Hi Ladies,
I can TOTALLY identify here - I was beginning to feel like a hermit a few months ago too - for the same reasons as both of you!! We even briefly considered getting a 2nd dog for company!!
Our Max is now 7mths old (working cocker too) & from day 1 I'm convinced he's had a touch of SA. (I've put several posts on here & replied to other peoples' about it before now - desperate for help at times!)
From the start he howled like a banshee at night when left in the kitchen so we moved his crate to our bedroom - settled immediately - brilliant - now he's in a normal bed & as good as gold.
However, daytimes have always been a different matter!! He HATED being shut in the decent sized puppy proofed kitchen - he had EVERYTHING he could possibly want & we did EVERYTHING advised to settle him before leaving him but to no avail - he'd cry, howl, wee, poo, get himself in a REAL state - I either didn't go out or spent any time I did in a complete panic about him & what I'd be faced with when I got home.
Other than this, he was a complete dream of a pup - well mannered, loving, toilet trained quickly, etc etc etc
In the end, we bit the bullet & moved the puppy gate from the kitchen-lounge door to the lounge-hall door & gave him the run of both the kitchen & lounge when we left him - we figured he associated the lounge with somewhere he spent most of his time & was where he slept & played most during the day etc etc etc. We plugged in a DAP diffuser, puppy proofed as much as possible & went for it - well, it was like he was a different dog - he changed almost immediately - no chewing, no peeing, no howling, no throwing himself at the door, etc etc etc. Don't get me wrong - he doesn't particularly like it & so far we've only got him up to 3 hours of being left, but for us that's a ruddy miracle - at one point I seriously thought I'd never be able to leave the house again!! We've ended up relaxing our 'not on the sofa' rule as he seems to settle straight away if he gets on there as we leave - he dolefully watches us leave & then just sleeps as far as we can tell - we've spied on him & crept around like loonies for the past couple of months!!
He's still a bit iffy about the evenings & so far if we're out for anything over an hour or so, we get family or friends to pup-sit, but we intend to HOPEFULLY gradually increase his time to 4/5 hours in the day if necessary & also the same for the odd night, so that we can FINALLY have a life back again - bless him!!!!!!!!! I read somewhere that the first half hour is the crucial time & that if they can get used to being left for 2-3 hours then it doesn't matter so much how long you leave them after that as they don't really appreciate time etc. - don't know how true this is though?
Max has always been really 'clingy' & still hates being apart from us when we're still in the house - unless it's of his choosing. He follows us from room to room, hates us closing the toilet door for example(!!), doesn't like us shutting the puppy gate with him the other side AT ALL, etc etc but he seems to be getting ok with us actually leaving the house - weird, but we're so pleased with his progress that we can live with this for now!!
Having said that, he's finally doing that thing now where he goes off occasionally into the next room for a bit of a lie-down in the evenings & to be alone for a while - like a 'time-out' from us - it's odd because everyone told us he'd do that when he was a small pup but he never ever did for some reason.
I have to say, since we got him at 9 weeks old, we've never spent so much time at home in our entire lives - our social life has taken a real dive but we've been lucky enough to have family & friends who love dogs & who don't mind coming to our house for a meal & a 'cocker mugging' (!!) etc instead of going out - the money we've saved I've been happily spending on zillions of dog toys & the like, much to hubby's dismay!!
We adore Max to bits & would do anything to make sure he's happy, but I have to say, there have been times when we've seriously worried about the situation as it seemed unsolveable, but now we've finally got light at the end of the tunnel. We were on the point of getting a behaviourist/trainer in for some 1-1 sessions to ask for proper advice etc - I know it's an expense but it might be worth a try? Either that or are there any alterations to his confinement situation that you can try to see if that helps like it did for us? We're a bit nervous about giving him access beyond the kitchen but so far he's not attempted to chew anything, so we're just praying that continues - it's a risk though & we appreciate it's not something that everyone can do - particularly depending on the layout of their house etc.
Sorry to ramble on for so long - not sure I've even helped you really!!!!!!!
Do let us know how you get on & what you try etc. You never know - he might just slowly mature out of it a bit - ?!
All the best,
Kath.
