seperation anxiety to a very server degree teach her that the crate is a good place to be feed her in in and give her treats .As Urchin says slowly build up the time she is leftstarting from a few seconds but don'e fuss her as soon as you returngo into the room ignore her put the TV on or do something then go to let her out of the crate and say hello.

We let William come up stairs to bed but he snores like a pig so soon got banished to downstairs :oops:
 
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Awww, dear little Lottie :wub:

She must be very confused, having lived in kennels all her life presumably with other greys within sight & earshot? So it's terribly scary for her now she's all alone and her new humans disappear and leave her on her own :(

I'm a real soft touch and I'd probably have her upstairs with us but I know that's not always a great idea :- " so a crate would be the next best thing! Especially as Lottie has been used to having her own exclusive sleeping quarters when she was kenneled :thumbsup:

As for the housetraining, I think the only way is to go back to puppy basics and literally take her into the garden whenever she wakes up from a nap, or after a meal or just every hour, and stand there chanting 'go wee wee, go wee wee' until the desired result happens and then heap the praise on her :huggles:

If she does go in the house, ignore it and, as Urchin says, clear up without drawing her attention to what you're doing - even bad attention is welcome to an insecure dog, and she might think that peeing indoors is a way to get attention :(

I'm sure she'll get the hang of things very soon :thumbsup: She looks the most adorable girlie and I just love her spotty bits!!! :wub: :wub:

:luck: getting some sleep for yourself, too :thumbsup:
 
Don't panic, you've only had her five minutes and everything is new and scary!

What's been said already is the right way to go. Tiny would only wee in the garden for weeks and never on walks - so we couldn't go far, but gradually he relaxed and did on the walks too.

Both Max and Tiny used to cry at night - and they were together so it must be scarier on your own. I tried being firm but they ended up sleeping upstairs and Tiny now sleeps with me in my bed. :- " But he doesn't wriggle too much and he doesn't snore.

A DAP diffuser may help. The crate sounds like a good idea - dogs rarely seem to toilet in their crate because it is their bed. :thumbsup: Try TV if radio isn't working, my boys love watching Boomerang - especially Scooby Doo and don't seem to notice if I pop out while the tv is on.

Good luck. :huggles: :luck:
 
You lot are great!!!! Thanks for all the advice. I called the people she came from and they gave us some good advice too. Be consistant and firm but kind and dont cave in. :blink: Its hard with that face....... :wub:

WELL GUESS WHAT!!! We had a better night last night and she didnt wee or poo all night, my hubby let her out at 7am and she did a huge wee in the garden. Then better still about luchtime she pooed in the garden too!!!!! She got so much fuss and a treat as we were so chuffed, she spat the treat out though it seems at the moment she isnt too much food orientated which i guess is from being in kennels. We couldnt work out what had prompted her to poo but when we looked the cat had pooed first then she had done hers next to it, so the cat did the trick!! :lol: He must be the only cat in the world who poo's in his own garden and on a patio too. :blink:

My hubby and i thought it best to leave her for the shortest night possible. We have been told to slowly build up the time she is alone , which we will do during the day but we cant really apply this to to nighttime as we need to sleep so we thought the shortest night possible was the best thing. So he stayed up until midnight with her and watched tv, then she went for her last thing walk and he planned to put her in the crate with 3 sides covered to make it cosey. My concience is having a little problem with the 'cage' :( but guess what, she went in all by herself and liked it. She has a toy and a chewy in there and we left the radio on for company on a really bad mw talkshow channel. Poor lottie, i have no idea what she was listening to all night, it might have been terribly dull! :D She cried and barked for 10 mins so i went down and told her 'no' sternly and she lay down and settled again. She didnt make a noise for 2 hours!!!! (w00t) The she cried for 20 mins, a little howl followed by a pause to see if she could hear us coming, then howl bark howl and then after a pause it sounded like she realised it didnt work and stopped, just like my 1 and a half year old daughter trying get attention, suddenly the penny dropped! hehe. She howled at 2 hour intervals and i let her out for a wee at 4am (just incase she was trying to tell us, but she didnt go.) She did however run back into the crate and curl up so i think it may provide a definate security for her. i'm glad as i know my concience wouldnt let her be in there if she hated it. The only thing she did do was shred the matress she was laid on. :- "

We let her out at 7am and she wee'ed for england. I am so happy and pleased that we have made great progress in 2 days. If we can keep improving hopefully soon she can have the crate with the door open soon.

During the day she is a dream. We went out today and met up with my mum and dad and sister (xwhippetloverx on here) and Lottie met 3 legged Jesse, they sniffed each others bits and were good as gold. :thumbsup: Noone could beleive that she is so content and she happy trots beside you for ages. We let her off the lead and she was 100% perfect. Came back every time and was generally faultless, seems she likes swimming in the big puddles so our next trip may well be the beach. I promise to take some pics.

So far so good, night time may well be like having a newborn in the house with 2 hour wake ups but just as rewarding. :wub:

Cheers to everyone for the advice..... :cheers:

Oh and she is also excellent with the cat (our biggest worry) and i mean excellent , infact he tried his hardest to get a reaction out of her last night. They were nose to nose sniffing and in the end he walked off in a sulk as there was no fight. Naughty cat! She didnt even think he was worth getting up off her duvet. :blink: Bless her!
 
You have been given some excellent advice. I am sure Lottie will settle down soon as she gets used to your routines. It must be very scary for her coming to a new home.

Just 2 points to add -

1 - She will like her crate so don't feel guilty. If she has raced or been in training she will be used to a crate - i.e. when she travelled and probably in the kennels also - so she will be quite accustomed and feel secure in a crate.

2 - I found with my greyhound that she was fine being left alone when I had a regular routine. When my routine changed when I retired, although I was actually at home more, at first she was more upset when I went out. I think that was because she didn't understand when I would be home again. I know you can't run your family life to a strict timetable but a fairly regular routine will help her feel less stressed.

Best of luck

Pauline
 
Really glad to hear that things are getting better already :D

Long may it continue :thumbsup:

:huggles: :huggles: for Lottie :)
 
thats a big improvement very quickly so it looks like youve got it cracked and little Lottie is going to settle in well with you. :D glad shes decided to be a good girly! :thumbsup:
 
kris said:
thats a big improvement very quickly so it looks like youve got it cracked and little Lottie is going to settle in well with you. :D glad shes decided to be a good girly! :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

Last night was even better, she volunteered herself into the crate again :D and curled up. She didnt wee or poo all night. She didnt make a noise when we went to bed and only cried at 2 hours intervals but only for about 10 mins each time, the barking and cries were much less determined almost like she was complaining instead of actually being cross. The bed in the crate wasnt all screawed up like before and she hadnt shredded the blankets so i think this shows she is getting less stressed.

We let her out this morning 3 times in half an hour when we got up at 7 and sadly she decided to do a huge wee and a poo in the dining room. Bit confused why as she had been let out 2 minuted before but never mind. We're taking her to the beach today to see how she likes that so i will try and get some pics. Oh and we are going to enrole in dog training classes to help us bond and her learn some basic commands. :thumbsup:
 
Glad to hear she has settled so quickly. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

We are still having issues with William and its been 3 1/2 years now with him but he was an extreme case and it doesn't help that he is not the most intelligent dog in the world. Saying that he is about a million times better than he was 3 years ago
 
That's a brilliant improvement well done.

Do please be careful letting her off the lead so early on - I know you said she came straight back, but she still doesn't know properly that you are her people for keeps, and she may get scared and belt off. :huggles: I'm sure that doing recall and bonding work at training classes will help hugely. I'm not being a spoilsport but I hear so many stories where people have let dogs off lead early on and then something has gone wrong - just something to consider. :huggles: :thumbsup:
 
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