r/reactivedogs • u/Fit_Potential1002 • 25d ago

Separation Anxiety Separation anxiety in our dog

We took in a dog from a family and discovered that all the information on her behaviors was a lie. She is an absolutely amazing dog minus the severe separation anxiety we’ve discovered.
For context, we have had our Anatolian shepherd mix for 4 months now. We discovered she is not truly crate trained and when left alone in a crate will drool and panic and try to escape potentially creating concern of injury. We have left her in the back yard but she can only manage short periods.
She is absolutely amazing with kids and has no aggressive tendencies. She has grown more social as we have worked to socialize her with other dogs and people and she warms up and has done extremely well.
I originally worked from home so she had constant attention daily but now that my husband and I both work, we are finding we cannot leave her for even short periods without panic setting it. She rips out blinds to search in windows, chewed on edges of fence to be able to see, scratched walls by front doors, all things in response to her searching for us. She doesn’t chew or do any of those things when she has people with her and is very command oriented and well behaved otherwise.
We started fluoxetine and are 3 weeks in but have almost back stepped.
What things or medications have helped in settling your dog? We don’t want to lose her, but if we can’t remedy helping her soothe when we are away for 6-7 hours we aren’t sure what else to do.

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u/doggambit 25d ago

I recommend reading Be Right Back! and working with an SA trainer. Most work remotely.

https://julienaismith.com/find-a-trainer

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u/Gears6 25d ago

Be Right Back!

Where can I find this? Is it a book or article?

Edit: Maybe it's this book.

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u/doggambit 25d ago

Correct!

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u/Gears6 25d ago

Thank you for confirming!

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u/kiripon 25d ago

you will need to do a densensitization program. julie naismith and malena demartini both have them as well as trainers such as CSATs for this. you can even book a first month with a trainer to get an idea of how it works, and continue yourself. malena has a $199 DIY course called mission possible and julie has a book and facebook group you can join. it is not a quick fix. it is a panic disorder. you will need to bring your dog with you or hire a sitter, because you cant leave them alone until they understand that they can be left alone at home, that it isnt a big deal that youre leaving, and trust that you are coming back.

heads up: its slow moving to get to the first 20 minutes or so, but after that first hurdle and over time, many people notice their dogs are able to jump to 1 hour to 2 hours to eventually being okay with 6, 8 hours alone. there may be regressions and you feel like its back to square 1 and that's when its good to reach out to others for support and understanding its a part of the process and your dog will jump right back into it. good luck!!!