r/Separation_Anxiety

We have a 5-month-old male miniature poodle, and we’re really struggling with what seems to be quite severe separation anxiety. We would really appreciate advice from anyone who has experienced something similar, especially with a poodle.

The problem has gradually become more noticeable, and at this point he has an extremely hard time being separated from either of us.
He starts whining and barking if one of us simply goes into another room and closes the door, even though the other person is still at home with him. We can’t close the bathroom door if one of us is home alone with him without him becoming distressed.

Leaving the apartment without him has been even harder. We have a camera, and we have tried very short absences, but he notices immediately when we leave and starts whining/barking. We have not been able to make meaningful progress with actually leaving the apartment.

Mornings are particularly difficult. On the days when I have to go to work, he becomes extremely anxious as soon as our morning routine starts. He follows me closely around the apartment and is basically glued to my feet because he seems to know that I might leave. He whines, watches me constantly, and often stands by the front door.

He comes with me to work two days a week, while on the other days he stays home with my husband. We have started using verbal cues to make the day more predictable for him: on home days we say, “Today you’re staying home,” and on office days we say, “Today you’re coming to work.” We then use different equipment (collar for home days, harness for work days) and try to keep the routines consistent so he can learn what to expect.

We have also been practicing all the usual pre-departure cues without actually leaving: putting on shoes, picking up keys, touching the door handle, getting ready for work, etc. We have tried very short separation intervals as well, but he becomes anxious almost immediately, so we feel like we are not making any progress.

A crate is not an option for us, as crate use is restricted by law in the country where we live, so we are looking for solutions that don’t involve crate training.

We are not trying to use cry-it-out and we don’t want to push him into prolonged distress. We want to help him feel safe and gradually learn that separation is okay.

Has anyone experienced this level of separation anxiety with a young poodle?
How did you approach the training?
Did you start with something even easier than leaving the room?
How long did it take before you saw progress?
Are there any poodle-specific things we should know?
Would you recommend working with a behaviorist at this point?
We would really appreciate any advice or experiences. We’re feeling quite stuck and want to make sure we’re approaching this in the right way. ❤️

I have a 3 year old golden retriever that all of a sudden freaks out every single night for almost a year now. The freaking out consists of panting, crying, him trying to open every door in my room until he settles. He used to be a dog excited to go to bed and would curl up with me no problem at all. I went to the vet and we tried the "all natural ways" of CBD, Melatonin and calming pills and nothing seemed to work. Fast forward, it is now happening every time i leave my apartment. He now is pacing, nudging the doors, scratching the doors, tearing down blinds, crying and completely just working himself up. I have taken him to the vet where we are now putting him on doggy Prozac and it has been 9 days and if anything he is worse at night and I never leave him alone. I need help or advice or anything.

I want to make a side note, he stays with friends and dog sitters and does absolutely amazing there but it is something about my apartment and my room and possibly being shut in. PLEASE any advice is needed.

Two months ago I rescued a ~9 month old terrier mix. She’s an excellent dog, and I enjoy being with her most of the time. Fortunately my current work schedule allows me lots of time to bond and train with her. When I do go to work, she goes to my grandma’s house. I don’t intend for this to be a permanent solution, it’s just what works for us right now.
However, this leads me to the major issue I’m having with her. She shows signs of separation anxiety and confinement anxiety, and I’m overwhelmed. When I brought her home, I had the best intentions of crate training her. When she showed confinement anxiety, I left her free and she would just lay on the couch if I ever had to leave her. We’ve been taking crate training slow, playing games and such with it. At first she was happy to play along but never settled inside. Currently, two days out of my work week require me to leave her home alone for an hour or so to wait for my grandma to come pick her up. This was fine until she started refusing to potty before I left; those times, she peed on two separate beds while I was gone. I’m willing to try anything, but I’m not willing to let her practice making bad choices while we figure it out. So since then I’ve crated her every time I’ve left, which has understandably been a catalyst for her separation anxiety to get worse. I never force her in; she goes in on her own, just doesn’t settle once inside.
I don’t know how we’re going to get through this. As these things sometimes do, it feels like we go one step forward and two steps back. I worry that she’s starting to not trust me/her environment. If anyone has been through this before, and can offer me genuinely helpful advice, I’m all ears.
Important to note:
**Gates/pens are not an option. She jumps over.
***she LOVES grandmas house. she is not anxious about me leaving her with grandma.

Each day with her includes 1-2 walks (45 mins to an hour, with lots of pauses to sniff), 1-3 training sessions (5-10 mins each, only if it feels fun for both of us), play time in the evening as well as structured time where I’m encouraging her to settle while we go about our business. This part is hit or miss. Not sure what I could be doing wrong. I’m just so overwhelmed and so is she.

So i have a 6 month old mini dachshund. We’ve had her for 4 months now.
So far she’s amazing, her training is going well shes great on walks, doesn’t bark inside or outside the house at strangers.

The problem is when she’s home alone.
She’s bench trained, has a special toy that is only for in her bench and sleeps in a bench in our room at night too.

Normally i leave before my fiancé for work.
She stays alone for max 5 hours as i work part-time at the office and part-time at home.
When this happens my fiancé eventually puts our dog in her bench gets ready to leave and then does so. She’s then whines for maybe 4 minutes and settles.

However when i leave she barks. This only happens when i leave after my fiancé, or when we leave together.

We recently got a camera to watch her when we are not home because she’s starting to be home alone more. Yesterday i had to leave for about an hour and she didn’t stop barking, i’m guessing this was because it was around dinner time for her tho.

How can i make it so she doesn’t bark when i leave.

I do the steps of putting her in her bench and not coming back when she barks, and walking away etc. And when we do this she is fine. The moment i leave the door however, she goes crazy.
The barking isn’t constant, there are breaks and sometimes it’s whining instead of barking.

I don’t suspect it’s separation anxiety because she’s fine whenever i leave before my fiancé, and whenever he leaves, and whenever she’s alone in a room for a longer period of time when we are in the house.

Please help!

Last November I adopted a dachshund Jack Russell mix and she is absolutely the sweetest girl. It was pretty clear shortly after I brought her home that she had separation anxiety and I started working with a CSAT beginning in January. She is on both Prozac and trazodone and the most she has ever given me is 75 minutes (she only achieved this once), but that was over three months ago and before I moved into a new home. She is now only giving me about 12 minutes consistently. I live alone and I am absolutely exhausted and overwhelmed. I love her with my whole heart and soul and want to do what is best for her but I’m struggling with grief and guilt over the idea of potentially doing a thoughtful surrender. Has anyone in this group made the decision to surrender their dog with SA?What did that process look like for you and what has your healing journey been?

To be clear, I have not made any sort of concrete decision as to what I’m going to do. I just know that I at least need to think about this so I can be as intentional and kind and caring towards my little girl as I possibly can be whether she ultimately stays with me or I find her a home that might be better suited to her needs than me

Rescued a 22 week old German Shepherd mix about a month ago. She was in a foster home for about 6 weeks, with 5 other dogs and one cat. I am a first time dog owner, while my bf has had dogs in his family before, but this is the first of our own.

Our pup is experiencing EXTREME separation anxiety. We are working on crate training, which she sleeps in at night just fine (it has a divider so it is just large enough for her to stand, turn around, and lay down, it is covered with a large blanket so it is nice and cozy). She even naps during the day when I am in the room (I work from home). But when she is left alone in her crate, she is in extreme distress. Barking nonstop, and will pee and poop in her crate. She is always taken outside to go potty before being put in her crate. The pup has also been doing a lot better with potty training, besides the issues with the crate.

For some background– our downstairs is pretty open (living room and kitchen) and we have a baby gate that separates the downstairs hallway that leads to front door and upstairs. We also have a cat, and they are separated and haven’t gotten along yet. The pup can’t be trusted alone in the open area, so she is crated when we need to leave the room. I put something on the TV (white noise, a show, music), but it doesn’t seem to help, as she still barks and has accidents (and stomps around in it).

I work on crate training and separation exercises– I put her in the crate, walk away briefly, return, give her treat. I do the same and go through the gate briefly, return, treat. But I can only do this for max 15 seconds before whining begins. I have done a LOT of research, but these exercises haven’t really built up any time yet. We will also feed her in the crate, as I have heard and read that dogs will try not to eliminate in places they eat or sleep, but that doesn’t stop her.

There are times when I need to go upstairs (work in my office, shower, laundry, etc), or leave for an errand, and it always ends up in me having to clean up an extreme mess. It is taking an extreme toll on my mental state, puppy blues to the max. I also feel bad that she is in such distress. Any and all advice welcome. TIA

We adopted our rescue dog three weeks ago. She’s a 2 year old terrier/pug/mystery lady. For the most part she’s been settling in well, and is really sweet with my husband and me. She listens well, is mellow during the day when we’re working (we both work from home), sleeps through the night, etc. She is a bit reactive on the leash, which we’ve been working on, and she’s also a little nervous with new people visiting our home. We’ve been doing slow introductions which has been making a difference - she calms down a lot quicker now when new people visit. 

Since the beginning, we’ve been having issues with separation anxiety. We’ve been trying to do short departures to build up her tolerance, but often we can only leave for 15-30 seconds before she is barking and pacing. Since this is a new experience for us, we tried setting up a camera and leaving her for a while to see how she did and if she would settle down eventually. We left her with a snuffle mat and left the house for about 50 minutes. She remained interested in the snuffle mat for 5-10 minutes after we left, but then started pacing through the house. She went back to the snuffle mat a couple of times, but she mostly paced, barked a little, and when we could see she was howling we went home. Once we got home, we also found she’d peed on our carpet, which she hasn’t done since the first day we brought her home.

Her foster described her as crate trained but mentioned she would cry in her crate before they left for work. I have a feeling she continued to cry while they were gone (one of multiple things the rescue/foster downplayed) and our vet tech agreed she really doesn’t seem to like a crate and free roaming may be a better approach. Our preference is to not crate train, if at all possible. For now, we’ve set up baby gates so she will be confined to our kitchen when we need to leave her. We’re doing our best to find people to watch her when we have to be gone.

I’ve read Be Right Back and have been trying to implement the training, but it’s honestly so overwhelming. I also listened to Susan Garrett’s podcast describing the Frida protocol, but we haven’t tried that yet. I’ve started separating her from us for periods (hours) during the day so she’s not always with one of us and gets more practice being on her own. She settles on the couch during those times, for the most part (sometimes she’ll chill in the hallway outside my office for a bit or wander the house a little). 

I know about the 3-3-3 rule, and she’s honestly been through a lot in the past few months. She was rescued in Mexico and was pregnant at the time, brought to the States and gave birth in foster care, was fostered for a couple of months, then was spayed after being with us for only a week. She’s just now recovered from her spay, poor girl. I’m wondering if anyone has seen success with early signs of separation anxiety after the dog has had longer to settle in? I don’t want to regret adopting her but I’m already feeling trapped in my house after only 3 weeks and dreading the months ahead. Any tips for other things we should try to help her be more successful on her own? 

Thanks in advance! This community has already been so helpful.