I’ve had Frog (hubby and the toddler named him) 10 weeks now. He is a male GSD approx 12-14 months old. I was his 5th owner in two months. We followed Ed’s groundwork program. Frog was a bit of a brat about it and obnoxious in the crate so he stayed in the initial isolation stage for several weeks. Since it took a bit to come to an understanding on basic house rules, we have only just started obedience work. I have been doing marker work with him for several weeks. He has become mostly well-mannered and is a very compliant dog.

He has had some separation anxiety...probably to be expected with at least 5 homes in two months. After reading the separation anxiety article and posts on the site when he wouldn’t settle in the crate after a month, I introduced a bark collar and conditioned him to wear a muzzle to protect his teeth after he broke the bottom canines. Those worked well, and stopping the vocalization almost totally stopped the escape behavior. A verbal correction would stop any additional behavior. I followed some of the suggestions on previous posts and even hid outside to tell him “No” through the window if he started being stupid in the crate.

The problem didn’t totally go away but was well managed until this weekend. Frog attempted to escape his crate with me out of sight but no more than 15 ft away...napping with the kids. He was not wearing the muzzle or the bark collar, as I have been weaning him off those. To my knowledge, he never barked and does not appear to have used his mouth in the escape attempt...at least his still has all the teeth he did before the episode and no visible damage to his mouth. I appear to have succeeded in those parts of what I was trying to teach him. Still, he suffered serious blood loss from breaking open the nails on his front feet, pulling off some nails, ripping off his dewclaw and some flesh on his leg, and from some puncture wounds to his chest. He did not escape the crate.

I was able to stabilize him with some lactated ringers here at the house until we could seek additional help from the vet.

I contacted the trainer I worked with several years ago with my first GSD. She felt that I made a mistake with the muzzle and bark collar and increased the dog’s anxiety. She recommended using markers to mark the calm, quiet behavior I wanted, and we discussed the training protocol that would be needed. I had been using marker training with him already but not with the crate problem.

The dog is still sore and healing. I am making progress increasing the number and duration of calm periods in the crate (maybe 40 sec of calm behavior at a time when I am out of sight). The training protocol appears to be working, although it’s early yet, and I think the fact he is in pain is helping my cause since it hurts every time he starts pawing at the crate.

Questions... Do you think marking gradually lengthening periods of calm behavior will turn this realistically life threatening behavior into one that can at least be managed? Do you have any other ideas to try? Obviously I would like to help with this before we have another life threatening situation. In the meantime, I have moved him into a different crate that should be safer if he does start fighting it.


Edited by MichelleMeyer (03/13/2009 04:03 AM)
Edit reason: added dog's age

Have you asked your vet about using meds temporarily to decrease his anxiety while you work on the SA problem?

Personally, I prefer to use homeopathic or herbal remedies before going to allopathic ones due to the latter generally having more potentially negative side affects. A friend of mine has had some success using Rescue Remedy for her SA dog.

what kind of crate are you using?

While I am a huge fan of marker training, SA is something that I don't believe ever REALLY goes away. It can be managed by being consistent and will hopefully get better over time. Marking may help but for SA you want this to be so NON emotional and NON exciting a lot of it is going to depend on your dog and his drive level. If he's a dog that gets all jazzed up waiting for his mark, it may not be the best idea to rely completely on markers while he's crated right now.

10 weeks isn't very long to resolve SA, I would keep the muzzle and bark collar on for a longer period of time and I wouldn't remove both of these tools at the same time.

I agree with Elaine on the remedies. I think Rescue Remedy would be my choice to try for this particular dog.

I've dealt with some very severe and long term SA cases and I disagree with your trainer on this issue. If your dog was a new puppy, I'd say markers all the way. For an adult dog with a history like yours, unless you can be present every time you crate him I don't think markers will work. You may need to put a bark collar on him regularly in the crate forever. He needs for you to be very consistent for the long haul. I don't believe there is anything to gain by rushing this

If you can find a supplement called Relora, it has worked wonders for my nervy dogs (never dealt with separation anxiety, but I have dogs that are fearful of a lot of things). You can find it in the drug store in the vitamin aisle next to the melatonin. The dog will realize he's not as anxious, and there's nothing to worry about. Many people swear by Rescue Remedy too (didn't work for me) and DAP (Dog appeasement pheromone spray, should be available at your vet - this did work for me).

Connie Sutherland has helped a severe separation anxiety case, I hope she sees this thread and responds.

Bart was on Dog Prozac for a while, prescribed by my vet.

It worked WONDERS, until he got used to it, then its effectiveness wore off. That doesn't mean it would do the same for another dog though.

it was called Reconcile.

i tried the plug in DAP, bart ate through his crate, and then ate the plug-in off the wall!

Points well taken. I agree that the separation anxiety will never REALLY go away, but I had gotten complacent with how well managed it was. So I need to step back to the point where it was well managed and not rush it. If there’s one thing I can do, it’s be methodical and consistent.

I will start with the Rescue Remedy. I called around and found a local store that sells it so I can start using it today. I read the product page on Leerburg and will follow those dosing directions.

I had him in a Kennel Aire. I think the close wire spacing and quality of the crate prevented worse injury. He was only able to pull a few wires into the cage and only short lengths. It really kept the puncture wounds from being worse.

I borrowed an aluminum crate that he’s in now. It looks like the full ventilation aluminum crate Leerburg sells. It should be safer if he starts fighting it since it’s mostly all vertical columns. I’m not sure how long I can borrow it, but I can always purchase one myself if I’m happy with it.

I wasn’t quite done with the post, but the household (read kids) needs my attention. Thank you for the suggestions.

I disagree w/the trainer, too. He didn't do this damage while wearing the muzzle or the collar; he did it wearing nothing. How can she say that you caused him anxiety w/those when he did all this w/nothing on??? I don't get it.

Keep a bark collar on him in the crate and keep muzzling him. I would worry more about his teeth than any anxiety she thinks you're causing him by wearing it.

I had to buy Simon an aluminum crate, not b/c he hurt himself, but b/c he can get out of his crate and into another crate in just a few minutes and I can't take that chance. They cannot really hurt themselves in any way I've thought of yet on these crates. It was well worth it. He hates it when I lose the keys, though, lol.

Thanks for the advice. The Rescue Remedy does indeed help. I tried some myself before giving any to Frog just to see what I thought. I felt a little calmer...no big change. It maybe made me a little sleepy. I gave Frog his first dose Friday afternoon and noticed the anxiety getting better within 10-20 min. It seems to last for about 3 hours after that. I have noticed the same pattern with each dose he’s had since.

He’s definitely sleeping better than usual. He’s healing quickly and well. I checked him over physically on Saturday. There’s still some guarding on exam especially the damaged dewclaw, but everything is infection free and healing well. Normal lung sounds. Temp, heart rate, and cap refill rate well within normal ranges for him.

We came very close to a fight this weekend. I would have been into it with him if he hadn't been tethered. I know that some separation anxiety type behavior can actually be dominance based and suspect that plays a role in this.

First, he does get stressed and anxious sometimes. I recognize stressed body language for him... back arched, head lowered, heavy panting, feet splayed, weight to the outside of his toes, pupils dilated with a white rim, excess salivating, and when vocalizing, a moaning whimper or a yippy bark. The Rescue Remedy definitely tones that stressed behavior down

There have been a few other things I've been suspicious about the last couple of weeks...just small little things like hesitating before following a well known command when he is normally very compliant and not wanting to go to the bathroom where I directed him to. This weekend, I went to give him his food where he was tethered to the crate. He was lying in the crate. I asked him to move out of the crate so I could put the food to the rear of it.

He refused the command to come out and started a very DEMANDING barking. When I verbally corrected him, he escalated the behavior and lunged toward me. I put the food out of sight on the washing machine. If he's going to get snarky and demand, he can wait to eat. He was standing very tall, tail up and bristled, feet planted hard, lips tight and thin, and weight shifted to the front. He gave me those very deep, guttural barks while making very hard eye contact. He looked like he was ready to fight me.

I was not in a good position to do anything about this display and opted to step out of his area. Once he settled, I asked him to do some obedience for me and put him up.

I do not believe the Rescue Remedy had anything to do with this. Looking back, I think he's been building up to it for a couple of weeks. I followed some basic safety precautions...keeping him muzzled, moving his crate into the garage, adding extra locks to the garage and back door so I can definitively keep him separated from my little ones. I had been using doubled baby gates in the house, but that just didn't seem safe enough after that outburst.

Thoughts on this behavior?

I don’t post here very often, although I use the search feature and read quite a lot. I read something else this evening that made me think I should have posted the additional problem I’m having in a separate post. I’m not sure if that can/should be fixed now. Was my understanding correct that normally a separate post is the better way to go?

Anyways, it was a hard day with the dog. The bite I thought he was building up to came sooner than I expected. I had just finished grooming him. I reached down to pick up a tuft of loose hair near him, and he nailed me. I didn’t expect that since he had been relaxed and rather better behaved than he usually is for grooming. I saw his body tense up and then his ears went flat back and wham. The muzzle gave me some protection, but wow that hurt. He hit me hard.

I reacted like I had a prong on him. I’m more used to that than the dominant dog collar. When I popped the leash, he went for me again. After the second smack from the muzzle, I remembered to pull up on the leash. I’ve never corrected a dog that hard before. I thought it was pretty awful, and I picked up more scratches and bruises than I expected from him fighting me while I cut off his air. I certainly wouldn’t have been able to do it without the muzzle on. Even with the muzzle on, I’ve picked up some good bruises.

I put him back in his crate afterwards. He was very well behaved when I fed him this evening and willingly went back into his muzzle, which is a stark contrast to his behavior this morning. He had very crisp obedience at the door when I took him out for one last potty break. He even wagged his tail at me, which is unusual. Most of the time, I’m not even sure he likes me, but he seemed genuinely happy to see me tonight.

He is relaxed and seems at ease in his crate tonight. I still put the bark collar on him and left the muzzle on him, but he didn’t seem to need the Rescue Remedy this evening. Actually, I think he’s a lot calmer with his crate out in the garage.

Here’s hoping tomorrow will be a better day. Today gave me a headache.

I just have to ask: has he had blood work done and a full physical assessment? I know he is injured, but this sounds like it could be medical issue as well as temperment. At least, you could remove something from the equation if you knew absolutely there was no physical reason for his actions.