Separation Anxiety and Barking

[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.