Apparently our offer was rejected by Maggie this morning. If your unfamiliar with the offer, basically, it’s a peanut butter Kong and some dog food laid out on a plate to help Maggie deal with anxiety of being home alone.
She has been more anxious lately in light of the recent increase in violence in our neighborhood. She already stressed out when the kids (aka, her babies) would leave the house but now it’s gotten worse.
This is the worst we have seen. She actually completely destroyed the couch. I mean we everything that should be on the inside is now on the outside.
I’m not angry, thanks you Paxil, but this is quite frustrating. I don’t know how to help her. She was doing well for a little while and the offering was enough to keep her occupied while we were gone. She’s just becoming more and more stressed.
Don’t ever say that pets aren’t affected by things like we are going through. I think Maggie illustrates that quite well.
I think we will have to revert to the kenel when we go out for now. We have a big one in the basement that I can put back together. The problem is that she is very strong and went right through the last one.
Thoughts, suggestions? I’m open to just about anything at this point.
On the bright side, at least it’s Friday. If this was a Monday….oh… I don’t even want to go there.
– Lost and Tired
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Melatonin. It's not just for when we or our kids can't sleep anymore! My dog has anxiety problems, mainly separation and storm related. When there's going to be no one home or when it's storming when we go to bed I give my 60lb husky mix 5 to 10 milligrams of melatonin. It amount really just depends on how stressed she is at the moment. It doesn't make her tired, so she doesn't end up sleeping all day or being up all night or anything like that. It helps calm her nerves. I give her the pills since I have no problems myself getting her to take them. I suggest trying those since they have no side effects and aren't designed to make her tired.
I bought a stress-ease product at Wal-Mart, pet section of course, drops that go in water – I've had good results with it for two months now.
Give her some Benedril before you go out; it will make her a little sleepy and won`t hurt her any. If you don`t like that idea you can go to the vet and get her anxiety meds, but they cost more. Also, the calmer you are when you leave the easier it is on her (I know, hard). Hope this helps 🙂
I heard a technique for helping dogs with separation anxiety on Fresh Air, it involves training the dog to associate your leaving with your return, sounded pretty easy (and free!). Here is an article with a link to the interview: http://www.seattledogspot.com/2011/06/08/nprs-fre…