Hi folks,
I've posted here once before on other matters and you all have been phenomenal, so I'm really hoping you can help me find an answer to this as well!
My boyfriend and I are the parents of a lovely 2 year old foxhound mix. He's roughly 65 pounds, and all legs.
When we first got him, we were also living with my boyfriend's friend, who is a paramedic. So for the first 13 months of his life, even though he was crated at night, he always had someone home during the day. If the roommate was working a 24 hour shift, that was ok, because my boyfriend still came home from the office for lunch every day. If we happened to go out for a few hours, we experienced no in-crate accidents.
In January of 2014 we made a big move from DC to Nashville. My employers were kind enough to let me continue working for them remotely, so from January until September last year, I was with the dog 24/7. He was rarely alone, and we stopped crating him. He has his own dog bed in our room for the nights, and was never a big chewer/destructo-puppy to begin with, so we felt fine doing so.
Starting in July, however, he started acting out whenever we'd leave the house - if only for an hour or 2. So we purchased a crate for him and he goes there every time we leave the house. In the middle of September, I got a full-time position working away from the home. We began crating him for full workdays with no problems whatsoever, and we developed a routine.
However, I believe the separation anxiety started when we broke that routine, or shortly beforehand. The day before Christmas, we drove him back to DC with us, where he spent about 2 and a half weeks NOT being crated, and with somebody around nearly all the time. He was then transported back to Nashville, where we started our regular work routine again.
That's when it started. He now regularly poops and pees in his crate, even if we take him out right beforehand - yet, he still goes both when we arrive home 7 hours later. A majority of the time, he eats the poop, as I've found small trampled on evidence in the bedding we use for him (old clothes we were going to give to goodwill). He also pees and buries that under the other pieces of clothing.
I've fairly certain the cage is larger than it should be for him, but after paying $70 for it, I don't want to stop using what we already have, and pay ANOTHER $50 (at least) for a different cage. We are in the purchase of purchasing a home with ample space for him to run around and play, and will be adding another puppy to the family this summer.
I'm just not sure how to tame this separation anxiety. He literally starts shaking when we walk in the front door after our morning walk, and I feel like a terrible dog-mom, that he's so terrified to go into his crate and for us to leave and then sits in/eats his own filth almost every day. Short of getting a new job and being home every day, what can I do to make this better?
I've posted here once before on other matters and you all have been phenomenal, so I'm really hoping you can help me find an answer to this as well!
My boyfriend and I are the parents of a lovely 2 year old foxhound mix. He's roughly 65 pounds, and all legs.
When we first got him, we were also living with my boyfriend's friend, who is a paramedic. So for the first 13 months of his life, even though he was crated at night, he always had someone home during the day. If the roommate was working a 24 hour shift, that was ok, because my boyfriend still came home from the office for lunch every day. If we happened to go out for a few hours, we experienced no in-crate accidents.
In January of 2014 we made a big move from DC to Nashville. My employers were kind enough to let me continue working for them remotely, so from January until September last year, I was with the dog 24/7. He was rarely alone, and we stopped crating him. He has his own dog bed in our room for the nights, and was never a big chewer/destructo-puppy to begin with, so we felt fine doing so.
Starting in July, however, he started acting out whenever we'd leave the house - if only for an hour or 2. So we purchased a crate for him and he goes there every time we leave the house. In the middle of September, I got a full-time position working away from the home. We began crating him for full workdays with no problems whatsoever, and we developed a routine.
However, I believe the separation anxiety started when we broke that routine, or shortly beforehand. The day before Christmas, we drove him back to DC with us, where he spent about 2 and a half weeks NOT being crated, and with somebody around nearly all the time. He was then transported back to Nashville, where we started our regular work routine again.
That's when it started. He now regularly poops and pees in his crate, even if we take him out right beforehand - yet, he still goes both when we arrive home 7 hours later. A majority of the time, he eats the poop, as I've found small trampled on evidence in the bedding we use for him (old clothes we were going to give to goodwill). He also pees and buries that under the other pieces of clothing.
I've fairly certain the cage is larger than it should be for him, but after paying $70 for it, I don't want to stop using what we already have, and pay ANOTHER $50 (at least) for a different cage. We are in the purchase of purchasing a home with ample space for him to run around and play, and will be adding another puppy to the family this summer.
I'm just not sure how to tame this separation anxiety. He literally starts shaking when we walk in the front door after our morning walk, and I feel like a terrible dog-mom, that he's so terrified to go into his crate and for us to leave and then sits in/eats his own filth almost every day. Short of getting a new job and being home every day, what can I do to make this better?