Separation Anxiety and Barking

[Joe]

My girlfriend and I live in Milwaukee in an apartment with 4 units in the building. We recently adopted Starr, a 7-year-old shepherd-rottie mix (also maybe part keshaun, or however you spell it). She's the calmest dog in the world. She had horrible separation anxiety at first, but she's calmed down (now the anxiety's just at a moderate level). The things we have to do are to give her a kong toy (or a molecule ball), leave the radio on, put food away, and put the kitchen garbage can locked up in the bathroom. We also have to put up TWO baby gates on the stairs (stacked up vertically to a height of 3 feet) + the 8 inches of the stairs for a height of almost 4 feet) because she feels an impulse to "eliminate" upstairs when we're gone for more than an hour.

Basically, we've learned to live like this until now, when our landlord got a complaint of a "viscious german shepherd" barking loudly. She's the calmest dog in the world when we're home, but, as this report indicates (and as we've heard a few times when we've had to park our cars a block or so away), she seems to bark at passers-by.

We're right now torn between two ideas. One is to close the windows as a stopgap to muffle the sound while we do fake departures when we can. The other is to keep her confined within our bedroom (where she sleeps normally), where she can't see the sidewalk to bark at passers-by. The second option, if it works, would be the most painless, but we're worried that she'll try to escape from the bedroom like she tried to do with our front door and with my girlfriend's dad's door (causing lots of damage to the woodwork, as you can imagine).

Basically, I'm looking for other solutions besides these two, or to see if one of these two solutions is really the most painless.

[Joe]

also, as a side note, the reason we don't want to cover the windows so she can't see the sidewalk is because we're afraid it'll only make her more anxious that she can't see outside from there, since that's where she always makes visual contact of us when we're getting home.

[Kosy]

Is she crate trained? If she felt secure in her crate that would remove the "elimination" problem, as most dogs won't eliminate in their sleeping area. And she wouldn't see the passersby to bark. Some people think that crates are cruel when in fact dogs regard their crate as a safe haven or as their den. If you try the crate, you should try to go home at lunch to walk her so she can pee. Is this possible?

Would she be content in a crate?

[Joe]

we've looked into crate training, but both the behavior psychologist and the vet have told us that 1) she's too old to be crate trained effectively; and 2) she'd try too hard to escape rather than be content in a crate.

The "elimination" is only a problem if she has access to the upstairs; the only real problem that we don't know how to cope with is the barking.

[Kosy]

Barking is a difficult one. I'll try to find a good link or two. i have a standard poodle who likes to bark. And nothing has worked except a citronella collar. The problem with barking is that it's self-rewarding. The dog sees a burglar approaching--mailman--and barks. The mailman walks away. The dog realizes that the burglar--mailman--was chased away by his/her barking, thus reinforcing the behavior.

Here is a link with many good rticles on barking. Hopefully one will work for you.

http://www.wonderpuppy.net/canwehelp/noise.htm

[Joe]

Thanks for the link. I didn't want to blow another paycheck on her right away until I got some feedback as to what's going to work. It sounds like this is an instant version of a bitter apple sort of treatment that can correct the treatment without us there (which is the biggest key).

My main concern still is that she's an older dog (7), and will have a harder time learning. I guess she's got no choice, though, since the neighbors started complaining.

[Glacier]

She's not too old to learn anything and everything! I have crate trained a 10 year old dog(now 12 and hangs out in his crate at his own discretion!). It wasn't much harder than crate training a puppy! In some ways it was easier as he had better bladder control! Teach her whatever it is you want her to learn in the same way you would a young puppy--gentle, patient and consistent. She'll suprise you with how fast and how much she can learn at 7 years old.

[ginagt]

Hi,
I agree about the crate training I think it is a much better option that a bark collar. I have a 9 year old Golden Retriever who barks excessivly when we get near water because she wants to go swimming. I talked to our trainer about the barking and the idea of a bark collar, she said that sometimes the collars work but most dogs figure out that after a certain amout of barking the yucky stuff goes away and then they can continue to bark.
Crate training is also going to protect her from doing any more damage to your stuff.
It will take time but in the long run will be worth it. Good luck,
Gina

[Joe]

update

I've asked the behavior psychologist again, and she again said that a crate is out of the question. Her barrier issues are too strong, so she'll end up injuring herself when she's alone.

We've tried to restrict her access in the house to just our room (in the back of the apartment, very secluded). We basically went through all of the crate training protocols for the room, even though she's already fully comfortable in there (she sleeps in there with us). We've tried leaving her in there while we're gone, and again, she barks and tries to escape. Once she's out, she'll run up and down the house barking and howling.

I'm really at a loss.

[Joe]

also, the main concerns are not the pooping and peeing (she hasn't done that in awhile, either). Our main worries are her barrier issues when alone and the barking and howling when alone.

[Thandi]

I've also had complaints from one neighbor about our rescue Mika barking when we are not there. Just before we left for overseas he complained to me, and then again to our housesitter. We are back now and I was considering the shock-collar or citronella collar, both ideas I hate. I plan to call my behaviorist people and ask their advice. I understand she is just protecting her property.

Mika has the run of the house and back yard while we are at work. I can see by the marks on the front window that she really has a go at anyone passing.

Never mind that this wonderfully hypocritical neighbor has had a dog locked in his back yard for 7 years, with only a basic shelter, and never allowed in the house. It barks from the second they leave until they return. The entire neighborhood has complained to him over the years.

Mika hates him and will go for him if she gets close. My trainer says she has good taste! :D

[Joe]

Another factor to consider when thinking about bark collars is that 1) dogs with anxiety will only get more anxious and will take their anger out on something else; 2) some dogs realize that, with the citrona collar, they can keep barking long enough for the stuff to run out; and 3) some dogs learn to bark to the sides so they don't smell the stuff directly.

[Pembroke_Corgi]

Dear Joe,

Maybe your dog Starr would feel safer if she were confined to your room but she could still see the rest of your house- have you tried putting up the baby gates in the doorway to your room so she can't destroy the door?
I know barking can be such a problem because it is self-reinforcing for most dogs. There is a very good book that addresses problem barking (and other problems), it's called Outwitting Dogs by Terry Ryan and Kirsten Mortensen. One tip I found really useful - and it also worked with one of my dogs who had slight seperation issues when I adopted her- is to make sure that when you are not in the house and you hear your dog barking, do not come back inside as your dog might see this as a reward for barking.
Well, good luck with Starr, I hope everything works out ok!

Pembroke_Corgi

[Joe]

yeah, we've done the gate thing... she just directs her anger out on the gates, and has completely chewed through the woodwork on one of the gates, thereby allowing her to jump the lower gate (we'd stack 2 gates vertically for a height of about 50 inches). We're getting a metal gate.

As for the barking, we ignore her if she's whining / whimpering / barking out of loneliness.


update: we've had a chance to do "mock" leaves, and have worked up to 20 minutes pretty quickly (a week). Our behavior psych. said that after 30 minutes, then we can progress much more quickly for a benchmark of 1 or 2 hours.

[Den Anne Pen]

Welcome Joe

What i do for Cheyanne who's 4yrs now is take her to the park for a wild run for about 30 mins then i we get home i give her a treat and assure her that we'll be right back and to be a good girl she's usally so tired she just passes out cold.

And when we get home i tell her what a good girl she was and it's play time and treat time again it seems to have worked with me not sure if this will help you GOOD LUCK

My vet and others has always said to act like it's no big deal when you leave or when you come back but that approuch never worked for me

[Den Anne Pen]

I have also never ignored her when she barks and where home she is very happy to please and if i tell her quiet she knows i don't want her barking she will stop and then i would reward her when she stopped and let her know she was a good girl for listening i would wait a few moments though so she did'nt think she was getting the treat for barking

[Joe]

I've tried playing / running for a half hour in the mornings with her with the same result.

For the time being, we've signed her up in doggy day care a few days a week while the drug therapy kicks in

We've been following a relaxation protocol given to us by the behavior psychologist; the first 2 weeks consisted of her sitting / laying while one of us caused normally "disturbing" things for anxious dogs (like running around the room clapping, stepping out of the room, talking to imaginary people down the hall, etc). The goal of this training is to keep her CALM... in other words, we only reward her if she's completely relaxed.

This training has worked wonders, and now we're on to "phase 2" of the protocol, which calls for fake leaves. We've actually gotten up to about 15 minutes with her being relatively relaxed (she still looks out the window for us, but at least she cleans up her kong toy and anything else covered in peanut butter before she starts looking around!), so I think that's progress in itself. We can really leave her for about an hour and a half at this point without her barking or being destructive (other than "rearranging" our bed and couches sometimes).

Just wanted to share the update, and to tell everyone that the behavior psychologist at our humane society (the Milwaukee one) is AWESOME. At the very least, this might hopefully serve as a good future reference or other type of remedy that has worked for a suffering dog. I'll keep updates coming as they happen.....

Thanks to everyone again for their suggestions, too!

[lolainbc]

I had the same problem with my dog, when we got him at 8 months we were his 3rd home. he had serious seperation anxiety if i went to the corner store by the time i got home he would have torn apart the couch cushion, it got so bad he pulled up the carpet chewed the walls and several pieces of furniture. I took him to several trainers and was convinced to try crating. If you psychologist or whatever says its a bad idea i dont know.... if i were you id give it a try, start out with 15-20 mins mine didnt like it all that much to start out with but now he loves his crate its a safe place for him and it sounds like your dog has had alot of change and new homes too. you have to make it comfortable for them give him a good chew toy and a comfortable blanket and hope it works. im not a professional but if i were you id give it a try. i feel for you!:)

[Joe]

our dog views our room as a safe place, but she has SERIOUS barrier issues... that's why the crate training has been ruled out by our vet and behavior psych.