Hi there XXXXXXXXXX,
Thank you for your question regarding your young Cocker Bitch who sounds as though she has a severe case of separation anxiety. Good on you for your work thus far, and even though ignoring her doesn't seem to be doing much at this time, this is the key to helping her overcome this particular problem. In order to help your girl overcome this problem, you need to undertake a few things in order to help quell this behavior and thence hopefully quell the excessive excitment too! The goal that we are aiming for is to reduce your Cocker's anxiety through conditioning her to associate being left alone as a good thing. Here are a few tips and techniques that you may find useful:
No.1 Arrivals and departures
Keep your arrivals and departures very low key. Try leaving your dog alone for at least 15 minutes when you come home. Just ignore her as you have been. If your dog calms down then show it some attention.
No.2 Do not respond
It is important that you do not respond to your dog when it starts acting up. This is inadvertently rewarding your dog for poor behavior and will not help. If your dog starts barking or whining then ignore it, no matter how difficult that may be. Do not even make eye contact.
No.3 Attention
Only give your dog attention when it is lying down or relaxed and not actively seeking attention (by barking for example). Do this by calling your dogover and making it sit before petting, etc.
No.4 Contrast
Your dog is probably having difficulty accepting that sometimes it is going to get all the attention and other times none (like when you are at work). You can help this problem by ignoring your dog for 6 hours a day on the weekends. You can feed your dog but that's it. The idea is that your dog will think "What's the big deal when my owners are gone, even when they are home, they still ignore me".
No.5 Exercise
30 minutes before you leave home walk your dog for 15 minutes at a fast pace. If your dog is tired then it will have less energy to be a nuisance with.
No.6 Crate/Kennel
You could get a dog door put on your door to the backyard (if your Cocker is small enough!). Place a crate inside the house so that when your dog goes through the dog door it can only get into the crate. This has worked effectively for some people.
No.7 Clothing
Try giving your dog something of yours with your scent on it. This may allay its fears when you are not with it.
No.8 Sit-stay and down-stay
Practice these exercises regularly. These exercises require your dog to respond to you for longer and longer periods of time, so should be good for its discipline. Once you have your dog staying for 10 minutes or so, then try moving out of its sight for a brief period of time.
No.9 The vet
You may want to consult your vet about drug therapy. I would recommend that you ask about Dog Appeasing Pheromone (DAP) treatment. I have heard that this is extremely effective. This pheromone calms dogs nerves. DAP comes as a vaporizer that you plug into a wall socket, the vaporizer then releases small amounts of DAP into the room. You can buy DAP from a well-stocked pet store or several on-line pet stores.
The hard part is at the beginning, but the job gets easier as you go along. Nevertheless, you must go slowly at first. How long it takes to condition your dog to being alone depends on the severity of his problem. If this problem is ongoing with your girl, despite trying all of the above, then you can resort to trying behavioral altering medicines such as Clomicalm (Clomipramine HCL) available from your local Vet clinic - and these can definitely help with the above training. Please ask your Vet about this drug for more info and to see as to whether it would be suitable for your girl.
Best of luck with your girl and please let me know how you get on in the coming weeks. Give your Cocker girl a pat and a cuddle from me in the mean time.
Thank you and please now click ACCEPT.
Kind Regards,
Dr M D Edwards
I do not understand why she would have separation anxiety when there is someone else there when I am not.
My departure from the room is always low key and I do not make eye contact when she is playing up.
I have done little obedience training as Daisy is a show dog, so she does not "sit" or "down" as for the shows it may cause a problem. She is groomed daily so does get attention.
There is also something else that may cause a proble, she is a hermphrodite, would this have an effect on her demeaner?
Hi again XXXXXXXXXX,
It is a little tricky that she isn't yet obedience trained in that this could make things harder for Daisy's training. From the description of her behavior when you are at home, it definitely sounds as though Daisy is very dependent on you. This is a typical 'glue-dog' behavior (a dog follows an owner everywhere within the house when they are home) and this behavior goes hand in hand with separation anxiety. It is very unlikely that the fact Daisy is a hermaphrodite would have anything to do with this behavior. It is most likely this behavior has developed over her first 8 months with you and is purely behavioral - not hormonal or related to any other medical related issue.
I do think it is very important to begin to work in some obedience training with Daisy and you really do need to continue with the suggestions above, as this definitely sounds like a separation anxiety case. If she can get used to being without you, especially when you are home, then this will in turn help nip any separation anxiety problem in the bud now. It is important to ensure Daisy doesn't have any separation anxiety issues as she gets older as this in turn leads to further problems such as destructive behavior and barking when you are not at home.
I hope this has been of help and please be sure to reply if you have any further questions won't you!
Dr Edwards
Thanks for your help.
No problem and feel free to reply to this thread in the future if you need help with this problem again. Thanks and please now click accept.
Dog Veterinarian
Veterinarian - BVSc (DVM equivalent)