Crate training-Panic

[JamieRose]

Hi everyone, 

 

first post in this forum, we have a 1.5 year old border collie who we got from a farm at 9 months old. Always been very shy and anxious (working on this). There was a period where we left him alone in the house in the bedroom however he would chew things left right and centre despite chews being left out as well as puzzles etc so we have resorted to using the crate when out.
 

Initially in the crate he would bark, whine, drool, panic, chew the bars however this settled down about 2 months ago and we haven’t had any issues since. However the last week it has all started again where as soon as we leave him in the crate, the same way we always have without changing anything, he barks, digs, chews etc and overall panics whilst drooling everywhere.

 

we are a bit stuck and would love to some help with this as it’s worrying us when we are out as we don’t want him to hurt himself but we also can’t leave him out the crate without risking more things being chewed.

 

Any help would be appreciated with this! We have a camera set-up to monitor him. Nothing has changed, no new routine nor new noises/placement of the crate it just came on suddenly.

 

Thank you all in advance!

 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi there,

Welcome to the forums,

Yikes! This sheer panic in this case, makes this likely a case of intense separation distress. 

Working on this issue takes times, and likely meds from a vet to lower the anxiety so that he's capable of learning how to better cope with the whole situation of being left alone. 

If this turns out to be truly a case of separation-anxiety/distress, then in the meanwhile, steps will need to be taken so that he's not alone. This is not a long-term thing, it's just to give the dog enough time to learn how to better cope as the meds start kicking in. 

If your dog does OK with anybody, options would include:

-Taking him to daycare

-Having a dog sitter keep him company

-Having a friend or neighbor stay with him

-Having a family member stay home

If he doesn't do OK with anybody, and is primarily attached to only one person, then options would include:

-Taking the dog along 

-Staying with the dog

I am glad you have a camera set up to monitor him, this is one of the most helpful tools used to gauge how behavior modification for this kind of issue is going.

Here are some examples of several exercises used to work on separation-related distress and some helpful reads. Your dog will likely need accompanying meds from your vet, to keep him under threshold during the process: 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/general-guidelines-for-clingy-dogs-dogs-with-separation-anxiety/

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/signs-of-separation-anxiety-in-dogs/

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/tips-for-tackling-your-dogs-separation-anxiety/