Separation Anxiety Help Please?!

[ritab]

If you're happy with the James Wellbeloved you could try feeding a bit less of that and adding a bit of either Burns or Natures Menu mixer to bulk it up and bring down the amount of protein you feed. I've fed Burns Pork & Potato for a couple of years. They do lose weight on the recommended amount so I have had to bulk up with some mixer (porridge or potato also work).

And by the way, Gizzi is much happier when left in the car as well - we leave them one evening a week for 1 1/2 - 2 hours while in a busy pub meeting friends. Strange - but their behaviour is so different in the car generally. Normally Gizzi won't tolerate Lena getting too close, but in the car these rules don't apply!

[LindsayA]

So after saying that he was enjoying himself at dog daycare, I picked him up yesterday and was informed he had gotten a "red mist" again and gone for another dog, which had in turn resulted in a patterdale terrier biting him from underneath across his chin and also biting his leg. So he has two big puncture wounds on either side of his mouth, and a smaller puncture wound on his leg. *SIGH*. Whizzed him down the vets as the ones on his face looked especially nasty so he's now on antibiotics and painkillers. Apart from feeling very sorry for himself last night, when I picked him up he was still in and around all the other dogs, and tried to play with a little fluffy thing at the vets, so hopefully no serious psychological damage done!

Firstly, has anyone else ever had this problem? We suspect he was used for coursing before he was made homeless, and the man at the daycare and his mum have also asked me if he's been worked based on his behaviour out on walks. Apparently, one minute he's fine, then he gets too giddy and he gets out of hand and he just goes into seek and destroy mode and becomes relentless. Then as soon as he snaps out of it, he's playing and flopping around again nice as pie.

We're definitely going to try switching his food onto a lower protein content, and frankly we're unsure about whether daycare is a good idea. Which seems such a shame as he absolutely adores it there.

Secondly, we left him alone with access to the full house, including our bedroom, and I have come home today to no poos, wees or new scratches or teeth marks round the doors! In fact, when I came in, I couldn't find him, and came upstairs to find him fast asleep on our bed with his squeaky snake. Haha, will post an update once I've found the charging cable for the videocamera we've set up!

[julies]

Hmmmm Can you visit Daycare and see just what they do with and to the dogs? They really should be assessing the dog's behaviour and then deciding when and where to place the dogs so they don't get into scraps and/or get bullied ... I know accidents do happen but what's happened for them to say he had the 'red mist again'? If there's no close supervision or it's a free for all then I'd pull him out - you don't want him to think some behaviours are OK cos Daycare allows him to do it.

SOunds like he's improving tho Brill

Julie x

[redpoppy]

I'm with Julie in that I would want to see how the daycare manage him...ive seen dog walkers just open their van door and let the dogs run riot in the country park near me

[LindsayA]

Well when we first took him, he said to let him off the lead but leave his muzzle on, as a lot of on-lead bad behaviour changes when they're off-lead. I do agree with this, and in Ted's case, there was no growling or lunging, he bounded straight over and got stuck in with the dogs, racing around, wagging like a lunatic and got growled at by a little 16 week old cocker spaniel puppy for sniffing its bum so hard he lifted it's whole hind end of the floor haha. We walked around the grounds of the place with the dogs who were all off-lead, though the area is secure, and Ted was meeting and greeting them all, even jumping in the lake after a springer spaniel who went for a paddle, before deciding he doesn't like water after all lol.

I know the owner has approximately 5 acres of private parkland where he takes the dogs, and they do run about off-lead, however obviously this is his private land and it's fully enclosed. The issue has occurred, according to the owner, where Ted was playing with a stick with a labrador out and about on one of their walks, and they have both walked carrying it, and all of sudden ted has gone for the other dog, got his tooth lodged in the dog's collar, and then both have panicked and had to be separated. His teeth are all fine, and the labrador was fine as well, and 5 minutes later they're best friends and playing again. We also had been told that he was picking on a staffie pup, but when we watched the footage from the walks (he films some of it so you can see what's they're like), it seems to us as though this little dog is just constantly following him around, and Ted has chased him down and rolled him over. Interestingly, Ted's best friend there was a big pit-bull-esque dog, uncastrated, extremely shy and VERY intimidating to look at. However, the two of them were inseparable on his first week, and this dog has now gone back to his owners as he was staying while they were on holiday, which is somewhat sad as at the end of the video you see this dog wade in, and very purposely push the staffie pup out of the way with his head.

So that was the first 'red mist' incident, and the second, again he's been racing around and having a whale of a time, and then seemingly out of nowhere has gone in for another dog, and in the process I think this little patterdale has got involved and told him off by biting his face and leg. Again, in the video from the day, you can constantly see this dog running alongside Ted at his heels, and IMO it doesn't look like they are simply running alongside each other, it looks as though Ted is doing his own thing, and this little dog is just running around after him. The owner has said to us that he thinks Ted was worked at some point, which would support what we already think about him, because he said that when he goes in he's just relentless. Focused and cannot be deterred, and then when he switches out of it, he's all bouncy and lovely again.

The difficulty that we face is that when we pull onto the drive Ted is whining and bouncing around on the back seats he's so excited to be there again, which proves that he obviously does like it, and like the owner of the place too. However, whilst I'm quite happy for Ted to be muzzled on a walk, obviously we're not going to tolerate him getting bitten like this again, aside from the financial implications, the last thing we need is for him to become fearful / aggressive from fear, after working so hard with him to build him up. Also, if he's muzzled, he can't defend himself if it does kick off again (not that any of the other dogs had any other injuries bar some bruising).

So really we're torn between giving it one more chance, withdrawing him completely, OR we work more on his behaviour, flyball classes etc, and then try him again in the future. We've all agreed that he is a ridiculously high-energy dog, and it seems to me that with other high-energy dogs there, they egg each other on and it spills over and someone gets hurt.

I just wish we could talk to him and weigh up the pros and cons, ask him about his past and what happened and try and work out why he is the way he is. I will have to stop wishing that though, because it's not going to happen, and at least now he seems happy. He's currently fast asleep, being spooned by the bf, his head on my arm, and casually kicking me with his legs haha.

[LindsayA]

Also, we checked the video footage from Thursday, and the bf leaves for work, Ted gets his squeaky snake, puts it on the bed, does the same thing with his kong, and then curls up and goes to sleep on the bed. Not a peep, and he sleeps solidly until the video cuts out.

We filmed him on friday too, and the same thing happened again; cheeky little lad even dug the duvet and sheet up and made himself a proper nest in amongst my pjs haha. Whether he's calm because of the painkillers or whether it's because he's surrounded by smells of us and a comfy familiar room, I'm not sure, but it's been so nice not to watch him barking and looking so desperately upset.

[LindsayA]

Update; we left him today, again with access to upstairs. A little bit of howling when we first left looking at the video, and then he brought the cushions off the sofa up onto the bed and made himself a nest again. No poos, no wees, no scratches at the door or bite marks in the doorframe... AND we left him longer than we intended as my bf got held up at the garage!!! Feeling proud of (not-so) little Ted. His bites are healing nicely; off the painkillers and just on antibiotics now (he's nearly finished the course! No more stinky sleep-farts!! Yay! Haha) The only downside is he keeps scratching them, knocking the scabs off and splitting them open again, so I imagine they're getting itchy now they're healing. His whole leg was a charming shade of purple for 3 days, which then spread to yellow right up through his armpit but that's all gone now, and the bite mark on his leg now looks tiny and luckily was really neat and not too deep to start with.

Regards daycare, we're not going to take him to that daycare for the time being. Whilst he loves it, we can't justify him getting injured to this degree again. If it were to happen, we wouldn't forgive ourselves and heaven forbid if the dog had bitten one of his back legs; we can see the light coming through his skin so it would have done SERIOUS damage. As it happened, the terrier got mainly skin round his mouth (big flappy lips) and punctured the muscle at the top of his leg.

What we're going to do (I think), is take him to some behaviour classes, when he can get more socialisation in a controlled environment, and we can get him more responsive to us, and HOPEFULLY, start getting him into flyball so he can burn off some of this energy. He loves tennis balls and running, so seems like something he would really enjoy.

We're still working step by step on the separation anxiety, and feeling much more positive about it all than when I started this thread. Thank you so much everyone for your input

[LindsayA]

Just a quick post to say he's all healed now from his scrap, and the fur is growing back over the scars so hopefully he won't look like such a thug in a few weeks! He's not been back to daycare, but he's much happier in the house. We're still filming him, and not had any more poos or wees in the house, nor is he scratching / chewing the doorframes any more. He managed to shut himself downstairs last week, and even then he only scratched one doorframe and didn't wee or poo.

All in all, we're really happy. He's stopped barking, howling and whining completely, he normally comes straight up onto our bed when we leave and looks out the window, and then toddles off downstairs and gets the cushions off the sofa, carries them upstairs and then digs about in our bed to make it all nesty and goes to sleep. He has also started borrowing our shoes too. He doesn't take our other clothes, only shoes, and he doesn't chew them or damage them, he just carries them about and then goes to sleep with him. A real highlight was coming home last week to find my boyfriend's big heavy motorbike boot in the middle of the bed lol.

We've stopped using the DAP diffuser altogether, but it's nice to know that we have one so that if we need it we can plug it back in again.

Here he is at Newbiggin-by-the-sea yesterday. We think it was his first time on the beach; he wasn't quite sure of the sand at first.  He also ate some seaweed, and chased the sea as the tide went out and then stood there and watched it as it come back in.  By the time he realised it wasn't going to stop when it got to him, he got sploshed up to his knees hahah.

Chewing on some driftwood he found...

[LindsayA]

Hi All,

Just thought I'd post an update on his progress. We've now had him close on a year, and he has come on in leaps and bounds. I'm not really sure I can remember an exact turning point, but slowly slowly he stopped scratching the walls and the howling settled down. We've just moved house at the beginning of september and thought this would trigger off his anxiety, but he seems more settled here than he ever did at our old place, thank goodness!

We're still being mindful that he is probably prone to it, and practising leaving him alone regularly, encouraging him to be independent etc, but it looks as though we have come through the other side of it, and Ted is a much happier boy,

Thanks for your help everyone


Lindsay

[vickyb]

Thats such good news! I've just read the thread, missed the day care issues before and I must say that I really didn't like the sound of the day care at all or the guys attitude really, far too laid back for me.
It's lovely when you look back after that first year and see just how far you've all come isn't it  you should be proud of both Ted and yourselves

[sharonhigh45]

Lindsay great to read your update so pleased he has settled down, perseverance and kindness pays off in the end.x

[LindsayA]

Floppy pup at the new house with BF

[greybeard]

Lovely update - Ted looks a happy boy now .All your hard work has paid off - Cath.

[deborahburt]

Lovely to hear your boy has turned the corner. Well done for all your hard work.

[LindsayA]

Thought I may just resurrect this post for anyone who was wondering what happened to little Ted. He's been absolutely fabulous, no more issues with separation anxiety, and he even managed to be left at my parents house by himself without getting upset. However, some sad news was that we had to say goodbye to him 4 weeks ago, because he was diagnosed a couple of months ago with terminal bone cancer. We got an extra 6 weeks with him after diagnosis to do a bucket list, and he got to eat all the naughty foods and do exactly as he liked. We are both heartbroken, but can at least take some comfort that we gave him a fab life while we had him.

We've since got another rescue sighthound, so are going through all this work again with him, because he has separation anxiety too lol. We must be a glutton for punishment!