I've started working on separation anxiety protocols to get Squidge happy with being left. She doesn't have separation anxiety, but she's frustrated when she's left without human company. It's something I've not focussed on to date because it's tricky as I work long hours from home so ironically finding the time to not be here can be tough! Of course, we still want to be able to go out without the dogs on rare occasions and for now we're dealing with that by using dog sitters so it's never been urgent, but I want to crack it. It's not a problem in Spain; we can see that from the cameras we have set up, but here in Andorra Squidge will bark all the time we're out. Presumably that's because she hears noise from the other apartments and responds to that. It's not alert barking, as she doesn't do that. I think it's FOMO, pure and simple. Anyhow, back to the point. FOMO, frustration, anxiety, whatever the issue, the protocol is the same - incremental periods of separation, starting in the house and moving towards leaving. I've started working on the early stages - getting her on the sofa in a relaxed position and just going about my business. The idea is that she doesn't follow me everywhere I go. She's a rock star at this; even when I'm cooking in the kitchen, she stays relaxed out of eye shot in the living room and just chills out between treats. Willow is similar, she just settles down. Shadow, on the other hand - whenever I move out of the room, he pops up and stays in an anticipatory sit for the whole time I'm out, whether that's one second or three minutes. I wouldn't have said he has separation anxiety, but he's clearly feeling some level of stress from me being out of the room and far more so than the girls. So the exercises I'm doing for Luna's benefit are hopefully going to be beneficial for him, too. I'll be really interested if teaching him to relax more effectively will have any bearing on his alert barking.
Yes. I’m working on this with Keir too. He will eat his Kong when I leave him, which is a good sign. But he spends the whole time after that lying by the door in anticipation of my return, which isn’t. FOMO? I have that too! .
Snowie’s breeder (of his father) told me boys are more attached to their humans than girls. She has 50 years Lab breeding experience, but I don’t know how general this behavior is to other breeders and breeds. She said her girls lie outside on the patio, her boys follow her around and lie at her feet when she’s sitting at her desk. We also think Snowie has FOMO (me, too!). He needs to be in on the action all the time, which we love. But if we’re preparing to go out, he lies on his bed and goes to sleep. He knows the difference between prepping to go out or staying at home - he’s very observant. Very thankful for this - but we did train for this in his first year and it’s paid dividends. As a small puppy he would cry even if I went into the shower cubicle where he could see me. Our training included a lot of lickable treats!
Fear Of Missing Out Gosh, Shadow was awful for being separated as a young pup. He would cry and shout, so we did work on it and made great strides. He's fine when we go out - just a bit of alert barking at loud noises - but in looking at his reactions now, I do wonder if he is actually anxious, just not demonstrating any problematic behaviours. So we got him "good enough" but can still improve his emotional wellbeing with a bit more training. I'm certainly not saying this is true of any other dog (Shadow is a naturally anxious boy anyway), but it makes me feel a bit bad to think that I could have done more for him and didn't just because he wasn't being a nuisance!
Just because if he were properly relaxed he would go to his bed/change position etc. It’s a sign he’s resigned but not relaxed, I think. At night he mostly stays on his bed but sometimes goes to other dog beds in the room. If he wakes early I hear him clonking his nylabone on the floor, then he takes up his position lying by the door waiting for me. .
Oh I definitely think Stanley has FOMO but only when we're in. He follows me everywhere and if I go upstairs (we have a babygate on the stairs) he sits on the couch looking up the stairs and awaiting my return. When we go out however, he could not care less! We've videoed him! He munches on his kong then snuggles down in his bed and doesn't move until we return. When I get home I look though the window and he's never at the babygate. Then as soon as I put my key in the door I can look again and he appears sleepy and yawning. But then acts as though he's been sat there the whole time missing me
I've been noticing the reverse since we moved...Quinn will take herself upstairs to bed without us now, or stay in the living room on her bed while I go upstairs or downstairs. I almost feel insulted she's not following me around as much. We're not sure what it is - maybe she's more comfortable? Age? Def no FOMO at our house!!
This is an interesting thread. We have had a bit of a change recently with the addition of a foster dog, so the dynamic has changed with currently four labs I had reinstated a crate in our kitchen, primarily for the foster dog, however, Benson decided he wanted to use it. Now, what was interesting is initially Benson seemed to experience a bit of anxiety with the foster, how he dealt with it I thought was insightful, he would take himself of quietly to his crate. Now Benson has always seen a crate as a relaxing place, he loves his crate! All the best things happened in there. The crate is in exactly the same position as it was as a puppy.
Maybe there is a dog/ bitch thing going on, as suggested by @MF, I've never thought of it before. My television is in a different room from the woodburner and the chairs Cass likes to lie on, she's not allowed on the sofa where the TV is, if I go to watch it she will stay by the fire, but comes through at intervals to give me a little nudge and then goes back to the fireside. She doesn't make a fuss when I'm not here, and I sometimes peep through the window and see her sleeping in her bed. I guess just because she doesn't cry though doesn't mean she likes being alone. She's always very pleased to see me on my return!
Lilly is quite relaxed if we are all sitting but is on the alert every time one of us gets up. It might just possibly because we sit in our sunroom mostly and access to the rest of the house is through the KITCHEN And she settles down curled up on our bed or her own bed as we head out. I have always envied people who can take photos of their snoozing dog. Nope not in this house. Move anywhere and she is awake.
Snowie is the same. But he doesn’t move; just opens one sleepy eye and keeps it trained on you, then you know you’ve been “caught in the act”, like when the human is trying to sneak a snack from the fridge but doesn’t want to share it with the dog!
