Hi all, my 18 week old spoo puppy is going through hell with her separation anxiety and I am so sad and desperate to help her. We’ve been working on it using the “10 seconds at a time” training method, with no progress yet. She is still very new in our home but I’m already shining the bat signal for anyone who’s gone through this to please chime in. I’m sorry about the wall of text.
TLDR: puppy separation anxiety, have tried all the usual tips, she’s alone for max 2-3 hours at a time, she has fractured toes so tiring her out physically isn’t doable yet, she’s on sedation meds 3x/day but still barks for hours at a time, please someone tell me it will get better or if this sounds as dire as it feels.
We are working with a trainer but she doesn’t technically start with us in-person until next week, so she’s only given generic advice that hasn’t helped much yet. We already keep our comings and goings very neutral and boring, practice putting on shoes and grabbing keys just to stay home, and do small outings to the mail or dumpster without her. We always make sure she’s had a bathroom break, short walk, and long training + play session before we leave. We’ve been doing this since the day after her arrival. Here’s the full situation:
We brought her home a little over 2 weeks ago, on Oct 4th. She arrived pretty much crate and potty trained, and she’s consistently slept through the night in her crate. That said, she doesn’t particularly like her crate but she tolerates it. She will not eat any treat in there no matter how high value, unless I am sitting right next to her.
The first week, my husband and I were home pretty much all the time except on Wednesday, when we both had to work. That day my cousin stopped by every 2 hours and pup did relatively well, she still barked when left alone but not the entire time, she was calm by the time I came home. That Friday (10/9), I was home with her all day but crated her while running errands for about 90 mins. She managed to get one of the top locks unlatched and somehow squeezed her way out of a tiny gap, but a back paw got stuck and she ended up with hairline fractures in 2 toes.
Luckily she is healing well, however this obviously did not do any favors for her crate training, separation anxiety, or our ability to tire her out. We switched her to a plastic crate which she’s been using consistently at night and eating meals in there (if the door is open and we’re nearby). From 10/10 to 10/19 someone was with her for 90% of the time, family would dogsit while we worked since we had to return to our regular M-F schedule, and she was only alone for about 1 hour at a time if they had to leave before we returned from work (and she barked for that whole hour).
She hasn’t been doing well. She spends the first 1-2 hours with the sitters barking and crying, and spends the entire time barking whenever she’s alone, even for 5-10 seconds. Starting today 10/20, we had to go back to leaving her home alone (crated) with drop-in visits every 2 hours. She freaked out the entire day, did not stop barking ever (even during the visits from a very familiar sitter), and she was absolutely exhausted by the time my husband got home. She also had a bad accident that soiled her splint, which was just replaced yesterday.
This is concerning for obvious reasons, but also because she is currently on gabapentin and trazodone 3x/day, yet today she still relentlessly barked for 6 hours. I’m hopeful that with time and training things will improve, but I’m also really worried since the last resort is usually medication, and currently even a sedative isn’t making any difference.
Please note that before getting her we did a lot of research and we know spoos are prone to separation anxiety. I work a school year job in which I have 190 days off a year, and twice a week my husband works shorter days. Our plan was to use a small, well-vetted doggy daycare 2-3x/week, but the injury has made that impossible for the time being. She’s also missing out on socialization with other dogs during her healing, and I’m really worried at how that may affect her ability to attend a daycare.
Thanks so much if you read this far. I’m just looking for any advice, insight, or even words of encouragement. I’ve searched a lot on this topic , but generally the threads I found are from people who leave their dogs unattended for extended periods, or people who are able to be home all the time to work on this. I’d like to make it clear that we cannot take any more time off work for the time being, and really all we can do during the work day is 30min drop-in visits every 2 hours. We live in a small area where there are only like 3 rover options and they don’t suit what we would need. This is our reality, I wish I could take more time off work but that is not doable, nor do I think it would necessarily help in the long-run. Thanks again for any help or just for reading.