Sometimes even the greatest efforts aren't enough. Our friends have given it their best shot, but little Red continues to suffer from severe separation anxiety. Crating, treats, anti-bark measures and medication have not been effective, and in some cases have exacerbated the problem. The fact is, Red needs constant human companionship. His goal in life is to snuggle up to someone and snooze. Feline company does not soothe him, and since he can be treat-possessive canine company would not be ideal. Our friends have contacted various rescue organizations but none have new homes available at the moment. Your suggestions are welcomed.
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How traumatic for everyone. I wish I had a good suggestion.
Contact the newspapers, sometimes they will take up a cause.
Going from home to home is just going to make the poor little guy worse than ever.
We had a similar problem with our Jack, I wrote about it before and our vet gave him Clomipramine, which is a sedative. He was on this for over a year and as we very gradually weaned him off, his behaviour remained as good as it was when he was on it. Something about behaviour modification I think.
Clomipramine? Your mother puts that on my salad. She said it was a special dressing for a special person.
Dad, uh I mean anonymous.
"Clomipramine? Your mother puts that on my salad. She said it was a special dressing for a special person.
Dad, uh I mean anonymous."
~ funny comment!
I don't have any suggestions either, I'm sorry, but my dog is very clingy as well. She doesn't have a problem staying at home alone while we're away working, but once in our company she constantly needs to be touching someone somehow.
Have you considered contacting a clinic, or a dog behaviourist?
Good luck with this ... I really feel for the little guy.
this is your northern friend and it was me that wrote about the clomipramine! I don't know what the joke is I'm sure, but to reiterate, we used it with great success! Maybe their vet would allow them to try it!
Update: Our friends contacted various rescue organizations and trainers, they tried medication and several other measures. Nothing worked, and none of the rescues were able to take Red in at the moment. They finally had to make the very difficult decision to return him to the shelter. Kudos to them for their efforts; I know this has been a very tough time for them.
I feel for your friends... we are on the verge with the Evil Feral Bitch Cat... we have drugged him, worked with behaviorists, changed his environment, etc.... And he is miserable... he pees on everything and terrorizes small children and the dog... sigh...
Please let us know if they place him. I hope this has a happy ending for the poor dog.
I haven't seen Red appear on the Humane Society web site yet, but if I do I'll let you know.
Red, a.k.a. Snoopy, is now on www.torontohumanesociety.com. It's unfortunate that the description doesn't spell out that he requires full-time companionship.
I'm not sure if its the same problem I had when I took to Tommy and I guess the problem as gone away now as far as your friends are concerned but I will add my piece just in case it is of help to anyone else. When Tommy got left at the farm he had many problems, he never stopped barking the minute you left him, he was anti-social, my family wanted to give up on him many times. He definately liked attention which he got whenever I could but hated to be shut in alone, but I also beleive that a lot of his problems stemmed from him being very intellegent. So I tried to steer his bad behaviour towards more positive things, like I would take him out as often as I could and teach him the sitting and staying stuff and anything else I could think of, like not stealing food every chance he got. Since then he has learnt to do as he's told and to be more sociable towards people and other dogs. Then we went on to the fun stuff. Like for instance when we get up in the morning he goes for a walk and then has his breakfast but he has to earn it. If he wants breakfast he has to pass me his bowl so I can get it all ready for when we get back. Whilst I’m putting out his food he has to go and find his collar which I purposely leave in different rooms every night. When he brings it to me, which he always does he has to put it in my hand, if he drops on the floor he has to pick it up again and give it to me properly. He then has to fetch me my shoes from the porch, this done he then goes and sits by his lead which hangs in the porch. It’s a chain type lead that I have clipped in a loop so that when we get to the garden gate I say ‘head’ and he then puts his head through the loop in the chain and off we go. I now feel confident enough to take him anywhere and did indeed take him on holiday with us last year. Not only is he a better behaved dog for being made to work he is a very happy dog and all his old problems have disappeared. He’s just a big soft boy now and whoever left him at the farm have lost a chance to have something very special in their lives.
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