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Post by hanban1991 on Feb 13, 2014 9:15:38 GMT -5
I have had my 9month old greyhound x saluki x whippet (and whatever else you want to throw in there) for 2 weeks! We have another dog who is an absolute angel.
We have had neighbours complain that he is relentlessly barking whilst we are out the house! He urinates on the floor and scratches the door until his paws bleed. It's breaking my heart.
We have tried ignoring him, no eye contact or fuss on goodbyes.
I have pretended I am going out and then sit down and ignore him
I have repeatedly opened and closed our front door to give the effect that I have gone out
We have made a den for him full of duvets and toys and even covered the crate over to make it more secure and appealing, he is terrified of it. I put his meals in there to see of that encourages him that it's not a scary thing,
I have a dap infuser plugged in granted I only got this yesterday.
I am on annual leave this week and have been trying to hard to stop this anxiety and help him.
What do I do when I go back to work next week
Please help.
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Post by Nettie on Feb 13, 2014 15:57:35 GMT -5
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Post by julies on Feb 14, 2014 2:57:02 GMT -5
Was he an outside dog? A quick list as I'm at work ..  Sleep on a tee shirt (small enough to be clingy) and put it on him so he feels hugged and it smells of you. Check your food - less than 20% protein I'd recommend tho they can have intolerances to anything and that can make them hyper or aggressive. Cut out any highly coloured food or treats .. Pedigree Marrowbone snacks make my girl manic. Get a childgate .. while you're sitting down watching TV and hopefully dogs are settled, get up no contact with either dog, leave the room, don't let him follow, stay in sight, go back in, don't touch/look at him, you settle down then call him to you as long as he's not around you pestering. Keep doing that till he stays calm when you leave the room then stay out longer and longer then -as long as he's settled- go out of sight and build up that to teach him he's ok on his own. Can he see your other dog? Is it bullying him or is he trying to get to it? Once you can separate them I'd use frozen Kongs to occupy him and obviously give one to the other dog, fill it with mashed spud with nice bits stirred thro so he can lick at it for ages. Appropriate exercise .. you don't want to overdo it as he's young and his bones are forming but a bit of off lead running on his own ... check with your vet how much .. then I'd do lots of brain games to tire him ... search and find games, training etc etc particularly with a clicker .... Find a good training class I'd also feed him chewing cartiledge and bones - Natures Menu do some lovely ones but you do need to supervise him. Include your other dog tho obviously be careful they are kept apart when bones or Kongs are about so there's no fighting or bullying This hopefully will help .... J x |
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Post by julies on Feb 14, 2014 2:58:11 GMT -5
PS When I got my Gap lurcher he had a little SA and was always much worse when I'd been at home on holiday cos he got very used to me being about so I had to do the tee shirt for 2 or 3 dasys when I went back to work ..
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Post by LindsayA on Feb 15, 2014 9:57:12 GMT -5
We are currently going through a similar thing to you with our dog, however to a lesser extent. One thing to bear in mind as well is that 2 weeks is not a long time at all to settle a dog in. We have had our dog for 3 months and are still working with him. When we first left him we shut him in the kitchen, and he went nuts; he seems to be happier if he is allowed in the front room and kitchen. He spends a lot of his time in the living room with us on the sofa, so we think this is where he feels comfortable. If you want to do crate training I read that it's worth putting it in the busiest room in the house so they don't feel pushed out from where the action is happening, and obviously treats in there and toys will work wonders.
DAP diffuser takes a couple of days to start having an effect; make sure you are plugging it in in the room that he is in the majority of the time and leaving it on 24 hours a day. The pheremone needs to waft around all the time, not just when you go out. You can also get a DAP collar which you can use safely alongside the diffuser and this was given to us the first month we had Ted. It lasts about a month, same as the diffuser.
Are you turning the tv off / lights off when you go out? I know it's a huge drain on electricity, but with Ted, we try to make sure that when we go out the house is as similar as possible to when we are there. We normally have the tv on, so it is left on when we go out, and the same thing with the lights. There would be no point putting on a radio for him as we don't normally listen to it and so it would act more as a cue that we are going out.
The other thing to make sure of is that you are completely ignoring your dog when you come back into the house too. We leave him with a stuffed kong and a bull's pizzle or pigs ear to chew on to keep him occupied. We were told by the behaviourist at dogs trust that if your dog will not eat when you are out then it is serious separation anxiety because they are going into full blown shutdown panic mode. If they are eating that is a good sign. We take him out for a decent walk before we leave him during the day and let him sniff everything to his heart's content as sniffing really tires them out.
Before we go out we ignore him and give his kong and chew to him and leave as quickly and quietly as possible. Obviously, don't go back into the house if they're howling / whining / barking as it reinforces that you come home when they call. When we come back in, we completely ignore him, even if he's not hyper he's normally prancing around, and eventually he gets disheartened at being ignored and lays down somewhere else. Once we're finished doing what we're doing, (checking for puddles, checking for damage, hanging coats up), we go and give him a calm pat on the head and say hello.
And I agree with Julies. I had a week off two weeks ago and he seemed to go backwards with his anxiety because he got used to having me around. So we had to throw everything at it to get him a bit happier.
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ritab
Ironing Piling Up
Posts: 218
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Post by ritab on Feb 18, 2014 3:36:52 GMT -5
My first greyhound had severe SA, and 2 1/2 years on still has SA but much less so. I still never leave them for long. Sometimes Gizzi settles when I go out, and others she is a bit restless. I know people say you shouldn't let them know when you are leaving, but when I put the muzzles on them (2 girls) they just stay on their beds and don't follow me to the door. They seem to understand I'm going out without them, and hopefully realise I will be coming back.
Having a 2nd hound didn't stop the SA, but it did help a bit, mainly with me! I don't stress when I leave them now.
We used a DAP diffuser and DAP collar together at first but it didn't seem to help. They are on low protein food, no colourings, etc. But Gizzi just didn't know what to do with herself when left. I probably didn't handle things very well from the off. Now I've experienced it I would start the separation training immediately with a new dog. Fortunately our 2nd dog just lies in the same place and hardly moves while I'm out. They're all so different.
There is some medication available, but our vet said she would only prescribe it if all else failed. LindsayA says if they won't eat it is serious SA - well Gizzi wouldn't eat, but as I am retired I have been able to move very slowly and still don't leave them for long.
But as I said, they are all so different - and I really hope you can work through it - perhaps try leaving her just for the sake of it while you are off work. And you could buy a Vax carpet shampooer if she stress piddles!!!
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Post by sharonhigh45 on Feb 18, 2014 9:59:33 GMT -5
I really hope you get something sorted, our first lurcher was rescued off the road about 6 months old in awful condition, nervous wreck and not house trained, because we found her it was a crash course in rehabilitating her with no back up from any organisations and also having a staffieX already established to contend with as well. We soon realised that she would have to sleep in the same room as us to stop the howling,we used to have to switch the phone off as she would sing to the ringtone and to top it all we had the neighbours from hell all very stressful, we worked through it and have never regreted picking her up and had eight-nine happy and fulfilled years from her, sadly she died last October and now we have Moss from The Gap and all the backup we could ever need, you have done the right thing in asking for advice as there are a lot of people with vast experience of the ups and downs of rescue hounds,best wishes to you from Shazx
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Post by hanban1991 on Apr 14, 2014 7:00:40 GMT -5
Oh my gosh, didn't see all these messages in reply! Thank you to all that have offered their kind advice!
It's safe to say after 2 months we are starting reap the benefits! He's more settled, he loves his stuffed kong and will happily chuck it at the wall to get the treats out!
Granted he still does bark but only when there's movement from the neighbour or someone outside the house... The first hour is the worse but after that he will settle, until return!
Next step tackling his reactiveness on the lead!
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Post by sharonhigh45 on Apr 15, 2014 2:43:53 GMT -5
I am so pleased to see that he is settling down and wish you lots of luck.
Shazx
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Post by Nettie on Apr 15, 2014 3:51:03 GMT -5
Glad everything is settling, you will find a lot of threads I'm the advice section with regards reactive dogs, I'll search some out for you when I'm on the computer.
Sent from my Hudl HT7S3 using proboards
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Post by julies on Apr 15, 2014 13:05:51 GMT -5
Great news ... it does get better ... most of us know from experience LOL
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Post by hanban1991 on Apr 16, 2014 9:20:24 GMT -5
He's starting to show us his true character now... Right cheeky monkey to say the least
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Post by barkyhound on Apr 17, 2014 4:37:37 GMT -5
Hi hanban, we're tackling lead reactivity with Gunner so I sympathise! He has made good progress in the last month though – have found (thanks to excellent advice from other Gappers) that walking him with a double-ended lead on his harness and collar helps a lot. Good luck! He sounds fab.
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Post by hanban1991 on Apr 17, 2014 5:31:37 GMT -5
   So after the months of heartbreak, we are slowly making good progress, I would like just like to introduce our beautiful boy Rango, (we didn't name him) and of cause the gorgeous Honey... they wouldn't be without eachother. thank you all so much for your support and advice. |
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Post by LindsayA on Apr 21, 2014 5:04:20 GMT -5
Really glad to hear that you're seeing progress. We're also working on lead reactiveness too! *Sigh* The other thing that I've found with separation anxiety, is that any upset to his routine, ie - me spending a week at home after losing my job, put his progress back. The other thing we do is try and take him to as many new places as we can, including taking him in the car with us when we do the food shop. He's much happier sleeping in the car than he is in the house, so for short times, that might be worth trying too!
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