Seperation Anxiety
We bought a 7 year old female husky from the shelter. She is well behaved except for when she is left alone. Chewed out of a metal kennel, has destroyed house several times, digs out of our huge newly fenced yard. We have tried medications and training and nothing is working. Is there anything we can do?
From your question I infer you have tried the most recent separation anxiety drugs clomipramine and fluoxetine. It would be nice if we could give a pill and have this behavior come to an end. Rarely have I seen this work. Extensive behavior modification with drugs as an adjunct is the only method I have seen work. There has been recent work with dog appeasement pheromone(DAP) to help keep the dog calm while the owner is away. The steps to solve this problem are: 1) Discourage hyperattachment 2)Relaxation during separation, this is where drugs and DAP helps 3)Desensitization to separation. An animal behaviorist is best suited to help set up the plan. Punishment does not help. Leaving a tv or radio on does help to abate symptoms. Randomly do some of the things you do preparing to leave the house without actually leaving. This helps the desensitization.