Major seperation issue causing lots stress

[emc]

Have you tried leaving him for just a few minutes and then gradually increasing the time he's left alone?

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[Karen]

As emc suggested, you need to gradually up the time you can be away without him getting anxious. It will be annoying to you, but if three hours is fine, start with three hours, then the next day make it 3 hours 15 minutes, keep it at that for a few days, then increase by another 15 minutes. Don't make a fuss over him when you do come back, either. It will be hard, ignore him as much as possible when you first get back - "no big deal, nothing happening here," and then when it is your choice, call him over for some petting and praise.

And a Kong filled with peanut butter is a good time waster for a dog - will keep him busy ...

[ovedio]

We have done what you've suggested from day one.
We started by leaving him for like 10 minutes then gradually building up on the time. At one point it felt like we were making strive, but then he goes back to stressing out (That's why we went to medication, both natural and prescribed)
We've done everything that every books has mentioned. We don't acknowledge him for about the first 20 minutes of when walking through the door, even if he is acting like Dion from the Flintstones, then I give him a treat and rub. We never make a fuss when either of us leave.

It really does feel like he turn in something else the minute the both of us leave, I mean total Jeykell and Hyde issues!We're at our wits end.

[Karen]

We have done what you've suggested from day one.
We started by leaving him for like 10 minutes then gradually building up on the time. At one point it felt like we were making strive, but then he goes back to stressing out (That's why we went to medication, both natural and prescribed)
We've done everything that every books has mentioned. We don't acknowledge him for about the first 20 minutes of when walking through the door, even if he is acting like Dion from the Flintstones, then I give him a treat and rub. We never make a fuss when either of us leave.

It really does feel like he turn in something else the minute the both of us leave, I mean total Jeykell and Hyde issues!We're at our wits end.

Have you tried distractions like the PB-Kong? Does he get long walks to tire him out before you leave?

[ovedio]

Yes with the Toys.
If we are going to be gone for more then an hour, like to the movies or dinner we leave the toys pack with treat and he has like six of them. But what we've notice is that the toys will be in the exact same place that we placed them before leaving. He ignores them completely. We once also left out some of our t-shirt so he would have our scent, but that didn't work.

Walks, he gets two 20 minute walks in the morning, 30 min. late evening walk and long walk in the afternoon (depending on the weather and hour walk or a run around the park).

You see, I mean we have done every by the book...I mean Like I sad he is so normal execpt when we leave he's side.

[littledog]

ovedio, I can sympathize with you. We have a similar situation with our dog, so if you ever reach a solution I'd love to know how you went about it. Our dog is still young (12 months) but has longstanding separation issues. We've tried everything by the book, including toys, kongs, increasing separation time, ignoring him upon returning, etc. He just ignores everything we leave for him to do, including kongs. We never leave him long. So far, he's never ben left longer than 20 minutes, but this is really starting to impact on the life of our family - for instance, we can't all go out as a family because someone always has to stay behind with the dog. We're thinking about trying to find another small dog to see if this will help reassure him when we're gone. Does anyone have any experience with this? I don't want to make the problem worse, just help him relax, and give him something to do until we return.