One of my issues is with my boston terrier Roscoe, who is one of three dogs we have. Some of you may have seen my other posts. We have a 6 mth GSD male, and a 7 yr Pointer female. We are expecting our first human child..lol...next month. We have been attempting to get our ducks in a row so to speak by getting into pack leader postions. It has been hard since these two older dogs were like kids to us and spoiled.
So to the point...Roscoe and Molli are no longer sleeping with us. We have gated them in the laundry room with beds/crates, ceiling fan,and we feed and water them both in there. Our pointer is easy going about it. We still have food in the crate issues with her but we are working it out slowly.
My problem is that Roscoe just freaks out, has a major panic attack or whatever you want to call it. He stands at the gate and pants so hard he sounds like he is being strangled, whines/cries, jumps up repeatedly and drools a river. It is so loud and desperate sounding and he does this for hours sometimes until he vomits or pees. What is so sad is that he will stand there until his back legs are weak and he ends up nearly sitting but never lets his behind touch the floor. We expected some resistance as we had with our gsd pup. But this is so very exhausting to listen to and watch. I don't know how to correct it because he isn't inside his crate. If I crate him it is twice as bad. I have to say I don't know what to do. It has been going on for more than a month now. I feel that I should let it ride until he gets used to it but it grates in the nerves so. We gate them during the day while we are gone, at night and when we are spending specific time with one of the other dogs. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.
Danielle

Just off the top of my head:

Have you waited until there was a break (a silence from him) and then quickly marked and rewarded that? Do you 100% ignore the noise or do you ever give in and pet him, give him a treat, or let him out? What attention does he receive when he does this? (He is getting something out of it. )

Another question that comes to my mind is, What about a crate? This can be in the same room you are in and moved easily since he is a small(er) dog.
That way the anxiety is not as high AND you can start to leave the crate in one spot as he gets more comfortable with it.
Give him something yummy to chew on and make sure to praise when he is being good.

I am assuming that you have baby items and things lying around the house now for the dogs to smell and get used to?
Getting the dogs used to being "gated" is great, but the more "baby stuff" you subject them to now, the better.

And Connie is right about marking and rewarding good behavior and no matter how hard it is, ignoring the bad.

I have tried to wait for a break. There never seems to be one. He just keeps on constantly. I do try to ignore the noise but instead of petting him, I lose patience and tell him "NO!" and push him down off the gate or away from it. And I walk away. There have been times when he has peed or vomited and I have to go in to clean up and the minute he is out he calms. He eats in there but refuses to drink the water in there. We keep a bigger bowl for our GSD near hiscrate and Roscoe runs to it and drinks like he dying of thirst. Usually, I admit the attention he gets for his behavior is negative.

The crate causes a worse response. Believe me we have tried the crate in our room and the crate is in the laundry room. He will sleep in there but if the door is closed get ready cause his reaction is ten times worse and he refuses anything you give him while he is inside with the door closed.

 Quote: danielle story

I have tried to wait for a break. There never seems to be one. He just keeps on constantly. I do try to ignore the noise but instead of petting him, I lose patience and tell him "NO!" and push him down off the gate or away from it. ... Usually, I admit the attention he gets for his behavior is negative.

Yes, this was what I was getting at. You have trained him that the whining-barking-strangling-excitement behavior will earn him attention.

You are rewarding it.

Now you will have a little harder work for a while, because he has learned that he can get attention if he's frantic enough, so when you ignore him now he's going to try harder and harder.

But if you are 100% consistent about ignoring that behavior COMPLETELY (meaning no positive attention OR negative attention, and certainly no petting), then he will get no reinforcement. You have to undo what you have done.

I would really listen for a calm moment - a break in the action - to mark and reward.

Danielle,

put him in the crate and in the garage and let him "cry" it out if it's too painful/irritating to deal with it in the house...he will give up sooner or later. Think of it just like a 2 year old not wanting to go to sleep...every time you open that door to check on him, other than obvious things:food, water, safety issues, he wins

one thing we did with our dog was when we thought she needed to go outside we'd put her on leash, take her outside and tell her to go potty...if she did, she got praised and a treat once she got back in her crate--when she got older no treat, just praise...BUT, if we figured out that she didn't need to go and just wanted out, we didn't respond with anything but apathy and immediately took her in and put her back in her crate...within just a few times of doing this, she figured out that she would only get her way for a few minutes and couldn't manipulate us into letting her out except to go to the bathroom...she stopped within a few days.

you'll have to endure probably a day or two of him freaking out because you won't be responding to what usually gets him what he wants...tough stuff for sure, but I think you can do it

good luck

sorry, edited because I forgot something


you can also look into doggie anxiety meds...since he's been doing his life a certain way that might ease his transition a little...but I wouldn't do anything like that until you've exhaused every other option. I'm sure it's traumatic for him, but most of us don't like change, do we?

Also you might want to try to cover the crate with a blanket to make it as dark as possible. I had this problem with one of my dogs and after I made the crate as dark as possible he didn't make a peep. I agree with Mike and Connie in the fact the this dog cannot receive any attention either positive or negative. Let him figure out that this behavior is going to get him anywhere. I have given my anxious dogs Chamomile and Valerian root to calm them. If your dog is over 75 lbs then you can give him 75mg of each, over 100 lbs the 100mg. Works like a charm and isn't a pharmaceutical. I know that this can be frustrating and I wish you strength and luck.