Help Me Address My Dog's Separation Anxiety

Post date: 2018-11-10 13:22:26

We just adopted a dog! Hooray! We adore her. However, she has separation anxiety. Have you successfully treated your dog's separation anxiety? I'd love to hear your story. Details within.

We recently adopted a 2.5 year old golden lab/German Shepherd mix. She's a rescue. She was a stray, but she was spayed (but not chipped). She adores people and is generally very well behaved. I suspect that she had a family that either lost her, or she was abandoned.

She's lovely. She does not jump on people, she doesn't pull on her leash, she doesn't steal food or whine or beg at the table. She's housetrained. She doesn't bite or growl. She barks a bit at other dogs but lets them get close enough to sniff. She puts up with my eight year old like a champ. She is a champion at fetch and loves balls.

However.

She follows me EVERYWHERE. To the bathroom. Upstairs. Downstairs. To the other side of the room. She monitors my movements closely. If she thinks I'm going to leave, she gets upset. I left her alone the other day to go to a doctor's appointment and she had chewed the metal doorknob to the point that it now has dog tooth-shaped dents in it.

We feel like prisoners in our own home. We don't feel comfortable leaving her to go out to dinner, or to go out and do anything, for that matter. The husband and I can't be intimate because, well, she's there, watching our every move, and that's unsettling.

Pets bring much joy to our lives. That's why we put up with their quirks and their poop and pee and barf on the carpet. But I can't take six months out of my life to devote to training this dog's separation anxiety.

Does this sound like your dog? Did you address the problem successfully? How hard did you have to work at it, and what worked?

Please click Here to read the full story.