The Shar-Pei Forums-Health Behavior Diet & Rescue Info and Discussion Group

I thought before Storm was being shitty when I left him because he wanted in the garden with me as he was generally good if he saw me leave in the car. Now however, since Lauren has been home ,my daughter who he had never seen but adores, it has got much worse.
It really is full blown separation anxiety now. He doesn't cry that much but he destroys things. So far they are focused on things in the area of the door that we leave from. We will have a furniture move around later. He will always have a poo when we are out, never any other time, he's very clean now. When we return he is panting and obviously gets himself stressed out. He has access to water all times but it appears he doesn't drink when we are out but has good drink when we return
It has been suggested that we have wind chimes as a visible and possible noise related as a cue to start the leaving process, just for few secs at a time and build up as we go.

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Friends are the family we choose for ourselves

This was last night in the space of two hours

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Friends are the family we choose for ourselves

Oh my gosh, poor Storm:(

Does Storm have the run of the house when you're gone? If so, have you thought of either crating him or confining him to a certain area (leaving TV on, leaving one of your T-shirts, and other sorts of things to make him more comfortable)? Before you leave - perhaps try taking him for a long walk to use up some of his energy? Other folks on the board have also suggested essentially training the dog by leaving for a short period (5 minutes) - and then coming in - no fuss, not addressing dog, etc - just going about your business. Repeat this until dog is comfortable. Then extend the time to 15 minutes and continue until you are gone an hour or so. Again, essentially training the dog that when you leave- it's fine, you will return.

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oh no! he does have severe sep anxiety! i know dogs who have to be on meds for this issue, i had a foster dog who tore our front door apart and many other things, it's a very stressful situation, i hope you can find the right solution

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Oh no ! That's not good . Just do some of the steps above and see how it goes . Does he crate? Do you leave a Kong to chew ?

Dr. Tintle's blog on Sharpei and Anxiety here;

http://www.hyvitality.com/blogs/news/2669902-shar-pei-and-anxiety

A short section;

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He is not crate trained and they don't have any chews etc unsupervised. They nearly have run of house except I do shut them out of the kitchen. Up until last night, we only had minor crying which soon settled. When I was on holiday he shredded the door frame but his routine was completely mixed up. After my hol until tonight, he had been good and only destroyed one day when I left them for too long but that couldn't be helped.
He had just had a walk, we were late going out for meal because I wanted to make sure he had walk beforehand

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Friends are the family we choose for ourselves

Do all the things you do before you go out comb hair,get keys ,pocket book go towards door but do not go out put things back then do it tell he pays no attention just keep it up ...

When he gets it do it all over again but stand at door a second or two then but everything back do it again tell he pays no attention. you do not talk to him or pay him any attention.

When you have this down pat ..you do it all again and go out door come right back in tell he pays no attention..You continue until hes ok with you leaving and just stay out a little longer tell hes ok with it...Practice makes perfect..It will take time and a lot of repeats.
you have to keep it up until hes ok...
Have the tv on.

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I work from home so he's not left an awful long time and it will be relatively easy for me or Lauren to pop back in house to work on it. He knows when we are going but still appears happy to go inside I have never dealt with this before but will definitely persevere and sort him out! Will do the telly too

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Friends are the family we choose for ourselves

I would start training in a thunder shirt and put it on an hr before you do go out after he gets over being left.

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http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shar-peifsf

I dealt with my first male Pei years ago having separation anxiety. He was on medication and had doggy therapy. He nearly wrecked our brand new house. We ended up keeping him in the basement with our other dog while we worked or had to go out. He was a real basket case. He died within the year of getting so bad with liver cancer. I always wonder if he was not feeling well and this brought on the bad behaviour. He also was bothered by many noises. You may want to get Storm checked out by the vet to make sure nothing else is going on with him. Good luck, it isn't easy to deal with this issue.

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Leia 12/29/02 to 11/01/11 Will be forever missed.
MeiLi Birthdate 02/28/06

Hi Debobey,

I have had some dogs with seperation anxiety through the rescue I used to volunteer for and I found the best therapy to be 'talk radio' as in a station not playing music but discussions etc. As they are human voices dogs tend to be comforted by this.

The other thing I have used sucessfully is a teddy with a watch attached to it (mimicking a heart beat) sometimes warmed on the radiator.

The most successful is the crate 9 times out of 10 but some dogs (including Lily) do not cope well with a crate with Lily she goes in the crate when I leave but the dog is open she has half the kitchen and Mylo has the other. If I take Mylo out without her and lock her in the crate she screams! (my neighbours have been to see me about this as they thought she was really hurt).

But if you want to go without the crate, routine, routine, routine! Increasing the length of time they are left for is very successful but can take a lot of time, it's kinda like when you bring them home as a puppy and they have a cry/howl on the night time you just need to be careful that you don't praise the bad behaviour by giving Storm attention when she starts to destroy stuff.

Hope this makes sense! And I hope you manage to sort it!
Ash

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Ash and Lily

Samson had terrible separation anxiety. He would destroy things too and has destroyed a door frame twice (yeah, I know, we're slow learners). We got him a thundershirt and we put him in a good sized pen in the kitchen so he can't damage a floor with his nails (floor is slate so pretty much indestructible). We also left him on a regular basis so he would get used to it. He is much better now (14 months old now). He still doesn't like it but he stays fairly calm and doesn't yelp anymore and has stopped getting himself soaking from drool. At the beginning we put him in his crate when we left but he really doesn't like that. He is crate trained and sleeps in his crate but he doesn't like being confined in it so it's basically just his bedroom now. When we go back to Arizona for the winter we will have to decide whether the crate needs to be long term because space is limited and it takes up a lot of room in the car for 2,200 miles each way.

Well how bizarre I had an idea as he had never shown signs of separation anxiety before until Lauren came home and he does love her. Anyway I sent her out of the house ten minutes before I was leaving so he thinks she has left but I'm still here, so far so good. Then I went through our usual routine as pre Lauren and left. Came home to a non destroyed house whatsoever and he wasn't showing stress signs like he had after the chair incident

If it is separation anxiety from Lauren, then I'm hopeful it can be dealt with easier

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Friends are the family we choose for ourselves