u/curious011

Firstly, this is my first time posting here. I've read all the rules, and believe that I am following them correctly. I truly need help, so, I don't want to accidentally get myself banned from a place where I truly think I may be able to receive some advice that can help me with Happy my 18 month old Bull Arab X American Johnson Bulldog.

I've Googled and watched YouTube videos but so far nothing is helping. Then I realised that I follow dog subreddit pages on here and thought maybe some other dog other might be able to hopefully help me 🙏

I adopted Happy when she was 13 weeks old. It was my first time actually owning a puppy, puppy. Puppies are hard work lol. But I did my best. She attended her first puppy training course at approximately six months old. She passed, but she was very easily excited and distracted by things. We were told this was normal at her age.

Unfortunately, my depression was extremely bad and I didn't get to keep training her as much as I wanted at this time.

Then something terrible happened. My rental home in Melbourne (that I loved to pieces and paid $100 a week for a three-bedroom house with everything I could ever need) was burnt down when I was returning to Melbourne from Queensland Australia.

Ever since then, midway through November 2025, my housemate and I and our fur babies have been living in a caravan. We are now thankfully back in Victoria. And are staying on the most beautiful property.

The issue is, that due to being with us constantly, literally 24/7, Happy has developed what can only be described as separate anxiety.

We have a 9 foot chain connected to the caravan so that she is safe when she needs to go outside to go to the toilet (we have toilet trained her) and play. She is perfectly content outside on the chain playing by herself when we are inside the caravan.

Unfortunately, however, if she is on the chain and we are outside, even if standing right in her line of sight, if the chain can't reach us, she starts to cry. This also happens if just one of us is out of sight. Even if she is inside the caravan. If one of us leaves to do something, she cries and cries.

Where we are now living, there is a giant area that is all fenced off with a big warm shed inside it. On the property we are on, the owner breeds goats. And this large pen is used for them. But not always. In the meantime, she has said it is perfectly fine for Happy to use, so that she can be off the chain and run free. It is an incredibly large area so there is plenty of room to run and play.

I truly thought she would be so happy, but she just sits at the fence crying for us. Even when we are in her line of sight doing stuff outside the caravan. I saw her run and play for a few moments the first time I left her in there by myself, and I was so proud, but it literally only lasted a few minutes before she was back at the fence howling and crying to be back with us.

She also refuses to come when called. She knows what it is but 9/10 times ignores us. This is obviously a huge problem because all of the other dogs on the property, the owner's three dogs, and my housemate's small 14 year old dog who follows him everywhere, are all off lead.

We know Happy will take off racing to see everything there is to see and we're on a 44 acre property. I don't think anything per say would happen to her, but until she is used to other animals, and especially the goats which are incredibly important to the owner of the property, letting her off is not worth the risk. But I imagine it affects her just the same.

Because of how bad the separate anxiety is, we are still having to currently take her everywhere with us. My housemate is on an age pension and I am on a disability pension so it's not like we're having to go to work all day everyday, but I do have multiple appointments most days, and now live 2.5 hours from my doctor and specialists.

Everytime we have to travel anywhere, she has to come. It is becoming (who am I kidding, it is well and truly) a nightmare, this problem.

Obviously being able to leave her on the property when we have to go out is the best answer. Especially given there is a safe place to do so with lots of room to run and play and keep warm and dry is need be. Our landlady is happy to keep an eye on her.

But the few times we have tried putting her in the pen and walking up to the main house where she can't see us, has been torture. She cried and cries so much. It's honestly distressing. It's like she thinks we're abandoning her and it breaks my heart.

She can't come with us everywhere for the rest of her life, it's just not feasible.

I just don't know what to do and I desperately need some help.

Thank you for reading. Any and all advice is welcome 😊

Edit: I think I accidentally uploaded this post twice which is why it may look like I've posted twice and deleted one. They were identical 😅

Firstly, this is my first time posting here. I've read all the rules, and believe that I am following them correctly. I truly need help, so, I don't want to accidentally get myself banned from a place where I truly think I may be able to receive some advice that can help me with Happy my 18 month old Bull Arab X American Johnson Bulldog.

I've Googled and watched YouTube videos but so far nothing is helping. Then I realised that I follow dog subreddit pages on here and thought maybe some other dog other might be able to hopefully help me 🙏

I adopted Happy when she was 13 weeks old. It was my first time actually owning a puppy, puppy. Puppies are hard work lol. But I did my best. She attended her first puppy training course at approximately six months old. She passed, but she was very easily excited and distracted by things. We were told this was normal at her age.

Unfortunately, my depression was extremely bad and I didn't get to keep training her as much as I wanted at this time.

Then something terrible happened. My rental home in Melbourne (that I loved to pieces and paid $100 a week for a three-bedroom house with everything I could ever need) was burnt down when I was returning to Melbourne from Queensland Australia.

Ever since then, midway through November 2025, my housemate and I and our fur babies have been living in a caravan. We are now thankfully back in Victoria. And are staying on the most beautiful property.

The issue is, that due to being with us constantly, literally 24/7, Happy has developed what can only be described as separate anxiety.

We have a 9 foot chain connected to the caravan so that she is safe when she needs to go outside to go to the toilet (we have toilet trained her) and play. She is perfectly content outside on the chain playing by herself when we are inside the caravan.

Unfortunately, however, if she is on the chain and we are outside, even if standing right in her line of sight, if the chain can't reach us, she starts to cry. This also happens if just one of us is out of sight. Even if she is inside the caravan. If one of us leaves to do something, she cries and cries.

Where we are now living, there is a giant area that is all fenced off with a big warm shed inside it. On the property we are on, the owner breeds goats. And this large pen is used for them. But not always. In the meantime, she has said it is perfectly fine for Happy to use, so that she can be off the chain and run free. It is an incredibly large area so there is plenty of room to run and play.

I truly thought she would be so happy, but she just sits at the fence crying for us. Even when we are in her line of sight doing stuff outside the caravan. I saw her run and play for a few moments the first time I left her in there by myself, and I was so proud, but it literally only lasted a few minutes before she was back at the fence howling and crying to be back with us.

She also refuses to come when called. She knows what it is but 9/10 times ignores us. This is obviously a huge problem because all of the other dogs on the property, the owner's three dogs, and my housemate's small 14 year old dog who follows him everywhere, are all off lead.

We know Happy will take off racing to see everything there is to see and we're on a 44 acre property. I don't think anything per say would happen to her, but until she is used to other animals, and especially the goats which are incredibly important to the owner of the property, letting her off is not worth the risk. But I imagine it affects her just the same.

Because of how bad the separate anxiety is, we are still having to currently take her everywhere with us. My housemate is on an age pension and I am on a disability pension so it's not like we're having to go to work all day everyday, but I do have multiple appointments most days, and now live 2.5 hours from my doctor and specialists.

Everytime we have to travel anywhere, she has to come. It is becoming (who am I kidding, it is well and truly) a nightmare, this problem.

Obviously being able to leave her on the property when we have to go out is the best answer. Especially given there is a safe place to do so with lots of room to run and play and keep warm and dry is need be. Our landlady is happy to keep an eye on her.

But the few times we have tried putting her in the pen and walking up to the main house where she can't see us, has been torture. She cried and cries so much. It's honestly distressing. It's like she thinks we're abandoning her and it breaks my heart.

She can't come with us everywhere for the rest of her life, it's just not feasible.

I just don't know what to do and I desperately need some help.

Thank you for reading. Any and all advice is welcome 😊

Firstly, this is my first time posting here. I've read all the rules, and believe that I am following them correctly. I truly need help, so, I don't want to accidentally get myself banned from a place where I truly think I may be able to receive some advice that can help me with Happy my 18 month old Bull Arab X American Johnson Bulldog.

I've Googled and watched YouTube videos but so far nothing is helping. Then I realised that I follow dog subreddit pages on here and thought maybe some other dog other might be able to hopefully help me 🙏

I adopted Happy when she was 13 weeks old. It was my first time actually owning a puppy, puppy. Puppies are hard work lol. But I did my best. She attended her first puppy training course at approximately six months old. She passed, but she was very easily excited and distracted by things. We were told this was normal at her age.

Unfortunately, my depression was extremely bad and I didn't get to keep training her as much as I wanted at this time.

Then something terrible happened. My rental home in Melbourne (that I loved to pieces and paid $100 a week for a three-bedroom house with everything I could ever need) was burnt down when I was returning to Melbourne from Queensland Australia.

Ever since then, midway through November 2025, my housemate and I and our fur babies have been living in a caravan. We are now thankfully back in Victoria. And are staying on the most beautiful property.

The issue is, that due to being with us constantly, literally 24/7, Happy has developed what can only be described as separate anxiety.

We have a 9 foot chain connected to the caravan so that she is safe when she needs to go outside to go to the toilet (we have toilet trained her) and play. She is perfectly content outside on the chain playing by herself when we are inside the caravan.

Unfortunately, however, if she is on the chain and we are outside, even if standing right in her line of sight, if the chain can't reach us, she starts to cry. This also happens if just one of us is out of sight. Even if she is inside the caravan. If one of us leaves to do something, she cries and cries.

Where we are now living, there is a giant area that is all fenced off with a big warm shed inside it. On the property we are on, the owner breeds goats. And this large pen is used for them. But not always. In the meantime, she has said it is perfectly fine for Happy to use, so that she can be off the chain and run free. It is an incredibly large area so there is plenty of room to run and play.

I truly thought she would be so happy, but she just sits at the fence crying for us. Even when we are in her line of sight doing stuff outside the caravan. I saw her run and play for a few moments the first time I left her in there by myself, and I was so proud, but it literally only lasted a few minutes before she was back at the fence howling and crying to be back with us.

She also refuses to come when called. She knows what it is but 9/10 times ignores us. This is obviously a huge problem because all of the other dogs on the property, the owner's three dogs, and my housemate's small 14 year old dog who follows him everywhere, are all off lead.

We know Happy will take off racing to see everything there is to see and we're on a 44 acre property. I don't think anything per say would happen to her, but until she is used to other animals, and especially the goats which are incredibly important to the owner of the property, letting her off is not worth the risk. But I imagine it affects her just the same.

Because of how bad the separate anxiety is, we are still having to currently take her everywhere with us. My housemate is on an age pension and I am on a disability pension so it's not like we're having to go to work all day everyday, but I do have multiple appointments most days, and now live 2.5 hours from my doctor and specialists.

Everytime we have to travel anywhere, she has to come. It is becoming (who am I kidding, it is well and truly) a nightmare, this problem.

Obviously being able to leave her on the property when we have to go out is the best answer. Especially given there is a safe place to do so with lots of room to run and play and keep warm and dry is need be. Our landlady is happy to keep an eye on her.

But the few times we have tried putting her in the pen and walking up to the main house where she can't see us, has been torture. She cried and cries so much. It's honestly distressing. It's like she thinks we're abandoning her and it breaks my heart.

She can't come with us everywhere for the rest of her life, it's just not feasible.

I just don't know what to do and I desperately need some help.

Thank you for reading. Any and all advice is welcome 😊