Help my 8 month old puppy has anxiety seperation even if I leave the room?

Question

My 8 month old puppy has got severe anxiety seperation if I leave the room to go the loo he whines but not if my other half does it. Also if we go out shopping he is a nightmare he wets everywhere he has chewed the bottom of a door. On the net there are sites which advertise drops and tablets to help with anxiety seperation does anyone know if they work or any other ways we can try and over come this problem. Thanx in advance for your help. He is a cross rotti german shepherd.

Answer 1

Very often this is caused by the dog not being at the bottom of the pecking order. He feels a certain responsibilty for you because you let him rule certain things. If he is submissive to you he will not fret for you when you are not there.

I think at 8 months you are going to need seem help to adjust the way you relate to the dog. Sorry if this offends you, but for the sake of your dog and your sanity you need this sorted out now.

Answer 2

He is a baby you have to wean him into getting used to you not being there if you let this carry on he is never going to like being left alone. You have to be firm, don't buy drops or whatever he may have anxiety problems but only because you have let him get away with it you are being too soft, don't waste your money it's time you need to give him. First of all leave the telly on in the room, walk out and shut the door stand outside for five minutes wether he wines or not don't speak let him think you have gone out even if you go so far as shutting the front door, then after 5 mins open and shut the front door and walk into the room he is in and if he hasn't done anythin give him lots of praise really go overboard and carry on as normal, if you do this in the morning in the afternoon do the same again but for 10 mins this time remember to fuss and give him a treat let him know how plsd you are with him as a week goes on increase every day the time you are leaving him by 5-10 mins eventually you will be leaving him for an hr or two but he will know by then you are definately comming back and to boot you will be pleased to see him and you will treat him, it's worth a try and i will be very surprised if it doesn't work it's in his best interest to do this bec for such a large dog to be so insecure could prove detrimental! Stop being so soft!! (Meant in a nice way :))

Answer 3

My mums dog was a rescue puppy from the rspca and is exactly the same. My mum didn't have some of the knowledge that is available now to deal with it and now her dog is 14 and she's virtually house bound or needs a doggysitter every time she has to go out.
I don't know many good techniques, only that it is good to build up your dogs tolerance to the length of time you leave him. Start by leaving the room for 10seconds and if he is good, come back in and praise him with a treat. The next time, do 30 seconds.. until eventually you can practise going out the house and returning. You might look odd to your neighbours, going into the garden then returning mins later and repeating this several times until your dog has the reassurance that you're coming back, but if it means easing your dogs anxiety then it's worth it. Eventually you should be able to go out for 15mins then 1/2hr but do it gradually and always reward him with good behaviour each time he's good. Either way, something has to be done, you don't wanna be house bound like my mum for the next 14years!

Also having some sort of loud rattle can distract the dog from bad behaviour i.e like a plastic bottle with stones in it. whenever you catch him chewing on something, shake the bottle very hard and loudly and say no! He will soon associate bad behaviour with that horrible noise.

Answer 4

You're going to need to teach him that throwing a fit is NOT the way to get you to come back, or recieve any kind of attention from you.

Buy a crate and some toys. Start out putting him in the crate every time you leave with the toys so he can't do anything destructive. after the third time or so, let him out when you leave (put the toys out, too). If you come back and find out he has messed up everything, tell him "bad dog" once, and put him in his crate. Do not let him out for a long time no matter HOW much he whines (yes, this will be annoying. If it helps, put the crate outside so you can't hear him as well.). When you do let him out, make sure it's at a time when he's not whining.

Once he figures out that he gets seperated from you even LONGER if he throws a fit while you're gone, he should stop.

Answer 5

Just like a small baby, eventually he will learn that you will come back when you leave. He will grow out of it, although you can speed the process by doing short leaving and coming back exercises.

Wetting and chewing are not acceptable and at 8 months he is not too young to start training. Punish the bad actions and reward the good. For a while, create a safe area where he can be left without anything to be damaged. But work on house breaking and do not tolerate chewing or destroying property or wetting or defecating to show his unhappiness. Stop that behavior quickly and firmly and you will all be much happier. And believe me, it is easier now when he is smaller and easier to control. A big dog who does not respond to commands and whose behavior you cannot control is a real terror.

The pills you talk about are essentially transquillizers and do nothing to modify the dog's behavior over the long term.

Answer 6

First, the suggestion made by someone here to give him to the pound is an extremely poor one and I sincerely hope you don't take it seriously. Owning an animal is a lifetime commitment and should not be taken lightly.

I'd suggest a couple things - first, training. For him and you. Have you taken him to obedience training. Often as owners, we are our own worst enemies by spoiling and not knowing how to train our wonderful companions. If he does not behave that way for your "other half," it sounds like it's a case of too much babying or him not knowing who is the "alpha" or leader of the pack. This is a good breed and definitely can be worked with to overcome this problem. What are you doing to get him excited and pee all over, cry when you leave the room, etc.? Animals are very sensitive to our behavior; so you may want to take a look at how you are acting around him.

Secondly, the San Francisco ASPCA has one of the most successful programs in the U.S. and has a fabulous website with a lot of great information on behavior and training. Here is a link to their behavior training page:

http://www.sfspca.org/behavior/dog_library/index_library.shtml

You could also talk to your vet for suggestions on how to train and work with him. This boy is still a baby and needs to be taught, just like any child. How you are with him today will determine how well behaved and wonderful companion he will be for his lifetime. Trust me, investing in making yourself a good owner and training him how to behave - in a positive, loving way - will make him a fabulous lifetime member of your family.

Answer 7

Seperation anxiety is very difficult. Especially by the time he is 8 mo--it is slightly ingrained. My puppy used to do that as well. What I did was alternate with him--sometimes I would leave him in the room for 5 min by himself and come back. 10 min. 30 min. But always coming right back. He needs to realize that you will come right back for him. That helps him realize that you are always there. Also occasionally allow him to go with you. He will go to the bathroom with you and watch you take a bath. Then it wont be confusing. Remember that dogs are completely existentialists. If that door is closed, they are not aware that there is a bathroom on the other side. You may have disappeared into the abyss. The more you reappear, the more he will trust you to reappear.

The problem is that for your puppy, you leave him to go to work and you leave him *forever*. I mean he is right. When you leave you don't come back. And its so many hours it might not be that day. He probably goes to sleep and wakes up several times and you aren't there. That may be later that day or abandoned for a week. Hard to tell from a puppy's point of view.

Consider a doggy day care or someone that comes by in the middle of the day to walk him. When I was in high school, I walked a neighbors dog when I got home around 3. They also had someone in the neighborhood come by around lunch time. So the dog had a short playtime, walk around 8am, 12pm, 3pm and then his family came home at 6pm. At the very least your rotti mix should walk for an hour a day. He also should be in a crate while you are gone for the day. Or in a puppy proof room (we have a sunroom). That way there is not hundreds of things that look like they would be fun to do (he is bored) like chew this big stick--which you refer to as your kitchen table and coming home to a nightmare. Chewing is what they do.

Also I'm not sure the chewing the bottom of the door is so much with seperation as a bordom. He needs to have plenty of things to chew and entertain himself with. Try a Kong (sold at Petsmart) you can put a glob of peanut butter on the inside and he will work on that all day. Also put hot sauce on things he is NOT to chew. He can't tell the difference b/t a wooden stick from outside and a 17th century antique wooden chair. It's just wood to him. But he can tell the difference b/t peanut butter and insanely hot. And unless you are there to tell him, the idea of doing it b/c it feels good is more important than trying to figure out what you might think when you get back--which won't happen for *forever*. We used some serious hot sauce on my puppy to get him to not bite the futon. But as yours is getting close to a year, he will start losing his puppy teeth and be needing to chew even more.

It is completely pointless to scold him for chewing on the door. He might have completed that at 9am that morning and you are trying to tell him Bad Dog at 5pm.

Remember what Caesar (The Dog Whisperer) says. Dogs need exercise, discipline, then affection. Especially the case in bigger dogs like rotti-germans. They need a lot of exercise. It would probably be better if you could put him outside during the day when you are at work. Also german shepards are highly intelligent work dogs. They do best if they have something to do. A task to accomplish. A friend used to tie peanut butter pinecones to a tree for the bird to eat. By the time she came home from work, her german shepard had pushed some of the childs toys over to the tree to climb up on to get the peanut butter pinecone. They need some sort of task and a lot of exercise.

I hope these gave you some ideas on how to deal with your puppy's seperation anxiety. After all to him 8 hours is forever. Try playing hide and seek in the house. Or see if when you take him to be groomed if they can keep him all day. Our groomer has everyone come on Friday for her "all day daycare" and the dog's can socialize. Usually you can find a kid in the neighborhood who wants a dog so badly they will walk him during the day for hardly any money.

Answer 8

I had this prob with my dog. I wore an old sweat shirt in bed for a couple of nights so that it was quite smelly and I leave that with her in her basket. I also leave the radio on quite loudly. I leave all her toys scattered around on the floor and I always leave a kong stuffed with soft food for her. She is much happier now and there is no anxiety problem.

Answer 9

this is bad you must have spent alot of time with it when it was really little or maybe your the only one who feeds him.

just relaxe and leave the room for a while then come back and ignore him because if he thinks your comeing back because of his wining he will always do it.

i wouldnt leave a puppy out when no body is home for this reason they chew on everything when they angry when their teething get him some toys and train him to be in a crate when nobody is home.

Answer 10

I wouldnt use the pills or drops just yet. Have you tried crate training him yet?
A crate is a wonderful thing. If started early enough, a puppy will love his crate and go in it on his own whenever he is tired, sad or just needs a break.
Try that and see how it works.