I have a 6 month old Golden/Lab. She is very friendly. We started out just leaving her out when there was no one home. We would put a gate up to prevent her going up the stairs. We have two other dogs and they are both smaller then her. We would come home and the house would be destroyed and the gate would be down from her jumping over it.
So then we got a crate to put her in. We thought it would be better. It wasn't. She manages to move the crate a least three feet from where we left it. She even managed to get the smallest dog's bed in the crate. I don't know how she did that. She ended up breaking the crate. There is no point in her staying in. She's even busted out of it several times before breaking it.
Then we got her fixed at 5 months. We were hoping she would settle down a little bit, but the next day after being fixed, she would jump around and jump over two gates high when we try to block her from going up the stairs. I spoke to the veterinarian and they suggested to put a Thunder shirt on her. It calms her down just a little bit, but not enough. I do not even know how many shoes she tore up, as well as my mom's childhood books.
She is in training right now though. I talked to the trainer and she suggested to spray ammonia on the stuff we she tries to chew up. Please if you have any suggestions even if you may seem like it's stupid I would love advice. I would not consider it stupid. I just don't know what to do. Please help. I really do not want to do it, but if I have to I would have to get rid of her. :( I think light crates and gates are out of the question, though.
By Lauren
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I would change her diet, and also see if she responds well at all to benadryl. I would give her one to two milligrams of benadryl per pound, the cheap stuff not the pediatric though and see if it calms her down. Also what about a Kong toy, where you stuff really high value treats in it. I know if a dog that is this way, and nothing has helped. I have a dog that is somewhat phobic about noises and such.
I am not sure what to tell you after the benadryl and the Kong. Check out leerburg.com and look at their free training articles and podcasts and videos, the free ones and you might find something there. Also send them a question and they will answer it possibly oh their site. leerburg.com is a great training site!
We adopted a dog with severe separation anxiety, so I've been there. It's awful to come home and find precious heirlooms destroyed. What worked for us was a combination of training and medication. We used a combination of a pheromone collar (sold over the counter at the vets office) and a doggy Prozac prescription.
We also put him in doggy daycare for a couple weeks while we worked up to leaving him home alone for longer and longer periods of time. Once the anxiety was under control, we worked on desensitizing him to having us leave. We'd pick up the keys and set them back down, get our coats on and not leave, walk out the door and come back in. Basically mess around with the cues that we were leaving so they didn't make him so anxious.
Once he was calm about us leaving, we were able to leave him home on the meds, then slowly wean him off the meds. Now he stays home alone just fine with no medications (as long as you don't leave any blankets out).
Someone may have already suggested it, but does your dog get a lot of exercise? As in 45 minute walks twice a day. Exercise has a powerful impact on anxiety. Good luck!
Kong toys are great, keeps the dog busy. Fill with peanut butter and freeze. Takes the dog longer to get the peanut butter out. Do Not use the Kong toy at any other time, just when you are going to be gone. Dog then learns he gets something special when you are gone.
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