Hi all, I realise a first post dedicated to begging for help is maybe not the done thing, but I'm hoping your community can give some advice. I have a Chocolate Labrador/Pointer cross called Indie, he recently turned one year old and we've (my wife and I) had him since he was nine weeks. For all that time he's had a pretty consistent routine. We live in a flat with balcony (no garden), he get's 3 walks a day for a total of 2-3 hours of structured exercise (varied, including swimming, play with other dogs, or forest/hill walks across a few locations) on top of which he get's played with, trained and instructed in the flat. He's well socialised with other dogs through play in the local park, as well as people (although he is nervous around kids, but always has been - as he just isn't around them very often). My wife and I both work full time so we employ a dog walker to take him out during the time we're both away. as such his basic routine is to get up in the morning, go for a walk with one of us, come back for his breakfast, and he's then on his own until the dog walker get's him - another two hours of contact there (30 mins travel both ways and an hour walking and playing with other dogs) before waiting until whichever of us gets in first for another walk and then dinner. He is on his own, at most for 3.5 hours at a time on a weekday (at weekends he's usually got one or both of us around most of the time). For months, that has worked fine, and he's seemed generally a happy, gallus dog. Recently - more or less the last month - he's began to suffer from anxiety. Principally in the form of barking fits and some guarding behaviour. His basket is in our room (we tried it in the kitchen at first when he was really small, but he never settled and was unhappy) Lately he's began guarding our bed with some pretty formidable growling. This is also the case if he thinks your trying to lure him off of the bed (not conducive to actually using the bed to sleep in!). The barking fits tend to be if he hears or sees something outside he's not comfortable with (a kid and parent the other day, two guys in hi-Viz jackets this morning), it's fairly urgent barking and he get's very stressed out. Yet I can't help but feel there is a link to seperation axiety, as this behaviour seems to be more heightened when he senses we are going out to work. He's been to the vet who identified an ear infection which has been treated for, yet the anxiety persists. The outside environment may have changed, or his perception of it may have changed, as the communal grass areas outside have become grazing areas for rabbits, which in turn has attracted both cats and foxes. He is certainly on alert in those areas when we take him out for his walks. We are very shortly moving house to a place less urban, that has a large garden as well. It may be that he's picking up the stress from us of that change? With the house move we have the opportunity to redefine and/or reinforce behavours and routines, and I desperately want to try and make him a happier and more stress free dog. I honestly don't know where this as started from - as I said, he's seemed content enough with his routine for months, only now, in the last month or so for these fairly intense levels of anxiety to pop up. So my question, then, is in two parts: 1) What have I done that has caused this behavour in him. 2) How do I help him?
Welcome to the forum It sounds to me like a number of small stressors have had a cumulative effect that has put him over the edge a bit. Any one thing is probably only slightly stressful (you going to work, the rabbis, the ear infection, the people outside, your changed behaviour with the move) but added together those stressors can become one big reaction. It's probably been building for much longer than the outward signs have suggested. When he 'guards' the bed, what are the circumstances exactly? What do you do to try to 'lure' him off?
Thanks. The bed guarding generally comes from a situation where he's on the bed, desperately wants to be there and if you approach, you get the growling, it's not consistent as such, and generally the worst times are late at night, if he sees me going towards the bedroom he'll shoot past me, onto the bed and I'll be treated to a good bark and growl (If I just get into the bed while he's there the growling etc ceases). The 'lure' is not usually a deliberate lure: if for example we come back from a walk, and he heads towards the bedroom while I prep his dinner, he'll suspect I'm trying to trick him out of the bed space, and it raises his anxiety level. Other times he'll be happy to hop off if he thinks there's a walk on the go.
Perhaps his age also has something to do with it? My background is in Rotties (I've not had a Lab and so am here to learn) but right around a year old is when particularly the males start to challenge the status quo and get a bit full of themselves. Not all do it (I had one who did and one who didn't) but I certainly heard a lot of tales of woe from others who dealt with sudden behavioural changes at that age.
I wonder iit started with the ear infection then became a habit? Maybe the house move will help break the habit? Bruce (11 months old GR) came to us a week or so ago. He would bark and pant whenever we left the room/house. So we started leaving the room a lot, every half hour or more, with no comment and no interaction on leaving or returning. I also go outside the house, which means shutting 3 doors - a few times, even when I don't need to - the bins have never been so empty! It worked. After about 4 days he stopped barking and now he's stopped even moving position - he just looks up, as if to say 'yeah, she's doing it again, weird woman!' ...
Hi all, Thanks for the replies. The house move seems to have helped us 'peel the onion' as it were, in terms of the problem. He's no longer bed guarding, if only by dint of it being a different room, a different bed etc. Having the bigger space has made him a bit more comfortable as well. After two weeks in the new place everything seemed fine, no issues with him, and he had no issues with us coming and going - even when we were back in full time work routine. However, at the start of this week he had nother barking fit when his dogwalker tried to drop him off post walk, and this morning as my wife and I attempted to leave for work he went from relaxed and prone to barking and jumping madly in a matter of seconds. With all the other distractions and changes gone it seems to have reduced the 'noise' on our issue such that it now seems like straight up seperation anxiety. as much as the barking and jumping are unpleasant, his whining as we leave is heartbreaking. We've read up some stuff on seperation anxiety and the importance of coming and going randomly from spaces he occupies in order to lower his sensitivty to our presence - but there is not much we can do about a morning routine that means both of us have to leave - if not together, then within 15 minutes or so of each other, and that seems to be the one that triggers him, that and the dogwalker dropping him off. Other times he doesn't really mind or bother if one, or both of us leave. He seems to know when it's for work/dropping off and when he's going to be on his own for 3 hours. I don't know why it suddenly resurfaced in the last few days. Any further advice greatly appreciated.
This suggestion might be either something you already do, or your dog might be too stressed for it to help - but maybe worth a try. I have a routine around leaving the house that involves my dogs getting something great that they love very much - stuffed kongs. When they realise I'm getting ready to leave without them (handbag instead of training bag, shoes instead of boots) their attention is immediately on the kongs they know are coming. So they will go to their beds and wait, if I'm taking too long they'll come see what is holding me up, and go back to their beds etc. Waiting for their kongs. This creates a routine that is about something good happening for them, and not about me leaving. It really works amazingly well. When I got my new puppy my older dog was extremely distressed if I took her out without him so I started the kong routine for that too, as well as when I leave to go to work. I make up an amazing kong, with fresh sardines, very, very smelly. Both dogs want that kong, but only one dog gets it. The other dog gets a walk. They are both happy. The dog being left is happy s/he got the sardine kong, the dog going for a walk is temporarily disappointed s/he is not the one getting to stay with the sardine kong, but soon cheers up when we leave for a walk. Simple, might not help if your dog is really stressed, but still worth a try. My dog walker does the same thing with kongs when she collects one dog during the day when I'm at work. Dog that is left behind gets a kong, both get a kong when she leaves.
Yeah, we keep Kongs for him. Usually some frozen dog food and other treats so he has to really work it out of the Kong. Gave him one this morning when he was begining to show anxiety in the hope his attention would be drawn to it, and yeah, he was interested in it, but tht spell was quickly broken by our movement towards the door, so the anxiety still dominated.
Maybe you could try something really high value, though, just to see if that works. Like tinned sardines, as Julie suggested. The smelliness of them might just be enough to distract him. You could give him two - the first one room temperature, so smellier and easier, and the second frozen, but hopefully he'll have got the taste for it by then so it then occupies him longer.
