How will I break my dog from me leaving the house?

[Network23]

I have a Lab/chow, very cool dog, mellow, friendly, Im home all the time, and will need to get a 9-5 job soon... I have to take her everywhere, if i left her in the back yard, she jumps the fence, or crys and scratches to come in the house.. I have to take her with me everywhere i go... I left her in the house when i first got her, she was sooo mellow, big mistake, she destroyed my blinds. she doesnt like being alone... Seperation anxiety... so... How should i go about having her get used to the back yard, she asks to go out like 2x a day do her business. and come back in.
I live in the high desert, where 120 degrees in the summer and 30 degrees in the winter is average.

[aly]

Hi, I've had more experience than I want with seperation anxiety. I have 2 dogs who suffer from it, but I have gotten it to an incredibly manageable level, as opposed to how severe it was when I first adopted each of them.

One of the easiest things to try is to ignore your dog 15 minutes before you leave, and 15 minutes after you get home. The idea is to take away the anxiety from the situation. If you come home excited and full of hugs and kisses for your dog right away, the whole time the dog is alone she will be filled with anxiety waiting for the moment you burst through the door. Since they need an outlet for this anxiety, they will start chewing, digging, barking, etc.

I might suggest crate training your dog until you can trust her alone in the house. The weather outside doesn't seem ideal to leave her in. Also there is the danger of her jumping over the fence.

When you first start leaving her, only leave for short periods of time, even 5 minutes is good. What I did with my poodle is I spent a whole day just walking out of doors and leaving him on the other side. The first time I only stayed out about 15 seconds. Then I increased it and increased it. He eventually learned that when I leave, I DO come back. It is important to not come back if your dog is barking or doing any other kind of destructive bahvior. When she is quiet and being good, you can come back in the door. If you come in while she is barking, it will condition her to bark and expect you to come through the door. Then she'd never stop barking until you were home.

Another trick that worked for my dogs is covering their crate with a blanket. I also play classical or new age music softly and leave a stuffed kong in the crate. Reece refuses to eat treats or play with toys while I'm gone, but I still leave it in there for him just in case. The kong helps Lolly a lot. I actually don't crate my dogs anymore since there are 2 of them and it makes them not feel totally alone. I leave them in my bedroom though so they don't see me go out the front door. All they usually do is lay directly in front of the door and wait for me to get back. Occasionally they have relapses, but they are doing great.

The most important thing to remember is to not make a big deal about leaving, and don't coddle bad behavior. I have to go now, but I can write more on this when I get back.

[ September 13, 2001: Message edited by: aly ]

[Dixieland Dancer]

Aly had a lot of good advice. I will just elaborate a little more.

Daily walks and romping for at least 20 to 30 minutes are recommended for much needed exercise. Do this about 30 to 40 minutes before your scheduled departure if possible. A tired out dog is more likely to sleep while your gone. Changing the dog to a low protein brand of dog food may also help curb his excess energy.

Decreasing your dog's dependence on you may be the biggest challenge for an owner of a dog who suffers from separation anxiety. Temporarily develope an attitude of nonchalance towards your dog. Instead of showing your own worries about what will happen in your absence, act as though it's not a big deal as you prepare to leave the house. Since there are usually lots of cues to your departure, putting on your shoes, picking up your keys or your coat, etc... it's helpful to desensitize your dog by running through these acts several times without actually leaving. In the evening, for example, pick up your keys and head for the door. Your dog will become a bit agitated, but will see that your're not really leaving, and settle down. Do this a few times a night. The next step is to leave for just a minute or two. Slowly increasing the time you are gone. Remember not to go crazy when you get back in the house.

Strongly follow Aly's advice to ignore the dog 15 to 20 minutes before you leave and after you come home.

Give the dog a pleasurable substitute for your attention while he's alone to help lessen his anxiety. A chew toy or similar treat can provide a pleasant pastime for him. Make sure you link the treat to your dog's independence by giving it to him only five to ten minutes before you leave. You can play soothing sounds for comfort in the house while you are absent.

While you are treating your dog's separation anxiety, it's important to ban lap time, sleeping on your bed, and to discourage him from following you around the house until the condition has eased. If he does follow you, take him gently to his bed and command him to go lie down, then praise him for compliance.

In severe cases it is necessary to medicate the dog. I would not recommend this before trying the above techniques for at least 8 weeks. If you don't see positive results then you may want to consult your vet about medicating the dog (only as a very last resort).

While none of this is going to happen over night you should start to see results within weeks and feel completely confident that your dog will be okay when you leave after 8 weeks of consistent training.

Best Wishes for success!

[RachelJ]

I'm a little concerned. Is it your intent to leave her outside while you are at work?

[aly]

Looks like Dixieland Dancer has covered most of what else I was going to say Try all of this with your dog, and if you're still having problems, let us know as we could both probably elaborate even more. I wish you the best of luck. This can be stressful at first to deal with, but the improvement WILL eventually come, slowly but surely.

[Network23]

I dont know if I want to keep her out or in, the weather here goes from 30deg to 130 deg... It will depend on the month. As for wearing her out, or giving her somthing to play with... probably wont work.
She is lazy, she sleeps all day, when SHE wants to play, she will let you know, which is about 10 minutes a week... She has gotten into the habbit of hopping the fence, im gonna post a seperate post on this one. But she doesnt care if I or friends am here, shes happy for about 5 minutes before going to sleep... my friends are gonna give me there large plastic dog house, so im thinking of trying to train her/block her in with a gate into it for awhile. I left her alone once and she f*cked up my blinds. I have to take her on errands with me during the day. I guess it will have to be tough love with her, she's young, she'll get over it.

[ktreva52]

Well, you have gotten some good advice. I would add crate training and obedience training to the list. The first, because a room of her own (an airline type, not a wire type) will give her the "den" security and keep her contained when you're not there. It must fit her properly, one and a half times her body length is best. That allows her to lay out on her side, but not have enough room to make messes or to really get a running start at the door, if she is so inclined.

Obedience training will help you both. It will teach you how to work with her in a positive manner and it will teach her that she is not the leader of the pack and what the "rules" are. It should give her enough self-confidence to accept being alone for periods of time. Taking her with you all the time is simply adding to the problem. She expects to go when you do and anything else is not acceptable. So, get a decent crate (not the doghouse as she will get out of it no matter what you do) and teach her to go into it with treats. Allow her to go in and out at first and then close her in for a minute or two. Praise, praise, praise if she does well. Then, after a while, you can put her in the crate for a bit while you are home and let her get used to it that way. Eventually, she'll accept the crate as her own. Do not put bedding or toys in to begin with as she may just destroy them and choke on the pieces. Then, when you have a short jaunt to take, say going to the store for a soda, put her in her crate with a small treat and go. When you get back, if she's being good, let her out. If she's barking and acting out, leave her in until she settles, then, let her out.

Please don't leave her outside when you're gone. Not only is she likely to go over the fence, but the heat at that altitude can kill her. You have very little pollution or heavier atmosphere there to modify the heat and unless you keep her out of doors all the time (which I abhor), she will not be used to the differences in temperature and will suffer stroke or exhaustion.

As for food, it's not protein that makes a dog hyper, it's corn. Are you feeding her a good quality dog food? They may appear more expensive, but if you feed her a chicken and rice or lamb and rice diet, you should find that you are feeding less overall and the lack of corn in the diet (a complex carbohydrate that keeps the blood sugar up for longer, thus creating an active dog) might make her more mellow. I know you said that she sleeps a lot, but most of that is a sham. She is telling you that you are free to do what you want within the confines of the house, but she has to be with you any other time. This is a very subtle dominance behavior. That's why I suggest the obedience work as well. You also might want to look at how consistent your/her schedule is. Do you feed her at the same times every day? Do you pretty much have a routine you follow? You will have when you go back to work (have you considered a third shift job when she's more inclined to be asleep?) and you might consider setting one up now. Get up about the same time every day, let her out and then feed her while you get ready to go out. Another trip out for more potty and then into the crate with a piece of carrot or her food or other small treat. Then, go out the door for a few minutes. Don't come back in when she's noisy (if she is) and don't make a big deal of it when you come back. Put her out to potty again and then just act like life is fine when she comes back in. If she wants to play, fine, play a while. Since you will have to have some sort of routine when you return to the working world, it might as well begin before then so you both have time to adjust to it.

Another note on the food thing -- a good quality food means less mess in the yard -- think about that.

Hope this helps and good luck.

[RachelJ]

Hey Chris, it is good to have you back. We missed you very much. Dog Haiku just came up as a topic and I went back to our original one and enjoyed those old posts all over again, of which you had a few. I hope you can stay with us for a while. My husband and I are still thinking of maybe moving to Tennessee one day.