Separation anxiety, again.

[Mike_and_Me]

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.

[Lovetodream88]

I get the struggle. Ours is not as bad but Joey has had it since we got him. It was so bad that just being in the bathroom with my dad was not enough when he was showering and Joey would actually get in the corner of the shower and sit down and wait. When we left him to get neutered he cried the whole time. Sometimes you might have think about medicine for a short time. Callie had this weird anxiety thing for about a month and she went on a medicine for a full month and was able to come off of it. I got my composer chews in the other day to try with Joey. Have you tried training any tricks? Tricks seem to have given Joey a some confidence.

[Mike_and_Me]

Thank you for sharing. Poor Joey(( Mike's fine alone in the room when I'm at home, he can stay in his crate or roaming around no problem if I have to work in another room. Also, we do little training sessions every other day and he knows lots of tricks. I don't know..

I wish we would have a behaviorist here, I'm sure it's something little that i'm missing in my behavior towards him or maybe in my routine as I'm leaving the house, and just not being able to figure it out. Yesterday he was in full blown panic mode, today I left him for few hours and he just slept in his crate and didn't make a peep. Something's triggering his panic, I wish I would know what is it!

Did going on the medicine help Callie in such a short term?

[Lovetodream88]

Originally Posted by Mike_and_Me

Thank you for sharing. Poor Joey(( Mike's fine alone in the room when I'm at home, he can stay in his crate or roaming around no problem if I have to work in another room. Also, we do little training sessions every other day and he knows lots of tricks. I don't know..

I wish we would have a behaviorist here, I'm sure it's something little that i'm missing in my behavior towards him or maybe in my routine as I'm leaving the house, and just not being able to figure it out. Yesterday he was in full blown panic mode, today I left him for few hours and he just slept in his crate and didn't make a peep. Something's triggering his panic, I wish I would know what is it!

Did going on the medicine help Callie in such a short term?

I think it would be much easier if they could talk but kinda freaky lol. Callie chewed on her crate one night and broke a tooth and then suddenly had very bad anxiety at bed time she would pant all night and pace and just freak out. We tried many many different things and nothing worked so I had to ask the vet for something. They gave it to her for a month and things were much better so we decided to take her off of it and everything was still fine.

[Yorktowny]

Originally Posted by Mike_and_Me

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..

Well I wish you the best and undertand when you want to pity yourself for a little bit--I get it!! Mine still is struggling with issues and my trainer thinks its separation related maybe to, but whats most important is that the struggle can be real and you can do it and I wish i could help moer but i am really not an expert on this at all and in fact have way much to lern.