My grandma's dog!

[Princesss04]

My grandma has a wenner dog that is a year old (he was a pet store puppy ) anyway when she goes to leave she puts her in her kennel and the dog goes crazy. I mean she will drool and bark and when we get home she is standing in drool and she is wet and has foam all over her mouth she has spilt her water and peed and pooped in the cage. My grandma does not know what to do with her. She has tired leaving for 5 minutes and it is still the same it is so bad. And she does not go that often but like to church the doctor and things like that. What can she do.

[glasslass]

When and how did this start?

[Princesss04]

It started as soon as she brought her home. She has had her since she was 3mts. old. She is fine all the other time but when you put her in there. So my grandma tried leaving her out and she ate a hole in the brand new couch. Chewed on the chair and on the tv stand. And went to the bathroom all over the place. So she bought two baby gates and tried that she chewed up the baby gates and drooled and foamed and peed all over the place. There is no other animals in the house and no one has ever been mean to her so I am not sure what is wrong.

[Luba]

Separation anxiety for sure

Poor thing!

How old is the dog now?

[Princesss04]

Prolly a year or a little over. Is there anything she can do for her to help. No matter where she puts her she does this she has even tried in the bathroom and on the fenced in porch and on the glass porch and all the same. She would take her places but she hated this a well. And plus you can not take her to the store and doctor. Any ideas??????

[Luba]

I know of dachshunds that have been rescues that have horrible anxiety and have to be taken everywhere with their family or they suffer badly emotionally and tear things apart.

She can try putting the dog in the crate, a large enough one to get up and turn around, stretch etc... Make it a happy thing, a treat in the crate and a lot of pats. Then go out for 10 mins ONLY. Return and fuss the dog up, good puppy and a treat!!

Do this several times over the course of several days, and as it progresses to a week/two weeks increase the time to 15 mins then to 20 and then 30 mins.

Each time making it a BIG deal that going away means she is coming back

[glasslass]

There is a "doggie prozac" that can be used temporarily to reduce the anxiety while you are retraining her. It's meant to be a temporary aid during the retraining, not long-term. It's called Clomicalm I believe.

[heeler's rock!]

My guess is that this dog was taken from it's mum way too early and can't stand being alone anywhere, at all. Pups should never be taken away prior to 8 weeks of age from the mum as they learn so many important socialization skills in that time frame. With pet store puppies, they probably are separated from the mum involuntarily. By this I mean that the mum didn't choose to leave her pups and was physically taken from them. I would strongly suggest dog daycare while your grandma's out. Taking her to a place where there are people andother dogs will help her ease her stress. Having a crate that is too big for her though will just enforce her pooping in it as she'll have room to poop and not step in it. Dog daycare is the only thing I can think of right now. Good luck and if I come up with anything else, I'll post it.

[Writing4Fun]

My brother rescued a dog who had a similar problem. They kept the dog in a room closed off by a baby gate. When they'd come home, they'd find that the dog had chewed holes in the walls!! They had to put chicken wire across all the walls to stop the dog from chewing her way into the next room!

Anyhow, they took the dog to a doggy psychologist. Yup, it's severe separation anxiety. People have different ideas on how to deal with it. In their situation, they took the "make like it's no big deal" route. When they put the dog in the room, there was no talking to the dog or anything. No "Oh, puppy! You be good now! I'll be back soon!". Just in the room (or crate, or whatever) with a Kong-sicle and out the door. When they got back, it was the same thing. If the dog was going nuts, they ignored her until she calmed down. THEN they would let her out of the room. Again, no big deal. No "Oh, good girl! I'm so proud of you!". It was just a very calm "Good Tori." and that was it. The point was to make the dog realize that this is part of her daily routine and she just had to get used to it - it really was no big deal. It took a few months, but she now has the run of the house and hasn't chewed on any furniture since.