Can someone tell me how to break a dog from seperation anxiety. A friends dog chews her way out of the crate, and freaks when they leave. HELP!

It isn't really something you break them of. There are drugs that can help(prozac being one) and ways to make the act of leaving less stressful, but to my knowledge the only "cure" is the blue juice.

Have her talk to her vet, who will probably refer her to a behaviorist...

I hope this is a pet and it is spayed or neutered....

My daughter's rescue Pittbull went throught that. One of the things that helped was to keep the crate covered when they were away. Be sure the cover doesn't touch the sides or the dog may pull it in and destroy it. That, medication, and time has done wonders. Rescue dogs (don't know if yours is) often go through this. They get mistreated, or passed around so much, it creates a lot of stress on them. Daughters dog is outstanding now.

Deanna's ideas and thought about this are correct, in my opinion and should help this problem. Separation anxiety is very difficult to deal with but not all hope is lost for all dogs. To begin with, we need to teach the dog to be relaxed and independent in your presence. This will be your first priority and you can do this by teaching the dog to stay in its place (like a bed) or a specific room it often associates a place you and the dog relax in rather then constantly following you from room to room. I always advise the owner to teach their dog about door thresholds. The leave the common area (or what ever room you notice your dog relaxing in the most) and make the dog stay in the RELAX room as you go into the hall or next room over. Don’t make a command out of it like sit or down, just make it a NO-NO to enter your room past the door threshold.

Once the dog accomplishes this task, you can try to place the crate in the room with a few distractions like music/TV and something in his create the dog can chew on; like a nylon bone. You want to recreate the scenario as close as possible to the original lesson of staying in one room while you leave into an adjacent room. So when you were doing the threshold training you should have a radio or TV on as well if you are planning to use it now. Once you have created a relatively similar same scenario you are ready for your next goal: Teaching the dog attention getting behaviors don’t elicit a response from you.

Your dog must learn: ONLY QUIET CALM behaviors get rewarded with your attention. Many people think, “Well, he is alone all day. Won’t he learn all his crying and scraping did not get a response? “

The answer is Yes and No. Yes he learned when you are gone he may not get a response but likely he may think you are gone quite often more then you are so at least a few times his behavior has paid off thus a variable schedule reward system is established (though inadvertently) and a continuation or even an increase of behavior can be expected.

What you dog need to REALLY learn is you give NO attention unless quite. It works pretty well for dogs that don’t have barrier issues along with separation anxiety. It takes “some know how” on the owner’s part and I am not certain a posting explaining it will be good enough to apply in one posting. I am willing to post more on this topic in a day or two because it is a very damaging behavior for the owner and the dog.

I would be interested in any others who have thoughts or ideas about solutions that either compliment or take this topic in a new direction.

Post thought: One quick and easy fix, depending how you look at it, that seemed to work in some of the dogs I have worked with is to get a non anxiety dog to keep the other one occupied. I don’t have enough to go on to say this works in every dog though and my guess is it doesn’t.

More to come…

What Dennis says really does work. Ive done it, but it takes some concentrated work.
The crate? We had to go to a metal one. Once he foud he could chew it. He continued that. But the noise and crazy attitude went away.

Ron

my guy (lab) was a "rescue" and had seperation anxiety...he too chewed through a plastic dog crate and then found mutiple ways to get out of a metal one...

when i asked the vet about it - she said the first thing to try would be obedience training. in her opinion, obedience training increases the dog's "self esteem" and decreases seperation anxiety.

I'm not sure if my guys "self esteem" is any better but obedience has improved his seperation anxiety. He no longer whines and cries when in his crate and he no longer tries to escape.

You (or your friend) could also try working on seperation anxiety by putting the dog in the crate - leave for just a minute - if the dog is quiet - reward and let him out...then try increasing the time you're gone by a few minutes each time...but never reward or let him out until he is quiet...

how long has this been going on (just curious)?

I am in a very similar situation. I have a 1 year old American Bulldog, and an APBT. The American Bulldog was a rescue dog, and he has pretty rough seperation anxiety. I have to put him in a crate every time I leave the house, or he will wreak havoc on my living room. I actually got the APBT from a friend who could no longer keep him, who is a great dog, very laid back when I leave, to try and keep the other dog occupied.

So far little progress, but it has only been 2 weeks, and the 2 dogs can't seem to decide who is next in the packing order after me!

Another breeder/behaviorist told me that by building the dogs confidence, he will feel more at ease when his pack leader leaves.

I have been investing alot of time, effort, and money to try and fix this problem, because he is a great dog otherwise.

I should have mentioned to choose the other dog with care and your best chances a re with a "fixed" dog of opposite sex as a companion animal.

My questions are: is this the first time that the dog has been put in a crate? If not, how was the dog introduced to the crate? This can make all the difference, if it was negative experience the dog probably is scared to death to go into it. hat size is the crate? How long is the dog in the crate? To me anything over 3 hours is inhumane- imagine if you couldn't walk around or even stretch out for that long-put yourself in the dogs place. Why not consider putting the dog outside when they are gone, especially on nice days. A large outdoor kennel would cause less trama and probably would curb most of the panic when the dog sees the family leave. Lastly how do they know it is Seperation Anxiety and not boredem? Or revenge for being put in the crate in the first place? Shove me in a crate and I would chew my way out and chew stuff up too....Sorry not a fan of crates <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Well...Sorry yall I havent been able to come see what was said. Ok to best answer all of your good thoughts, I will just discribe her. She is now 7 os old. GErman shepherd pup, working lines. (if that matters?) I had her in the garage at times over the winter, as here in WI its too cold to be out. She was crated once in awhile when the outings were shorter, or put in the garage with a Male pup too. He is now 6 mos old. This was a period of time of her being 3 mos to 7 mos. I sold her to a couple in Texas that is retired, so they can be with her more often. My girlfriend was home with Zena most of the time, and when we all left she would pull the crate door inside out. get out and wreak Havoc on the furniture. (at times) sometimes she would just wait at the window peering through the levelors. I wasnt sure if it was because of her age, and teething? a distructive period? Seperation anxiety? But the texas couple was sending her for training in Tenn. and had to drive from Houston to Dallas the next day to get her because she was so tramatised at them leaving. Now this is shortly after getting her and ME (alpha) being gone. Maybe that has something to do with it? it concerns me however. NOW Yall have a better Picuter of her and whats going on.
Thanks and I will read what you post. Dennis Motel 6 helped ya alot dude. Thanks/