Anxiety in kennel and destruction if not kenneled!

[HalleySmith]

Hello,

I just got a 1.5 year old German shepherd.   His previous owners gave me a kennel with him, but said he prefers to be outside when left alone.  I have chickens out back, and I do not trust him yet with them!  So I put him in his kennel (that he goes in by himself throughout the day to sleep).  I gave him a bone with peanut butter and started to walk away.  He  started slamming into the walls of the wire kennel, barking frantically, and panting.  I imagine he has some separation anxiety.  He was not barking when I came home 40 minuets later, however, he was covered in drool and panting pretty hard.  There was fur everywhere, like he was blowing his coat due to stress.  

Next time I left for a short time, 30 minuets, I did not kennel him, and when I came home he had torn the cushions off the couch and eaten them.  And a final time, when had a client dropping their dog off (I house sit dogs at our home) I put our baby gate up so he didn't overwhelm the dog being dropped off..I spoke with the client for 10 minutes top, and come in to find he had chewed a hole in our papasan cushion.

How can I help this sweet boy not worry??!!

[Adrienne]

Hi there!

Welcome to the forums.

Poor dog, it seems like he is suffering from some form of intense anxiety. With these fellows, we don't know always know all their history so there may be several things going on. It could be separation anxiety, but we also need to consider some differentials such as the compounding fact that he is new to your place and he may have panicked being left alone in an unfamiliar place and then some dogs may suffer from containment phobias. In any case, he does need help!

Is this a dog you are temporarily fostering or decided to own?

Are you kenneling him outside the home or inside ?(I assume inside, but just wondering since you mentioned chickens).

When you left him the last times not kenneled, did he seem rather calm upon your return? Any drool? Fur everywhere? Panting? Or did he seem rather chill? 

How often must you leave the home and for how long? Do you primarily work at home? 

Did the former owners give you any details as to why they were giving him away? Any hints of behavior issues? I wonder if they were able to ever kennel him with the crate closed since they has him when they left the home. I am afraid his behavior was likely the primary reason they gave up on him. These cases are not the easiest to deal with. Bless your heart for wanting to help this sweet boy out!

Thanks for the extra details!

 

 

 

[JoanSmeets]

That's a tough situation to deal with. Although I have no long term solutions and I'm sure that Adrienne can help you best with those, I just wanted to weigh in that management is your best friend in this tough beginning.

When we first brought our dog home he was really afraid of us abandoning him. I guess that every switch of owner does cause some abandonment feelings however big or small and it might be that your dog has a lot of trouble dealing with it. We made some mistakes ourselves which made us end up with a similar situation you find yourself in now. We were not able to kennel him, not even at night, and he started to destroy things when left alone. Random at first and later on only chewing up stuff with our scent on it.

We were able to stay home for him so he did not need to be alone and we gave him a dog-proof sleeping spot in the hallway (empty dogbed, took off all the curtains, put away our jackets). After some time he started to understand that we were not out of the house at night and that he was not being abandoned and he completely settled down at night. That way we were able to provide him with a cushion in his bed and we put everything back up. We have had no problem with him destroying things there. Now that has been his safe sleeping space for quite a while we have recently been leaving him alone sometimes and put a camera up to monitor. He settles down after 2 to 5 minutes and goes to sleep.

So in my experience it takes some time for them to find the routines, trust that you are going to come back when you leave and settle into their true personality. You could try dedicating a space/room in your home to your dog and dog-proofing it completely. If at all possible, avoid leaving him alone for a while and work on building some trust first, and if you start leaving him alone it's best to build it up very slowly (if he can handle it 5 minutes at a time at first). It can not hurt to treat it as a separation anxiety issue though, and I'm sure Adrienne can provide you with information and tips on that. The destroying may be part of his breed and the fact that he is still a very young dog, so dog-proofing as much as you can could not hurt either.

Most of all, good luck! I hope you can overcome this hurdle!