Separation Anxiety (or not?) Strategy

[Ziggy_Stardust]

Hello everyone,

First post here, please go easy on me! I've trawled through existing posts about this issue and can't seem to find anything definitive on a strategy for dealing with this apparently very common issue.

Currently our 5-month old pup Ziggy gets very anxious when we leave him (in and outside the house). After about 3 minutes of being out the room, he will howl like, well, a howler monkey (he looks like one too) - and we know this because we have a camera on him when we leave. After about 15-30 minutes he will eventually stop howling but is still visibly anxious. He'll lie on the sofa, go to the door, and then back again, always keeping his eyes on the door. Max we have left him for is 1.5hrs.

At first we had him in the kitchen. Then we moved him to the living room, and this initially stopped the howling (we think he was just happier on the sofa). But now he howls irrespective of where he is - and we think he may be getting worse.

So I guess my question is, given that Ziggy does eventually does stop howling, should we persist in leaving him for these extended periods and hope that the time he spends howling eventually reduces, or do we need to go back to the start, gradually building up his tolerance with all the tips and tricks that can be found across this forum.

One thing to add is that Ziggy sleeps on his own downstairs with crate door open, within a penned off area. He seems to have no separation issues when going to bed at night, although once every two weeks or so he will just randomly start howling when he goes to bed, or in the case of last night, at 2am. For this reason I'm not convinced he really has separation anxiety.

He's also bold as brass when he's out on walkies, taking on any dog of any size.

Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

[bizzylizzy]

Hi and welcome!
As you‘ve said, separation anxiety is a common problem and there are lots of tips for helping to deal with it and its often a matter of trial and error to find the ones  that work best for your individual dog.
My advice would be to go back to  the very beginning and get him used to you just popping in and out casually for a few minutes, don‘t say anything like „stay“ or „won‘t be long“  , don‘t even give him eye contact, go out and come back in after a minute of so. If he‘s quiet you can give him a treat but try not to make a big fuss, remember you‘re trying to make your absences a „normal occurance“ for him, it shouldn‘t seem like anything put of the ordinary.. If he starts to howl, try and wait for the second he‘s stops and then go back in and treat, avoid going in when he‘s making a noise, he needs to learn that making a fuss won‘t get your attention, if  he howls and barks without a pause, fo back in but completely ignore him. Keep your absences very short to start with, just a minute or two and then build it up very slowly but stay as calm and matter-of-fact as you can, they‘re so astute and will pick up on any bit of anxiety you show.
It often helps to limit the access to just one room where they feel safe (liken it to being alone in a big strange rambling  house, you probably feel safer in the sitting room with the door closed!  ):
Try and make sure he‘s fairly relaxed when you do the training i.e. fed, walked and toileted. A piece of your clothing, a favourite toy, some background music/television are all things that you can try try make him feel more secure and possibly somewhere where he can „hide“ - my dog often lies with his head under a cushion  , or squeezed under a low table - maybe you can leave his crate somewhere so that he can go in if he wants. ?
Hope you can sort it, I know how stressful it can be and it becomes a bit of a vicious circle as you start to worry about leaving him and he knows there‘s something up.
I‘m sure others will be along soon with some more tips. Best of luck, let us know how it goes!

[caro]

Hi,

My boy is 17 months now, and he is not and has never been destructive or anything when we leave him but he would howl and/or bark every few minutes.  We have a camera too and I don't watch it when we are out (as I would feel bad if he was barking) but I look back once we have returned to see how he was.

About two months ago I tried Bioforce Separation Essence.  It's like rescue remedy but this is especially for dogs and is flower essence so all natural.  I gave him some drops on his breakfast and tea (you can give up to 3 times a day) and whether it was a coincidence or not, he improved - dramatically!  He doesn't need to be left often, which probably doesn't help.  We have a door mid way through the hall which he sits next to and looks through the mottled glass, but now he lies down and sleeps for short periods, occasionally sitting up and looking or walking into the lounge and then back to his spot.  Since I've been using this stuff he has barked only once.  He's been left for an hour quite a few times now, and he just lies down in his spot.  I've heard that if you can leave a dog for 40 minutes you can leave him for 3 hours but we've not gone past the hour yet.

This might not work for you but it isn't all that expensive (although the place I got it from put the price up by more than £1 when I went to get some more).  That was when I decided to see if he could manage without it, and so far so good! 

It might be enough to take the edge off and get used to being alone.

Let me know if you decide to try it, and how you get on x