Hi, I haven't posted on here in forever!

Well I have an 8ish year old Jack Russell. She's always had a problem with anyone in my house leaving. She totally FREAKS OUT. She will bark, run around, eat cat food, bite the doorknob. She absolutely hates it, and we don't know what to do anymore. When my Dad is sleeping in the morning and we leave, she sometimes won't bark then.

Anybody ever had a problem like this?

my dog has seperation anxiety pretty bad as well...he howls and cries and will make himself sick...hes an amazing dog, just had a rough life...we try taking him with us everywhere, but its hard sometimes...we leave the tv on for him and the stereo...seems to help a little...with the new kitten he cuddles with him when we leave lol so thats his new thing to calm him down...

Coco has seperation anxiety though,not as bad as you do! after reading and researching extensively in past years to overcome his problem we found that the best method is simply ignoring the behavior..Now,Coco hasnt had a bad life,he was with us since a pup,but i'd still ignore the behavior.there is something in all of our brains(not getting into the scientific-ness b/c i plain dont get it) but it makes us react differently to get attention,take a tempering child-would you ignore her or sit down and cuddle?? if you cuddle she's getting the message that if she has a tantrum you'll give her attention and goodies,but if you ignore her then the effort is wasted and she doesnt get what she wants -same with dogs.


Coco used to bark and bark and bark while we were gone and pee everywhere and chew and basically put himself in a terrible wreck so when we came home we used to go "oohhh!! coco were home,we love you" in pitchy voices and hug him so he understood that was how he was supposed to react when we went out.now,that probably tells him that when we come home and act all gooey and pitchy that we were in danger out there and he gets worried and anxious whenever we leave,now Coco is 11 years old and although he never quite got used to being alone due to our old stupid reactions upon coming home,he at least accepts it.we come home and not a word is said to him and he doesnt get petted until he calms down,then we praise him.also,we found that if you ignore the dog at least 20 mintes BEFORE you leave dont make a big deal out of it,we stopped hugging and kissing him good-bye b/c he understands that as you may not wanting to go and your anxiety bleeds out and into him.




*ahem* apologies for rambling i hope you and your doggie get a solution to the problem....you have a jack russel?? cute but VERY hyper,good lluck!

Thanks for the replies! I'm going to try to completely ignore her now before/while we leave. And she has calmed down a lot since she's getting older.. but it's always been when people come over. She just gets excited because she loves people so much, haha.

i noticed my doggie HASNT calmed down much since aging-i guess its the terrier part ,eh?

One thing that helped train my pups was giving them a treat or a Kong toy before I left. Harvey used to howl every time I left, but now he is just excited to get his toy. The kong would be ideal because it lasts a little while. You can get them at most pet stores.

Another thing you can try is isolating your dog in one room like the kitchen while you are gone. You could even crate her if you're not going to be gone long. I think putting the dog in one room reduces the amount of stimulation and things to get in to.

thats a good idea Marmilla-i hope it works for her-we tried all that with Coco and none of it worked,now,the only thing we didnt try was the crate but we were afraid to confine him to one at such an age;he doesnt care for kongs and he gets worse in one room....but thats just my screwed up dog(joking)-i know it works for most dogs just NOT MINE!!!

Your dog is an old man set in his ways I think purple-hops! hehe. Have you tried giving him frozen bananas? My dogs go nuts over those. I usually put them in a kong, but maybe coco would like it without the kong? Some dogs are really hard to train out of that behavior.

Thanks for the ideas. We've tried crates before, but she freaks and bites the bars and would probably end up going insane. We give her treats and she just ignores them.

And yes, most terriers seem to never age but I think we got lucky and ours is starting to slow down

no-havent tries frozen nanna's...he'd likely eat it all up and look for more before he realised he even got the treat!.hmm....if only he'd act his age-"we get by,leaning on the ol' familiar things.wont sit by the telephone until it rings"_nathan wiley