hi, I have an 11 month malinois. She has separation anxiety and its beyond my expertise on what to do. We do not make a big deal of coming and going and she is most definitely exercised enough. She is fine about being in the crate as she goes in while the bunnies are loose and never even whines. She seems to go in ok and gets a treat but as soon as we leave she starts whining and barking. When I come home she is in such a crazed state, she runs around whining and jumps on me clawing me, she is breathing in a way that's like she is sighing with relief at my return. I ignore this. I will add she does this to a slightly lesser exent when shes home with my fiancée and i come home, worse if shes been in her crate, she takes longer to calm down, seems more stressed. She will whine and jump on me if my fiancée holds her leash and I go into starbucks.

I brought her to work, I work in a kennel and she would not go back into the kennel, took two of us. She was in such a state and it made me for the first time really see this as how unhappy she must be being so stressed. Its no way for her to live as I obviously cant always be with her.

My ideas and pls add, are trying rescue remedy, thunder shirts but I think she'd get it off, bark collar maybe as a last resort. Someone suggested pheromones, anyone had any success with that? right now we are lucky as my fiancée's dad lives above us and puts up with the noise as well as can sit with her when we go out sometimes, and my fiancée is usually home as well. But eventually we will move and as well as would like to be able to crate her in a hotel without the barking, etc. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 Quote: Cat Richter

hi, I have an 11 month malinois. She has separation anxiety and its beyond my expertise on what to do. We do not make a big deal of coming and going and she is most definitely exercised enough. She is fine about being in the crate as she goes in while the bunnies are loose and never even whines. She seems to go in ok and gets a treat but as soon as we leave she starts whining and barking. When I come home she is in such a crazed state, she runs around whining and jumps on me clawing me, she is breathing in a way that's like she is sighing with relief at my return. I ignore this. I will add she does this to a slightly lesser exent when shes home with my fiancée and i come home, worse if shes been in her crate, she takes longer to calm down, seems more stressed. She will whine and jump on me if my fiancée holds her leash and I go into starbucks.

I brought her to work, I work in a kennel and she would not go back into the kennel, took two of us. She was in such a state and it made me for the first time really see this as how unhappy she must be being so stressed. Its no way for her to live as I obviously cant always be with her.

My ideas and pls add, are trying rescue remedy, thunder shirts but I think she'd get it off, bark collar maybe as a last resort. Someone suggested pheromones, anyone had any success with that? right now we are lucky as my fiancée's dad lives above us and puts up with the noise as well as can sit with her when we go out sometimes, and my fiancée is usually home as well. But eventually we will move and as well as would like to be able to crate her in a hotel without the barking, etc. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

bump

Hi Cat,

I haven't had this problem with any of my dogs, so I'm not sure how much I can help, but I do know malinois really want to be with their people and many have strong sense of duty to protect/guard property. I don't think rescue remedy or thundershirt will cut it. I think this is something you need to actively train. Here are a just a few thoughts.

Does she need to be crated when you are out? I think a crate can sometimes increase anxiety, the breed is hard-wired to watch the property, and not being able to look out the window to check out sounds can be stressful. I don't use crates for my dogs except in the car... could go into details of how I raise my puppies... but not here. I think you might see these issues diminish if she isn't relegated to a crate when you are gone.

Second, I had a friend who had a lab mix with severe separation anxiety, and she used to "practice" many times coming and going. She started leaving him for just a few seconds, then extended it to a few minutes. Then more. So she actively worked towards training him to relax when she left. She also hid treats all around the house, so he was kept busy looking for them instead of stressing over her departure. That way he eventually looked forward to her leaving because he got to go find his treats. Some treats took a long time to work out- like a stuffed marrow bone or one of those busy treats so he was busy for a long time.

A bark collar may work but could also back fire on you and raise her stress levels while giving her no outlet for release (barking). I would strongly recommend not using one at this point. Nuisance barking is different from freaked-out, stressed barking.

Does she get a chance to work her innate drives? I tug/train with my malinois daily- even though she gets a ton of trail running as well. Mostly because she loves it, but also because it seems to satisfy some deep need in her. Exercise is great, but directed "work" - of any kind, really, as long as the dog knows she is working- is really helpful. Gives the dog a purpose and might help some with separation anxiety.

I hate to hear about these issues in any dog, but especially a malinois. I think one of the problems with the breed is that they are so intense, if there is a genetic issue like separation anxiety they take it to the extreme... making it that much more difficult to deal with. Which is why careful and selective breeding is so important. Not directed at you, I know you adopted the dog from Craigslist, but just a general comment.

I have never had a dog with "seperation anxiety" but have worked with many. For some it was genetic, so making sure a set schedule was enforced, to decrease anxiety of the unknown was key with those (in addition to mental and physical exercise).

I have a female Shepherd who has been compared to a Mal (drive, energy, intensity wise) when she was young. I started really early on teaching her a "wait" command. For her it means, stay where I put you, I will come back for you but it could be a while, might as well relax. I tell her this if I am teaching a class so she knows to shut off (she does not have an off switch), but I will also use it if I am leaving her with someone else, and also if I am dropping her off with the dog sitter. Because she learned to generalize this command, she will stay wherever I put her because I have taken the "unknown" out of the equation. She knows I will be back, but it could be 2 weeks, so she hangs tight until I get there.

I started her "wait" inside, on a rug so I could give her definite boundaries. We started with shaping for her to get on the rug, then added duration, then waited for her to relax into it (could take hours). Once they start to relax, I DO NOT release, reward, making them go back into a drive state. I simply walk by, drop a few treats between the paws and carry on. Once they can relax into it, I will start to proof for inside. Then I start all over with outside. When I teach this I start with a 6X6 area that they can move in. They can stand, sit, lay down, I don't care, just don't leave that spot until I come get you.

Now the one "special" thing I do to release my dogs from a "wait" is to always release them with a touch. So I will pair my "release" with touching their sides. So no matter what words come out of my mouth, they know the release involves being touched. Even when I am gone for 2 weeks and go to pick them up when I get back, I ALWAYS touch them, "release", then we leave the dog sitter.

I would also make sure you are giving her a "job" not just a lot of exercise (Which is awesome too) but like Kiersten said, work with her innate drives. Maybe some herding? Tug? Agility?

Just a few ideas, but hope they can help!

hi, thanks for all the great suggestions! I guess this has to be something I really work on with her. my other dog a cane corso used to chew like a mad thing everything wood, but didn't experience or at least seem to exhibit the level of stress my mal does which is why I became so concerned. My schedule is just not something I can reliably predict so a set schedule would be nearly impossible She chews stuff when left out so I don't know that I could trust her out yet, for her own safety.

She is in tracking and French ring, well not French ring due to schedule last couple months but starting again in may. We will be doing agility in the summer, never thought of herding but now that caught my interest. She took basic obedience, she goes to the park almost daily, plays with other dogs, plays tug, fetch and morning walks or runs. Whens shes grown add rollerblading and biking oh and swimming in the summer. I could do more obedience with her I suppose as its not a daily thing other than come.

Im confused on the release from the place/wait command as I took from the post as not to release her, but how will she ever know when she can leave, then said touching to release, sorry could you explain that further, I need things spelled out lol.

Thanks a bunch

The training for active relaxation, that Ram in India did and posted on our board, looks like something that would be really helpful.
"Relax" was his command, and the dogs appeared to really shut down . I'm not sure how you train that. My dog stares at me in a down command, fixates on me waiting for the release.
I am certain this command could help separation problems, if a person could learn how to train it.

Sorry! So to clarify:

While I am working on duration (house, outside, wherever), I do not go up to the dog and continually release/reward them from the position. It is a comfortable command, that allows for some movement, so having them lay there for an hour is no biggie. Instead, I will walk by non-chalantly and drop a few treats between their paws, maybe a very soft "good" then I go back to doing what I am doing.

When you are ready to release and take the dog to do something else this is when I am going to physically touch my dog with two hands, give a release word (try to keep it calm tho, and no biggie). Then take the dog away and go do something else.

Then I keep that "touch release" as the command evolves, and will slowly phase out me having to babysit them in their "wait", and stop dropping food as they start to relax into the command.

thank you, very helpful!!!