Hi All I've come back to the forum for some advice please and probably some owner training too. After missing our Very old lab for a few years my wife and I decided a rehome old lab would be a good idea but its not going to well and some advise is needed please. She came from a reputable breeder/cattle farmer after reaching 8 1/2 and 3 max litters so their licence needed them to rehome - very well trained heal, retrieve, recall all 100% but she is suffering terrible from separation anxiety, I assume from having a life around a farm and 8 other labs, although in separate kennels etc. We're alone (dog wise) I work at home most days but even a trip to the loo makes her go into howling mode. stair gates knocked over head banging on windows (her not me). After a few absolutely necessary trips out for 2 hours alone ended in a lot of head banging on doors until one gave and she tried to escape thru an upstairs closed double glazed window. Nothing damaged but it is obviously effecting her being alone and I'll soon need to go to work for a few hours, assuming the world recovers from the virus. I know a lot of this is new for her, from outside to inside, from constant activity as a working dog and hunting / mothering to sleeping in front of the fire in retirement she's house trained and very well behaved/content when someone is in view, its difficult for her to be alone if Im here but she has to get used to it ASAP. so Im looking for advise on where to go from here on what is the best way to re a-customise her to a new life and being alone? May so I take a shower without worry (a tad of an exaggeration but a good example). Even farmers take a shower or go shopping and leave the hound at home. Thanks in advance and heres to hoping we come up with a plan ASAP. Her being stressed is more of a stress than having a puppy at the moment.
I may not be the best person to offer advice and I am sure there are others who will be much more experienced than me but we rehomed Mia when she was 4 months old - I appreciate they are much more adaptable at that age than they are at 8 years but she came with a lot of problems. She had lived outside in kennels but she was not keeping up with the training from the breeder so he lost interest in her. When she came to us she hated being left alone, even though we have another lab that she was with. Mia is by far the most destructive dog I have ever come across but only when she knows there is no one around so we put it down to separation anxiety, it may not have been, as I said I am no expert. We had a small crate that she slept in the first few nights and she was relatively settled in that but as she got bigger we removed the crate and that was when a whole lot more problems came out into the light. After a few weeks of having to 'puppy proof' before leaving to come home and find she'd destroyed the kitchen cabinets/table legs/sofa/etc instead we decided to reintroduce the crate but she hated it, so we borrowed a very large crate from a friend and Mia absolutely loves it. Since she has had her very own 'safe place' she is totally settled, we still have a bit of destructive bed chewing but aside from that everything else seems to have settled down. The crate is totally impractical for daily life as it takes up huge part of the kitchen but it will stay for as long as it works for Mia, she doesn't sleep in there overnight as she knows we are in the house so settles herself on the sofa with our other dog or in front of the fire but if we have to leave her alone then she will happily settle in the crate and she will often take herself in there if she wants a bit of quiet time. As I said, there are others who can offer more experienced advice but this is what worked for us with Mia so I hope it will give you something to think about, good luck!
Hmmmm interesting points and you could be right - we've cage trained all the other labs pups and rehomes and none of them really suffered in this way so it could be the answer for a few £ experiment via FB marketplace 2nd hand anyway. She does show similar signs as you describe - quite n happy but god help bins or cat trays when shes alone. She has taken easier to the garden room we have outside, Where as she went mental inside - outside she just moans - I can see her thru the windows sitting on the summer chairs quite happy looking but just howling to get attention. I figure an hour at a time until shes quiet then reward & repeat. thank for you advise though - and the pup to lab is a good point as the plan is to bring in a pup to keep her company but that may not work I guess. One thing that is strangle is the total lack of play for a dog, I know she's well treated and had loads of kids around her etc. but she has no idea what to do with a Kong toy stuffed with food, a cuddle toy - quite funny as she turn the bin inside out at any opportunity. I guess not all dogs are the same.
I'm sorry Scooby, but this is going to take time. Her entire world is upside down right now and I know that you think you're doing the right thing but forced isolation even for short periods may be exacerbating the situation as it's keeping her anxiety levels high. Our blind boy Bruno had very bad separation anxiety when he came to us at 7 years old and needed to be constantly by my side so that he could 'feel' that I was there. I kept him with me 24/7 for weeks until he started to chill out by himself and then I started leaving him for an hour at a time. 7 months on he just gives a woof when I leave, grabs his fave t-shirt and goes to bed to cuddle it. Both our previous rescue labs, Faye and Cookie were both treated terribly and had separation anxiety when they came to us and took months to fully settle. Upshot is that you just can't rush this stage, if you do you'll make it worse, they need you to be there. As for toys, our 4yr old Billy has Kongs etc, his favourite ? A pair of my old socks rolled into a ball
Cage trail didnt go to well, she went in and relaxed no problem as she was doing really well I tried her in it for 10 min whilst I cut the grass. I found the door torn apart locks broken and welds of the bars pulled apart. Never seen a dog break a cage before, I assume it must be cheap but OMG, Obviously that go well. Then she broken into the chest freezer (no idea how) and sat eating frozen corn cobbs. Will ditch the cage for a while and just keep her sane until things settle a bit as she has a head like a hammer - explains why theres no hair on her snout
Oh no, how distressing for the both of you. Perhaps leaving her alone in the crate was a bit too much to ask of her at this time. With Mia I was putting her in the crate with the door shut and staying in the room for a few minutes while prepping tea or cleaning the ashes, just so she knew that was the time to settle but I wouldn't be leaving her. After doing this several times a day for a few days she started taking herself off to her crate for a nap when she realised I was busy, it was at this point that I started to leave the room for a few minutes. I think in all honesty I was more worried about the crate than Mia was but I definitely don't regret taking it so slowly as she's perfectly happy to be left in there for a couple hours when we're all out. I know you said that she has no concept of toys, perhaps try giving her vegetables to chew on instead. Mia loves eating a carrot and when I'm mopping the floor I put her outside with a frozen carrot to keep her going for longer to give my floor a chance to dry properly and she absolutely loves it. A colleague of mine rehomed a spaniel a few years ago and the rescue had very little information about him but he seemed to have quite a high work ethic, instead of feeding him all his kibble in a bowl he would feed him two half meals morning and evening and throughout the day would just chuck bits of food for the dog to find. This engaged his working instinct and definitely seemed to help take the anxious edge off him, it was almost as if he had found his purpose in the new situation. All dogs are different, it's just about finding what works best for yours
