My Brother needs some help with his dog, Jypsy.

[Cataholic]

Hi Everyone,
My brother, John, has an 8 year old lab mix, Jypsy. Jypsy lives with my brother, his wife, and their son, their daughter just left for college. Jypsy also has a dog sister, Jasmine. Jypsy was a rescue, unknown past, and came to live with them about 4 years ago.

Jypsy seems to be destructive when left alone, maybe suffering from some separation anxiety. She will sometimes (but not every time) chew, destroy, etc, objects- pillows, comforters, things like that. I think he said even hard objects, but, I can't remember now. If they are home, Jypsy is an angel. She does suffer from epilespy, which is pretty much controlled by phenobartitrol. There doesn't seem to be any connection between the eplilepsy and the destructive activities. She also has occasional bouts of diahrea, but that could be food related, or stress induced.

My brother is thinking of exploring crating Jypsy during the day. But, he also wonders if there aren't other ways of positively reducing Jypsy's stress levels besides the crate. I asked if she got daily exercise, and while he said he does throw the ball to her in the back yard, it isn't regular. I thought that might be a good place to begin- exercise, but, told him there are many people on here that know tons and tons more than I do about dogs, and I would ask for help here.

He has no plans to re-home Jypsy. But, he is a bit stressed by the events of late.

Can anyone help with this issue?

TIA,
Cataholic

[4 Dog Mother]

Separation Anxiety is a tough thing. We crate our dogs during the day and they seem to do fine with that. I have noticed that when I am home they sleep a lot of the day anyway so now they just have a definite place to nap. There are some stress relievers out there sold in stores or the vets that claim to calm dogs down. I have not tried them - I don't know how well they work. Tiring a dog out could possibly work but it would have to be done on a regular basis. Taking a long walk each morning or throwing the ball for a fair amount of time. Snoopy was crazy with separation anxiety but he would just stay close to the door waiting for me or whine a lot. I don't really know what to do when a dog really gets destructive.

Oh, yeah, I watched that Victoria Stillwater on TV and she gives dogs a Kong type of toy filled with treats to give them something positive to do while their owners are gone.

[Karen]

Definitely sounds like separation anxiety - there are a lot of threads about that here, and many ways to help train her away from it. Keeping her crated during the day may be the best short-term solution, and maybe even long-term, it would give her a "safe haven" during her "alone" time.

[Seravieve]

We went through this with Bunny... She destroyed EVERYTHING she could get her mouth on while J was at work. We began crating her and waalaa! Nothing else was destroyed. Zeke, Bunny and Eli were all crate trained, and never had a problem with being in there all day while we were at work. Eventually they'll grow out of the need for the crate, I believe. We began leaving them out during the day and nothing has happened really. Just have to keep the trash empty. We tried to crate train Treo, but that was a disaster. So hopefully your brother will have better luck with Jyspy than we did with Treo. (She ate her way out of a METAL crate and folded one side in on herself and escaped.)