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There are a lot of posts about separation anxiety, but usually they revolve around the same simple tips (exercise your dog before leaving, etc.) which most of the owners have already tried and therefore it doesn't help to solve the problem. In this post I want to ask people to share what helped to make significant improvements with separation anxiety.
Overview of the current state of separation anxiety with our vizsla.
Our dog is nearly 12 months old female from a popular breeder. We know that her siblings are also pretty emotional (separation anxiety, excitement peeing). Me and my fiancée live in a small single room apartment and we brought our pup at the age of 2 months. From day one she is restlessly following us from room to room even when she is sleepy. Because of this at first she was sleeping in our bed (she would cry the whole night if not allowed to be in bed). At the age of 6 months something shifted in her mindset and from then on we were able to exclude her from bed and instead let her sleep on the couch in the same room. But to this day when we are planning to go to bed she is anxiously travelling from couch to bed and she does this routine in the morning as well.
Activities.
When we shut doors inside of the apartment in front of her she will start whining, but if we both leave she will start barking forever. When one person leaves typically she is slightly upset and when one gets back she becomes extremely excited (brings toys, jumps on you and in some cases pees). After we get back home we ignore her as if we don't notice her.
When we both leave home, we put our vizsla in the crate and she manages to stay for 30-60 mins without serious whining. This can be prolonged sometimes to ~2 hours if she is tired or if she thinks that we are at home. After that she will start her sad barking routine which creates problems with our neighbours. Because of that we barely ever leave her alone and are unable to make her used to it.
What worked best so far.
Every evening we have a routine to give her a dessert - frozen kong/bovine trachea in exchange that we lock her in the crate while we watch TV. She is very happy with this arrangement, but after she finishes her treat, she may start whining, but usually just goes to sleep. The only reason this works, is that she can see that we are in the same room. Since this "treat exchange to crate time" became a daily routine, when we both leave we can trick our dog into thinking that we are still at home. Sometimes we additionally leave a movie or our own recorded voices, but I don't think this helps in our case.
Here's a pic where she is offended that she had to stay in the crate:
Overview of the current state of separation anxiety with our vizsla.
Our dog is nearly 12 months old female from a popular breeder. We know that her siblings are also pretty emotional (separation anxiety, excitement peeing). Me and my fiancée live in a small single room apartment and we brought our pup at the age of 2 months. From day one she is restlessly following us from room to room even when she is sleepy. Because of this at first she was sleeping in our bed (she would cry the whole night if not allowed to be in bed). At the age of 6 months something shifted in her mindset and from then on we were able to exclude her from bed and instead let her sleep on the couch in the same room. But to this day when we are planning to go to bed she is anxiously travelling from couch to bed and she does this routine in the morning as well.
Activities.
- Physical exercise: even though our aparment is small, we live nearby a park where mostly everyday she can run off leash by herself or with some company. She gets 3 walks per day and we also play in the apartment with her toys.
- Mental exercise: every day she does commands (sit, lay down, etc.), has to take out her meals from kong wobbler toy and gets a frozen peanut butter in a rubber kong toy.
- Crate: from day one we use a decent size crate (110x70x70cm) which is large enough for our vizsla to eat a dessert and lay down for a nap.
When we shut doors inside of the apartment in front of her she will start whining, but if we both leave she will start barking forever. When one person leaves typically she is slightly upset and when one gets back she becomes extremely excited (brings toys, jumps on you and in some cases pees). After we get back home we ignore her as if we don't notice her.
When we both leave home, we put our vizsla in the crate and she manages to stay for 30-60 mins without serious whining. This can be prolonged sometimes to ~2 hours if she is tired or if she thinks that we are at home. After that she will start her sad barking routine which creates problems with our neighbours. Because of that we barely ever leave her alone and are unable to make her used to it.
What worked best so far.
Every evening we have a routine to give her a dessert - frozen kong/bovine trachea in exchange that we lock her in the crate while we watch TV. She is very happy with this arrangement, but after she finishes her treat, she may start whining, but usually just goes to sleep. The only reason this works, is that she can see that we are in the same room. Since this "treat exchange to crate time" became a daily routine, when we both leave we can trick our dog into thinking that we are still at home. Sometimes we additionally leave a movie or our own recorded voices, but I don't think this helps in our case.
Here's a pic where she is offended that she had to stay in the crate: