We got 'Frank' a few months ago and he's doing great so far. Our only small issue is leaving him for an hour or two (as you have to do from time to time).
We basically follow our night-time routine - shut in the dining room with his cage - door open - so free to walk around (he just likes sleeping in his cage). He goes through night no problem like this and we don't hear a peep from him. But do this in the day and he immediately senses we're not in the house (even if we just stand in the garden) and starts howling. Not a major problem as neighbours can't hear him from the dining room but we don't want him to feel distressed.
For 95% of the time he's with someone as he comes to work with me every day and there's generally someone always in the house. So his time alone is minimal.
We just need to break the attachment issue.
Frank enjoying the sun...
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Plenty of good advice on the web if you have a look, but essentially it's about building it up slowly, like literally starting by leaving them in a room on their own for 30 seconds.
And, even when you are around, you have to ignore the dog sometimes. They love attention, and if you give them attention all the time they'll want it all the time.
Cheap chinese webcam so you can see what he's doing and leave him for 15mins then 20mins etc etc. You might find if you're not far enough from the house he realises you're still nearby so will bark and whine but if you go properly out he may calm down after 5mins and have a snooze. When we had our puppy I'd always go out after taking them for a walk or playing with them so you know they're tired and just want to sleep. Hopefully once he figures out that you always come back he'll calm down a bit.
As someone who lives next door to a house with dogs that never f*****g stop barking when the owners are out, thanks for trying to address this and please encourage all other owners to sort it...
For 95% of the time he’s with someone as he comes to work with me every day and there’s generally someone always in the house. So his time alone is minimal.
Missed this bit, and this will be a cause of the problem. He has to get used to being on his own, even when there's people in the house. I'm about to go to my home office, and the dog's going to be left in the house this morning. He can come and sit/sleep in the office this afternoon.
Our dogs tend to be less barky if we leave Radio4 or LBC playing when we’re out.
As IHN says.. build up slowly.
Ultimately you need to do this for the dogs sake... my mum is really bad and when she's been in hospital etc. I'd get 600 mile drive to look after a very unhappy dog... who just wasn't used to her not being there 24x7.
Thankfully her latest dog (Jack Russel) is being accustomed to her leaving and coming back and despite being a nervous rescue copes much better already.
Put him in his cage and go out for an hour
Preferably when your neighbours are out
Keeping going back to him will assure him that if he demands attention he’ll get it
Tough love wins quickly with this type of thing
I have three that can be left for hours even separately
Give him a run or some other form of exercise (training session, mental game of find or whatever) to wear him out a bit, make sure he's been to the toilet.
Build up to it as well. Left in the other room while you're around. Leave the house for 10 mins, come back. In some ways, making a massive fuss of the dog before you leave ("back soon, be good...!") is worse; leaving the house should just be seen as a normal part of your day-to-day routine, not an area of concern.
Also, make sure the dog is not getting attention all day, it needs some alone time where it can be left with a chew toy or just pottering around the garden.
In the process of doing this with ours at the moment. He's 6 months old and had constant company over lockdown and we need to wean him off company in preparation of us, hopefully, going on holiday at the back end of July and leaving him with a local dog carer.
It started with us all making a fuss about going out and putting him into his cage with a few treats, a chew that we know will take him a reasonable time to work through and a couple of toys, then leaving him only for a couple of minutes at first but then extending the time. Also we're taking him to visit the carer who's be looking after him if we make it on holiday so he can form a relationship with her and get used to her house. We're also making sure we socialise him with other dogs as there will be other dogs she looks after at the same time.
He likes his cage so that's good, but obviously he gets anxious when we lock him into his cage and all walk to. Not sure if he settles down while we're out but when we return he seems no worse off for the experience. No signs of being traumatised, happy to see us and not reluctant when we repeat the exercise. But we are taking it slowly.
He's not really a barkey dog so not sure if he barks while we're out. Cant hear it from outside if he does.
Yeah - might get a cheap webcam - like thebibbles says maybe we aren't far enough away and that he does settle when we're further away.
He's quite an independent chap, he'll take himself off to another room to sleep and potter round the garden alone. And an all adult household so no little kids pestering him.
cheddarchallenged
Full Member
Our dogs tend to be less barky if we leave Radio4 or LBC playing when we’re out.
When we had dogs we always left a radio on when they were alone during the day.
Our dogs tend to be less barky if we leave Radio4 or LBC playing when we’re out
If you are leaving your dogs alone with Nick Ferrari I'll be calling the RSPCA to save them from that abuse.
We stick Smooth Radio on for Frank at night - nothing like bland radio to send you to sleep! 🙂
Cheap webcam is a good idea. What I used when got out first dog 5 years ago and just found that he slept all morning just the same as when I am in the house!
My neighbours (not directly next door thankfully) had a dog that would bark from the second they leave until the second they got back in the house.
They got another dog to keep it company.
They now have two dogs that bark from the second they leave...
They took advice from an animal behaviorist that was similar to the above - make sure you do leave them but for short periods at first. They said the thinking is that dogs perception of time is very different from our own and the amount of time you leave them is less important than making sure you leave them, but whilst you do so make them comfortable and work to distract them (radio was a suggestion there too).
One thing they have ended up doing is putting them outside when they go out, the constant distractions make some difference but they have not stopped the barking yet - and when it starts it doesn't stop. Over time everyone hopes this improves!
What we did with our lockdown pup was;
First we'd lock him in his crate whilst we were out (this was fine when he was a baby, but as he got older this ended up with a howling distressed pooch.
So then we gave him the run of the kitchen. Worked for a while, but eventually he began screaming the house down after a while.
Then we gave him the run of the downstairs (minus the living room) and he's fine now.
Don't quite understand why that's better, but he's pretty content to lie in the hallway and sleep whilst we're out.
dogs perception of time is very different from our own
Absolutely
Up to about 15 mins and my dog is not basically bothered. 16 mins or a half day, she's like 'I THOUGHT I'D NEVER SEE YOU AGAIN!!! I'M SO HAPPY!!!!'
Then we gave him the run of the downstairs (minus the living room) and he’s fine now.
Don’t quite understand why that’s better, but he’s pretty content to lie in the hallway and sleep whilst we’re out.
Most likely is that he can assume 'control' over the house by being by the entrance and can welcome you back the second he door opens. My mum's dog was the same, leave him in the kitchen and he go nervous and would pee on the floor (hardly ever barks anyway, only when you arrive) but let him roam the lounge and he'd sit on his chair or the sofa content until someone cane home.
Start small, build up slowly, have a set routine.
Obviously if he craves company then what you need is a second puppy.
You're welcome.
Well done being a good dog owner, my neighbours dog used to bark all day as they left the poor thing on his own all day, used to bark successfully for an hour or so, then could barely make a noise as he d barked so much.
I told the owner many times to look after him, offered to walk the dog but no success. Poor dog was never walked or socialised so went mad whenever a car or person passed.
So ran out of ideas, I put a note on his gate saying please look after your dog. Maybe it was the embarrassment for passers by to see, but it worked, they now look after him more.
Good luck with your dog, well done trying to do the best.
Cougar
Full Member
Obviously if he craves company then what you need is a second puppy.
Perhaps the cleaner could keep him company? 🙃
One other thing:
https://www.adaptil.com/uk
Get the calming thing with diffuser. Made the world of difference to my (quite highly strung!) rescue dog.
Some of it was just normal "settling into a new house" nerves and she doesn't really have much in the way of separation anxiety but this did wonders very quickly in calming her down generally.
He’s quite an independent chap, he’ll take himself off to another room to sleep and potter round the garden alone. And an all adult household so no little kids pestering him.
The only problem with this is that his time alone is on his terms not yours. Our dog will happily sit staring out the front room window for hours when he chooses to do so but don’t think you can put him in there alone…
But as all others have said, build up slowly, when you do return after even just 1 min back in to the room don’t even acknowledge him just go about doing your things. And I’ve heard a radio on in the background helps too.
When you get back in, give NO attention until they are calm. Once they have laid down priase and repeat.
Currently doing this ourselves and the results have been ok so far.
One other thing:
https://www.adaptil.com/ukGet the calming thing with diffuser. Made the world of difference to my (quite highly strung!) rescue dog.
Looks like the canine version of Feliway?
I'm sceptical of this sort of stuff because it's easy to fall into the correlation = causation trap. "I had a cold so I buried a potato in my garden and just a week later my cold went away!" sort of thing. But we were having issues introducing new kittens with an existing cat and I was reading reviews like "we bought this and it was great but they started playing up again and then I noticed the diffuser had run out" which should rule out confirmation bias so I thought I'd give it a punt. It likely was worth twenty quid just to be seen to be doing something beyond "well, they'll probably sort it out between themselves" <gallic shrug>
Honestly, I remain unconvinced. They're... well, tolerating each other at least now, but I'm 90% sure that's just due to time. Maybe the squirt helped, I don't have a baseline to measure against. The only measurable I have is that it gave me a slightly warm plug socket.
I’m sceptical of this sort of stuff because it’s easy to fall into the correlation = causation trap.
Yeah, I did wonder how much of it was simply her settling in after 2 months in kennels!
Giving the dog the run of the house or at least downstairs makes sense. There are several houses in our street where the dogs are left while the owners work. They sit at the window watching the world go by. They bark if I pass on the path with our two but are otherwise quiet.
Perhaps stops them getting bored?
We've had good results from Adaptil (for a older dog who's anxiety was increasing through frailty and dementia)
And another thing with separation anxiety is that it can't be treated/addressed outside the context of the general behavioural training you need to do. The dog needs to know it's safe, looked after, and, importantly, that you're in charge. If those things aren't nailed, it will be anxious.
So, things like there should be areas of the house it's not allowed in (typically bedrooms), if it's allowed on the sofa/chairs it's only when you call it up, it has to sit and be calm before you place food down, work on sit/stay/wait/recall etc.
