# Dog of 20 months suddenly developed pretty severe separation anxiety



## chrisholgate (Nov 14, 2011)

This is a weird one that I was wondering if someone could give us a little help with. 

We have a 20 month old border collie cross retriever who has always been a little bit anxious when left alone. Over the last 10 months however we really thought we had made fantastic progress. We have read every article on the subject and having desensitised her to our leaving cues, building up the time left alone from a couple of seconds to a couple of hours and constantly providing positive reinforcement we got her to a stage where we were really happy with her development.

Sleeping alone in the evenings was never really a problem as she knew we were in the house; it was only ever when we physically left the house that we had a problem but even that we were now all okay with.

That was until a couple of weeks ago. 

She has always slept in our conservatory but suddenly (and I mean literally overnight) she has started going crazy whenever left alone, even if were only sleeping upstairs. Were not just talking gentle wining; shed happily trash the conservatory in an attempt to escape; biting, scratching at the door in an attempt to get out.

As we were of the impression that having her in this kind of state would just compound the problem we have given her access to the whole downstairs of the house and simply used a stair gate to prevent access to upstairs (she has never been allowed upstairs anyway) but shes still going crazy. Shell pace up and down, whine and when we come down in the morning shell usually be wide awake and shaking in the lounge. Again, we provide positive reinforcement rather than ever shouting at her as its clear shes distressed rather than purposefully causing an issue. We have also left a radio on in the background and left a number of her toys out for her to play with. She hasnt ever trashed downstairs despite the obvious anxiety.

Its like someone has taken our old dog and replaced her with the puppy that we started training 18 months ago. 

There are only two things that I can think of that would have caused this:

-	Of course, it was fireworks night just recently however she is fine with fireworks, they really dont phase her at all. Its possibly however if some went off while she was alone in the conservatory then they may have scared her.
-	My wife is 28 weeks pregnant; this might be something she is picking up on emotionally.

I appreciate we could have her in our bedroom with us but this isnt really an option; Id rather cure the problem than have her grow even more dependent on our presence.

Were trying to go back to the start and training her from scratch again but when shes getting upset being alone for minutes when she used to be fine for hours / overnight its really difficult to do. Has anyone out there experienced a similar phenomenon with a massive behavioral change in their dog overnight and if so did they bounce back to their old self or did you have to restart training from the beginning.

Any words of advice you could offer would be gratefully received!

Thanks in advance.

Chris


----------



## 912142 (Mar 28, 2011)

I think it would be a good idea to set up a webcam in the conservatory and watch to see how or what triggers her kicking off.


----------



## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

If she was relatively Ok and had very few problems after all the training and it started again suddenly and two weeks ago personally I would suspect that fireworks could be a big part of it. Being part collie they can be ultra sensitive and reactive anyway, and can even be one of the worst breeds to become obsessive over things. Also if she has always been an anxious nervous dog anyway, it isnt going to take much to set her off again. just one really bad frightening experience can be enough for some dogs.

Has she ever been crate trained? Some dogs can be more settled and secure if they have a "Den" they can retreat too and feel safe in If she has ever been crate trained, you could bring the crate out again (if she no longer uses it ) put her bed in and cover it with blankets or throws on three sides and the top. You can put chews and perhaps a stuffed Kong in there as chewings a de-stresser for dogs anyway. Putting in an old T-shirt or jumper you have worn can help as your smell can re-assure them. I would continue to leave the radio on, maybe if you dont already on a talking station voices can re-assure them more sometimes. If you havent got a crate sometimes a small table with blankets draped over it on three sides can work just as well to act like a safe den to retreat too. Other then this you could have a go at crate training her but it you never have get advice first.

Natural calmatives can sometimes help, There are Dog Appeasing pheromone diffusers and collars and sprays. Now re-named Adaptil. The emit an artificial version of the pheromone mum emits and can help with stressful nervous dogs by calming them. Another good herbal calmative is scullcap and valerian, herbal so its natural, doesnt make them drowsy but can help really calm them
Dorwest Is one place you can get scullcap and valerian plus other remedies. For the DAP products you can get those from vets and pets at home although usually cheaper on line Online Vet | Get Cheap Pet Medicine and Treatments Online From Vet-Medic - Vet-Medic is one place where I get mine.

Maybe she would be better out of the conservatory for awhile if thats where she has ha the bad experience that has set it off as there will be a bad association. But maybe confining her to a kitchen, another room, or even the hall perhaps may be better, with her safe den set up.
One other thing thats got good results too is a body wrap or there is something called a thundershirt
Thundershirt | The Best Dog Anxiety Treatment If you want to look into those several people on here have given them good reviews.
There is also the Mekuti Body wrap that has had good reviews
Body wraps for anxiety & sound sensitivity
I must admit in desperation on a very bad night with the fireworks I used a very long scarf that my daughter had knitted years ago, about the width of the body wrap, just out of curiosity to see if it had an effect, and it actually did. With one of mine, if you mesage him and apply pressure like the Tellington touch you can get him to relax however bad he is, so I tried the make shift body wrap. OH got in and thought I had finally lost the plot, until he realised he was a lot calmer, so a thunder shirt or body wrap might well be worth looking into.

I wont go into the de-sensitising for sep anx and what to do as you have obviously done it successfully before, but I think you may have to re-start that too, in some shape or form.


----------



## chrisholgate (Nov 14, 2011)

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me.

912142 - Unfortunately the kicking off has been pretty much instant so a webcam isn't necessary; the second she's out in her usual den (the conservatory) she's off!

Sled Dog Hotel - I think you may be on to something with the obsessive comment; she is very much like that. She is crate trained but we were trying the crate in the conservatory and in the lounge (which is right next to the conservatory) and she was instantly banging the door and making a distressed squeaking noise to try to get out.

We have just put her in the kitchen under our stairs. This is where we first started training and although she's in the crate and out of sight in another room so far, so good. Will leave her under the stairs this evening and let you know how things go. I suppose if that is successful then it'll be a case of then trying to move her gradually back through the lounge and in to the conservatory (which is ideal for us for a number of reasons). Hopefully a gradual readjustment will work well.

Im also going to buy a Thundershirt tonight I think. At £30 on eBay its worth a punt.

Its such a shame that we havent got on top of this separation anxiety as I well as I thought we had as this aside shes a perfect dog 

Anyway, thanks again from myself and Izzy (below), will report back tomorrow!


----------



## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

chrisholgate said:


> Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to me.
> 
> 912142 - Unfortunately the kicking off has been pretty much instant so a webcam isn't necessary; the second she's out in her usual den (the conservatory) she's off!
> 
> ...


Its worth a go , some times if a dog has a small closed in confined area to retreat too, whether it be a table with a blanket over it, a crate with a blanket, or in this case under the stairs, some times they are happy its viewed as a den a bolt hole where they are safe and out of danger, and thats enough for them. As long as she has got somewhere she feels safe secure and happy, and somewhere the stress can unload, its a base to work from to get her back on track.

Some dogs and especially collies because of their sensitive obsessive behaviour they can exhibit, with a large space when they are freaked they will keep on the move backwards and forwards hyping up and making themselves more frantic. This sounds like what was happening. With her bolt hole/safety net shes got somewhere to calm and de-stress. See how you go,there is a few other options there also anyway to help calm her again if need be whilst you need to work on modifying the behaviour. Those things shoud help if need be an make her more relaxed and receptive while you are doing it.


----------



## woodenart (Nov 3, 2009)

I've heard good things about 'Thunder Vests' for stressed dogs, do a google.


----------



## PennyGC (Sep 24, 2011)

Given the instant nature of this I'd say there was an incidence which has frightened her... trouble with conservatories is that they aren't very sound insulated and my dogs hate being in ours when it's thundery or there are fireworks, even with a TV on the noise is bad. My lot aren't particularly worried in the house, but they don't like being out in the conservatory. I'd say she had a fright, and now perhaps even with access to the rest of downstairs, she's frightened. I'd perhaps shut the conservatory door, so she can't hear through an open door, and do what others have suggested with a safe haven etc. Not sure why you don't want her with you - it's more natural for a dog to be with her pack than on her own, it wont necessarily make her more clingy, but particularly for now it may ease her worries. When her confidence is built up again she'll happily be on her own again. Sounds a bit like post traumatic stress to me to be honest :-(


----------



## Thundershirt (Nov 3, 2011)

We have had a lot of great success helping dogs with separation anxiety and think it might be worth your while to check out our website! We hope that you can find some relief in our product and help your dog to be happier and calm when you leave. Thanks for your time!

-Thundershirt:001_cool:


----------



## chrisholgate (Nov 14, 2011)

Sled Dog Hotel - Thank-you, last night she slept like a baby. Although she was still in the same crate, thanks to the location being that little bit further away from the conservatory and being in her old hiding place of below the stairs seemed, it seemed to make a massive difference.

If I'm being honest, one of the main reasons we put her basket out in the conservatory is she seemed to like to watch what was going on in the garden and additionally we could sneak out without her knowing. This was particularly useful when she used to have really bad separation anxiety as if we needed to pop out for an hour we could do so without her knowing! She seemed more than happy out there until (we assume) fireworks night set her back.

PennyGC - I suppose this kind of thing comes back to personal preference but with a baby two months away I'd really like her happily sleeping in her own area rather than in the room with us if at all possible. I think I'm definitely in agreement that it was something to do with fireworks however we were in the house at the time (albeit asleep) so I'm wondering what was so traumatic that set her back this far. It is a quandary.


As Sled Dog Hotel mentioned, she does tend to obsess and hype her self up indefinitely. I'm glad we've established the area of the house which is causing the problem and potentially the original cause so that we can work on building her back up again from here.


----------

