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Old November 7th, 2011, 03:57 PM
irzi irzi is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: slovenia, Europe
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barking howling and driving me and my neighbur nuts!

Hello!

This is my plea for help as i am at my wits end

I read your article and would like to hear what you think. is there a way out for us?

My boyfriend and i addopted Spannish greyhound-Galgo female Ani. She is approx 3yo.

I believe, that she was a hunting dog and when she was disposed, she was on the streets until members of spanish shelter found her and put her for adoption.
She does not look traumatized, as she is ok with loud bangs, trucks, cars, loud people, crowds..... BUT, she does not do well in small spaces.

She hates her crate. would sleep in it if put there, but if i leave her, she would bend the wires, injuring herself.

At first, she didnt want to be in a small room with me, she was nervous and whiny, but eventually, over a period of time (2 weeks) she settled down.

Now, the problem....
When i am gone from home, she whines, yells, howls, all to tell the world just how miserable she is. She is not alone! she has 2 other dogs to keep her company. she also whines, when my bf is home. But she wants me! (i didnt do nothing to bond with her specially, other than rewarding her for coming to me as i started with training recall right away, and we do some clicker training, to which she responds very slowly-being an adult, never trained greyhound)

As i think, that she has problems with being confined, i didn't limit her to one room, but i let her the run of the house. ( i know she should deserve it first and will confine her if you will advise me so, but i thought it would be best to leave her with as much space as possible, so she wouldn't feel trapped)
She jumps on the window, scratches the door, whines and yells while pacing back and forth the 1st floor. I feel sorry for other 2 dogs PRT and ACD, who are becoming nervous too.

I spent 3 days leaving and coming, so she would find out that i always come back. but no success...

She doesn't look panicky, just uncomfortable.

I am ready to do more barking set ups, but she still has to be left at home for 8 hours everyday, even while in training.
We live in terraced house, and own our house, but still have to solve the problem for dogs sake, our sake and at the very end, for our neighbors sake too.


I would appreciate your help very very much!

I know she probably loved every minute of wandering the streets being a city wolf, but she has to become an apartment dog now.

just a note; altough she probably doesn't need much excersise, she gets plenty of it, beacause my Parson terrier and specially Cattle dog need vigorous excersise, at least 2 hours of walk, from which is 45-60 minutes offleash running for her. 2 times per week, when we practice agility with ACD, she gets the run on the training field...... weekend multiple hours of hiking.....
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Old November 7th, 2011, 07:46 PM
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renegaderuby renegaderuby is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: tx
Posts: 268
My biggest "guess" on this is "seperation anxiety".
What I dont know is ..if she is having episodes of this because of "recent changes" due to the rescue, adoption...ect.
Or if she has always been that way.

There are numerious things you can do to "cope" with it. But there is no "cure". It is something that is "managed".
Unfortunatly it is just as "annoying" and "uncomfortable" to the dog going thru it , as it is to those around her.

If you read all of my posts..you will get an idea of things I've done, tried, and finally some things we've had success with.
Since "confinement" is what sets her off. I'd personally avoid that as much as possible.
However...you cannot avoid you "leaving" the house...so ways to "manage" her "anixiety" when you do that is going to be the "trick".

Good luck...your going to need it.
Also..they make crates (non wire) that are pretty sturdy, chew resistant, and wont harm her while she is attempting to get out.
I also find a kong bone filled with some penut butter (right in the middle of it, not completely filled with it)...keeps the sep anx pup i have busy for at least an hour...so he's not so obsessed with "getting out" of crate.
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Old November 7th, 2011, 10:16 PM
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luckypenny luckypenny is offline
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Location: St. Philippe-de-Laprairie, Qc
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Welcome to pets.ca, irzi. You're the second Slovenian I've seen here in the last little while...dobrodošli .

One of our dogs had severe separation anxiety and the information/exercises we found in these two books helped us immensely: I'll Be Home Soon by Patricia McConnell and Don't Leave Me by Nicole Wilde. I purchased my copies through dogwise.com . Not sure if they would ship to Slovenia but you can always give it a try.

It's taken us years to help him overcome his separation issues but, our guy is much better now. We still can't leave him for more than 4-5 hours by himself but, at least he's no longer destructive nor does he howl up a storm (he only starts now when I come home and drive into the garage, lol). One thing that was not mentioned in the books but that we noticed makes a difference here...if I'm the last one to leave the house, our dog has a much more difficult time adjusting to being alone. If it's my husband or one of our sons that are the last to leave, he does much better.

I wouldn't confine your girl in any sort of crate until you know 100% that she won't try to escape. If she wants out, she'll find a way and the chances of injury are too great.
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Old November 7th, 2011, 11:10 PM
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renegaderuby renegaderuby is offline
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I will also add. my pups case is not "severe". he sep anxiety is "mild". on the spectrum
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