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Has anyone had an experience with this? The Human society had only a little information on their website saying that it can happen when a dog over bonds? Lola shows the symptoms. She has excess salivation when left alone in the house in her crate. She soils her crate when left alone for short period of time, even after going out right before being crated. She is crazy for my husband. She follows him and will sit at the door when he leaves for work and whine, even when my daughter and I are home with her. We are just at a loss for what to do when we absolutely must leave her for a bit.

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Hi Jamie. It does really sound like Lola is experiencing separation anxiety. Poor baby girl! We haven't dealt with it personally, but I can tell you what I've seen on "It's Me or the Dog." Victoria Stillwell recommends that you slowly condition the dog to feeling more secure during your absence. Have your husband (and I would do this with you and your daughter as well), go through the motions of leaving. (Putting on coat, picking up keys, etc, anything that you normally do before you depart for a while), but only walk out the door, wait a second, and walk back in. Do this repeatedly, but slowly increase the amount of time that you leave.

it's sure worth a try. (By the way, that's a great show with some very practical advice on correcting problem behaviours in our dogs! You can watch it on Animal Planet. I think they're airing new episodes on Saturday nights now, and they're always airing reruns.)

Good luck!
I have never had to deal with anything like that, personally. Our doodle Thule, may have had separation anxiety when we first got her at 11 months. She cried and barked and screamed and went nuts in her crate when left alone. She did soil her crate a couple of times. But I'm not sure if that was because she was kind of weird about going potty in front of us or due to the anxiety--maybe both. Some of that may have had to do with the change of having new owners and living in a new place. She also would whine and yip when she was in the house and we were out back.

From my limited reading I would suggest three things:

1) take a look at your routine upon leaving. Although she's young, dogs catch on fast to clues about being left alone. Putting on shoes, picking up keys, grabbing your purse, putting on a coat, etc. So one thing you can do is help her to disassociate those clues with you leaving. Put on your shoes when you don't need to go anywhere and then play with her. Pick up your keys and jingle them around even though you're gonna stay at home. Put on your coat and then go sit at the computer for an hour. Pick up your purse and then go watch TV. You need to do this quite a bit at first. I'm not sure how long it takes as I've never done it.

2) keep her personal routine consistent so that she can count on something that is always stable.

3) commit to obedience training. Although obedience training does create a strong bond, it also creates a very confident dog because the structure of obedience gives it something to count on and to trust. It also gives you specific things to work on. Once your puppy is the dog that can obey a sit stay or down stay command from a distance or out of sight--that in itself will be huge! For example you can have your doodle down stay while you step out of the house and sit in your car for a minute. This will give her practice with self control and patience as well as trust that listening to you will always yield good results. Obviously, you can't do that yet and she's too young and not far enough in training, but it's something you can work toward! So I highly recommend that you invest yourself into going all the way to very advanced obedience. Start researching local trainers, attend their classes to get a feel for their work, and pick someone that you're both comfortable with the methods and has really good results.
Hi Jamie, I have dealt with separation anxiety with our now 5-year old English Springer Spaniel. We didn't know it was separation anxiety until later. We already had a lab mix who was 5 years old so Gordie had a playmate and was not alone but when we were gone he was frantic. He was so destructive - couches (cushion by cushion!), rugs, molding on the walls! Once and only once, we left him home alone while we took the other dog to be groomed. Gordie was so upset that he dug holes in the yard until he bloodied his nose and he trailed the mud in through the doggie door and ground mud into the kitchen door in his frantic search for his buddy. We were advised by a trainer to leave him outside when we were gone to minimize the damage (although how that would have helped Gordie I don't know). We just kept loving Gordie and he finally grew out of it, but he still doesn't like to be left alone. He matured into a great and loving guy, so whatever you do, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I look at the advice you have been given and wonder if that might help but it wasn't the anxiety of our going as much as our actually being gone. I don't quite know how you can be at home and yet not - maybe a recording of you talking that goes on and off periodically but if it came from another room it wouldn't be comforting because they don't want to be away from you at all.
Hi jamie, I did have a dog with seperation anxiety..Jill is right about the leaving and coming right back in the door. Other things that help is RESCUE REMEDY sold in health food stores a few drops in her water. KONG toys filled with frozen treats put one in the crate when you leave it will give her something to keep occupied that is what worked for my dog...good luck I know it breaks your heart when they carry on and you feel so guilty.

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