How do I break my puppy of possible separation anxiety and recent accident issues?

Question

I have a 9 mo old Boston Terrier who has recently started having acceidents on my kitchen floor. I have an idea of why she may be doing this but am not positive and want to make sure so I can correct this before it gets any more out of hand. She is potty trained but recently has been going backwards it seems. She doesn't have accidents when I'm around or if she's let loose in the house when I'm home and we're just relaxing and doing our thing. She does exactly as she's supposed to and been potty trained to do - or not do for that matter. However, she seems to be doing it when gate her off in the kitchen and leave. She used to be gated in the kitchen when I left for work and would go all day without accidents or tearing anything up. She was great for a whole month. Recently after that month or so she had gotten sick with a urinary tract infection which then started to cause her to have accidents as she was sick. This was then followed by her being in heat and leaving her "scent" around by urinating on the floor as well. Now, looking back, maybe I should've taken a step back myself and crated her right away again while at work rather than just gating her in the kitchen. My thought process at the time was she was doing it because she was sick, couldn't help it, etc. and would be better when she was better. Don't get me wrong, the accidents now and are few and far between as before she would even do it right in front of me, which I would still tell her "no" and take her outside where she would go. The sickly accidents are no longer but now when I leave her gated in the kitchen she has accidents. I already started back crating her when I leave for work as I could tell once she felt better that she was still having accidents. I thought I needed to start from scratch again as she is still a puppy now has this "bad habit" back. When I crate her, she is fine. No accidents. When I have tried gating her in the kitchen again, it has not been for a whole work day but in smaller stints as I know I couldn't just leave her a whole day right away. It was a 1/2 hr here, maybe an hour there..and I would come home to urine and fecal matter on the floor. Sometimes she would even chew up my rugs which she never did before. Then I thought maybe I need to take even smaller steps and only leave for 10-15 min which has worked 50/50. During this whole time I still have gated her in the kitchen when I shower for work so she can eat and there has been no issue, until today. My boyfriend went out to move our cars around while I was showering and when I came down and he came back in - there was a urine puddle and a piece of f***s on the floor. I call this anger f***s as she was just out and went. It's obvious it's some sort of sign that she's upset or something. The ironic thing is he started up and moved my car - is there a way she's associating that with me leaving as every other time I leave she hears the garage door and my car? This is the first time she's had an accident while I'm home and in the shower and it's the only connection I can make. Even if it is a type of separation anxiety that has started, how do I correct it now? I want make sure I'm doing this correctly right away instead of trying any more things that seem to not work. Also - any ideas why this has started to happen now after doing so well and being trained? I feel I haven't changed her schedule at all (before this happened to cause it) but want to make sure it's not something I did that triggered this? I know she is doing great in the crate and a lot people only do crate training but I would like to have her gated in the kitchen as she more room and frankly, she was doing good before so I feel she can do it again. She is well behaved otherwise and a very smart dog, I know I just need to give her the right trainig and tools and we'll both be back on track. Thank you in advance for the help!

Answer 1

You are right about all of what you have said.  Your dog does have separation anxiety and you have already found the trigger for your dog - your garage door opening, and your car leaving.  Those are the things you need to break.  You need to start associating those things with positive things.  I'm going to go over a bunch of things that I have done with my dog to fix separation anxiety (none of which are medical, I agree that separation anxiety is a nervous behaviour that can be changed with the correct training, like you have said).

First, while you are out for long amounts of time for now, keep her crated.  It may take another few weeks to a month or so to get her back on track.  When you leave for work continue crating her, and when you are gone for long amounts of time.  This is partially a safety issue with dogs who have separation anxiety.  Most destructive behaviour that has to do with separation anxiety occurs in the first 5-15 minutes after you have left.  If you are gone for a 5-8 hour work day and your dog has hurt herself in the first 5-15 minutes, you are coming home to a possibly sick or hurt dog.  This is also why leaving her for 10-15 minutes works only 50% of the time.  Dogs do not have a sense of time.  They know when they are hungry and they know when they need to go to the bathroom, and they learn a routine, but studies show they can't tell time and they don't know how long you have been gone.  When you are leaving for a short amount of time, 5 minutes, half an hour, or an hour, change up your routine when you leave.  You may have a routine of grabbing your purse, then your keys, then putting on your shoes, then your coat, then opening the garage, then leaving the house, locking the door, getting in your car and closing the garage.  Change it so that your shoes are in the garage, or your car is on the driveway so that she doesn't hear the trigger of the garage door and other things that you may learn are also triggers for her.  We learned that my dog's trigger is when we start blow drying our hair.  This happens about half an hour before we leave, but that is still his trigger that we are leaving, so we had to make sure that we were blow drying our hair and then not leaving just to show him that it doesn't always happen the same way.

Another thing that many people find very hard to do, but which is very important for anxious dogs is before you leave, stop giving your dog attention.  This separates you from your dog emotionally before you actually leave your dog.  So this means no petting, no touching, no talking, no eye contact no cookies.  For my dog, I like to let him out right before I leave and then I need him to go to his crate.  Since your dog is a puppy still you may also want to let her out right before you leave, so to do this without giving too much contact, tell her to go outside in a very neutral voice, when she comes back in tell her to go to her crate.  Give as little contact as possible through the whole thing.  Do not tell your dog you are leaving by saying "Bye, don't worry, I'll be home soon" or anything to that effect, it just makes your dog more nervous.  Also, as soon as you get home, do not run to your dog first thing and say "Oh I missed you, I'm sorry I had to leave, I'm home now", etc.  That also just makes the dog anticipate your arrival and makes them destructive when you aren't there.

Another thing you may want to do with the help of your boyfriend is you be in the kitchen where your dog is gated.  Do not give your dog any attention or talk to her at all.  Doing this while you are preparing dinner may be easy since you are busy.  Have your boyfriend go to the garage, open the door, and start the car.  He may just drive down the street and back.  Then you can also have your boyfriend stay in the kitchen with your dog, but ignoring her, while you leave in the same way you normally would with the car.  This will just mix things up a little for her and she is learning that when she hears those noises, you aren't always leaving her.

One more key thing, is not letting your dog go on your furniture, bed, couches, etc.  Being a small dog, I don't know if you do this now or not, but if you do, try stopping it for the next little bit just to allow your dog to become confident on her own again.    

Those are some of the key things I have done with my dog to break the separation anxiety.  My dog is 4 years old and is still being crated because I do not like worrying about him when I am gone.  His problem is chewing and there are many dangers with that, so for me, I feel best when he is crated, even though he is much better now.  He sees his crate as a very positive safe place.  If I ever see him getting nervous while I'm home because of any noise or person, I just tell him to go to his crate and he automatically is relaxed because in his crate nothing will harm him.

Some other things you may want to consider to keep her calm are giving her extra exercis

Answer 2

I'd take your pet to the vet and see if they think she might have a bladder infection- if not- see if they have any ideas on sep. anxiety meds and a traiiner to help- It will be the best money you will spend to make her a happy member of your family

Answer 3

if your dog has separation anxiety you leave the house for one second and come back and just build up that time until she is calm when you leave the house.