 Separation anxiety, again.
Mike has a very strong bond with me and a separation anxiety. I'm not looking for advice anymore lol just to pity myself I guess. Last year after 10 months of nothing working I did crate train him and he did great for 4 months. In the first week of training we literally went from him barking after 3 seconds in the crate to him just going to sleep there for few hours. The crate is comfortable, I'd give him a little walk or exercise before leaving and kong stuffed with food/treats every time. I also got a subscription to a cool website Digital dogsitter, which lets you record you voice and if your pup barks when you're not a home the program catches it and plays some of your voiceclips. Which, after few months, I was even thinking of cancelling since he didn't bark anymore when I was leaving. He'd eat his kong, lie down and sleep (I have a camera set up to watch him). Everything was great, until a week ago he suddenly is back to square one.. panic, panting, shaking, not caring about food, goes into a non stop crying bark. So back to the training we are. Today is day 4 and he is doing a little better, I can see his panic subsiding a bit. I'm giving him Composure chews half hour before training. I think my mistake was that even through the months he was doing well, I could've dedicated some time and do little training sessions on the weekend. I really didn't think he can roll back on this progress just like this.
It seems that separation anxiety is just something we'll have to tackle over and over again. |