Update on Houdini I mean Farley

[Katherine]

So we have the confining thing taken care of , courtesy of padlocks placed around the perimeter of the crate but i still have some concerns. He sweats and drools like crazy whenever hes in there. I didnt know dogs could sweat like that because he is literally dripping . There is also pools of drool all around the crate. Big pools of saliva that are impossible to sop up , it takes me almost an entire roll of paper towels to clean up.

Will the sweating and drooling go away on their own? I honestly cant imagine going through this everyday for the next couple of months. Ive done some of the coming and goings training this weekend but it was tough with the kids home etc.. Im staying home from work tomorrow and plan on spending the whole day working on his seperation anxiety. Im worried about the long term effects this is going to have on his health as he is obviously in extreme distress when we leave.

I want to put together something that will have the best chance at helping him so im thinking that ill put him in his crate and then ....

leave and come back in at various intervals working up to about an hour and a half out of the house in the afternoon.

My other option would be not using the crate and giving it a go that way. Im worried that no matter how much i train him he'll never like the crate .

Any suggestions?

[heidiho]

What kind of dog is it again??

[Bill & Bob]

Well, it does get better over time but we're not talking about a weekend or even a month. Bob is much better at being left alone now and doesn't totally destroy his blankets every time I leave him or howl and cry all the time I'm gone. That's taken over 8 months to reach this point.

My friends have a dog, I think I mentioned it the other day, that was getting out of their kennel. Without repeating myself, they tried plexiglassing the front door of the kennel. She broke the plexiglass and jumped out a window and ran around the neighborhood. Finally they ended up drilling holes in the doorway of the kennel and dropping rebar down through the holes. This was on top of taking her to the vet and getting her some prozac equivalent or something. That seems to have at least addressed the confinement issue.

If she didn't jump out the window, she would have completely destroyed their home. I've seen her work in the past when she actually ate a door and ripped up my living room carpet here at my place.

But their major concern over everything else is that she is so stressed out about being left alone that she does these things. They can't seem to normalize her to being left alone for any period of time.

This is after they've had her for over three years.

[glasslass]

Heidiho, Farley is the most adorable big white poodle-X if I remember right. All I see in my mind is this sweet, mischievous face. He looks like Mr. Personality-plus!

Katherine, You just gotta put that picture up here again.

[glasslass]

Opps! Not white or poodle-X. I went back and found his photos. I guess he just reminded me so much of Den-Den when he was about 6mos old. Den-Den was my wild-child then, doing anything for attention, didn't matter if good or bad attention. Look under "Pictures of My Puppy" dated 8/13/04. He IS adorable - lab/newf mix.

[mastifflover]

Katherine I could not find the exact mixture but I spoke with a friend who does rescue and she told me to try either of these,rescue remedy or calms forte (available at a whole food store) and see if that helps. Good luck