June 8, 2009
Off to take Buddyface to the vet for his last heartworm x-ray. The separation issues got way worse. Curtains torn down and dry wall totally tore up when we left him out for a little over an hour. Yikes. I was actually motivated enough to get my sewing machine out…for the first time in four years. (I think that’s a good thing?)
So, we have to crate him and he’s FREAKING out. We put him in for 3 hrs when we went to the movies and we put our video camera on. Pup barked, panted, dug at the bottom of the crate for THREE HOURS STRAIGHT. No joke. He was a mess when we got home. Whoa. We’re getting a bit worried now, for HIS sake… we only have 2 more weeks before Matt goes back to work. I doubt he’ll be ready for 4 hours, lunch break, 4 more hours in 2 weeks.
We’re going to keep trying a little longer and have been reading a lot on separation anxiety in the meantime. New strategies are to do 10 minutes in his crate a couple times a day, adding on 15 minutes or so each day. We are also not going to talk about coming and going (spelling C-Y-A… yea that’s us now) and not to make a fuss over him when we take him out. We are told normalizing the crate routine, as reassuring him in the smooshy voice just reinforces that he should have been worried in the first place. We also have to do more separation while we’re home – we call him velcro dog, because right now he follows Matt ev-ery-where. So we’ve been making him sleep in the living room and then Matt will also make him stay when he gets up from the living room and goes anywhere else (bathroom, dining room, etc.) He is SO smart – we tell him to stay when we go to bed and at 6 am, he’s still in the same spot. (he does lie down and go to sleep.) We’re also trying to exhaust him – long walks, running, dog park, etc – whenever we can before crating. I just hope we can get him through this, I hate to think about him going through ANOTHER adjustment to go back to his foster mom’s (although he will go back to a familiar environment.) What a mess this little pup is. I can’t imagine what he went through before he went to the foster people’s. I think he must have been crated and ignored all the time to be so insecure
And this is a dog? I can’t imagine what kids who are abused, what it would take to foster, rehab or adopt them. So sad.
June 4, 2009
Buddy is doing pretty good, so far. His foster parents told us he had major separation anxiety and he flipped out when they tried to crate him. (Like, tore the crate up and ended up hurting himself.) They also told us he tore up a sofa when he got out of the crate. (And we still took this dog???) Because he was abandoned before they got him, he’s just super insecure. Like now that we have him, he just follows me or Matt (more Matt) around 24/7 and just always wants to be near us. Matt is fortunately home all this month, but I feel bad that his 3 weeks off he’s just locked in at home, so I’m trying to work from home or at least come home for an hour or so to give him a break. Which is feasible, but also means that I have to get more done AT work when I’m actually there, so I’ve had less time to do things like…. blog. (Erm, it’s important.) And it’s just been kind of crazy come back from vacation and we’re starting a new group next week and our new hire started this week. Sheesh.
So Matt crated him the first day and just went outside to mow the lawn to try and practice it…and he just sat in here and barked for twenty. straight. minutes. No breaks. Lots of drooling. Yesterday we decided to leave him out in the house when we went to the store, and we put our video camera on where he usually sits. He was FINE. He didn’t even bark. He just sat and stared at the door – literally stared – as if willing us to return for 60 straight minutes.
Wonder if he’ll do that for hours at a time?? He doesn’t make any attempts to chew anything – we haven’t even seen him put his mouth on anything. So I’m not really worried about that, and he doesn’t even jump on anything. He is the sweetest little guy ever. He just wants to be loved and petted and he is so happy to see us. He has really gotten attached to Matt quickly. We’re both trying to practice being really consistent and firm with things we want him to do – like wait for us to walk out the door before he comes out, etc. So, so far, he’s done much better than we thought he would. Hopefully we can gradually increase the amount of time he’s left alone.
Ya’ll who own dogs: How long do you leave yours home? We are thinking it’s realistic to work up to 6-7 hours a day??? I mean, they can hold their pee that long right??
June 1, 2009
So, we just adopted a dog. His name is Buddy, he is a 5-ish year old rescue sheltie who was found running loose in Greensboro, probably turned out and has been in foster care for the last 3 months. All we really know about him is he has super smart, sweet as can be, and did we mention he some potentially major separation anxiety? We don’t know much about that, other than that sounds really not fun and hazardous to your favorite possessions, such as curtains and loveseats. Are we ready for this?
He arrives in an hour. DEEP BREATHS.
