theremnant
New member
So some background, my fiancee and I recently adopted an 8 year old GSD after her old owner had to downsize to a smaller home due to divorce.
As a result, she had to find homes for 2 of her shepherds, as the HOA would only allow her a small dog.
The old owner was a breeder and trained our GSD and the others meticulously. They were all crate trained and always slept in their crate at night and would be in the crate whenever the old owner was not home.
Now the challenge we have been faced with.
While our GSD was trained and never had issues sleeping or staying in the crate ever since she was a puppy, her sister was always in the crate next to her at night and during the day. She was always part of the pack and was never the only dog in the home.
Unfortunately, as much as we would have loved to adopt her sister as well, it was not an option.
When we adopted her, the first few nights we attempted to have her sleep in the crate. The first night, she started crying immediately after we went upstairs and continued to do so for a few hours until I could not take it any longer. After a few hours, I went downstairs, let her out of the crate and slept on the couch with her at my feet. She didn't make a peep and slept like a baby. The next night was the same thing, after a few hours I let her out and slept on couch. While this was not ideal, I needed to get to sleep since I had to wake up very early for work.
After the first few nights, we decided to just let her sleep in our room. Which she has done every night since then, without any incident or crying or whimpering or anything. In fact, she looooves the doggie bed we got for her.
From this point, we would let her roam the house with the exception of certain rooms which we put baby gates up to keep her out, whenever we were at work.
We had not had any issues with her chewing stuff, having accidents in the house, or getting into mischief. We always made sure to leave her favorite chew toys out for her to play with and always returned to our home like we left it and her happy tail.
About a week ago, we came home to find she had gotten to some picture books that were within reach on a book shelf. She had chewed up the corners and destroyed the cover/bindings. This happened two days in a row. We have since removed any items from the shelves she is able to easily reach.
A few days later we get home and again she had gotten to other stuff in the home, made a huge mess, and even started chewing a can from the recycling, chewed up a tissue box, chewed up a head band, and peed in the guest room.
We have since started to put her back in crate while we are at work, to both prevent her from trashing the house, but for her safety as well, don't want her to chew anything that can make her sick/hurt her. We have made sure to leave the TV on, hoping the ambient noise may comfort her, not sure how well it has worked.
While our pup has no problem going in her crate when commanded to, or being in there when we are in the home, she will start crying/whining/yelping within minutes of us leaving the house.
Our neighbor has informed us that she does this for a long time after we leave and during the day while we are out.
So while she has always slept/stayed in the crate, with her sister at her side, we believe that she is experiencing some sort of separation anxiety that arises within minutes of us leaving the house.
Is there anything we can do to improve the situation short of getting her another companion? We recently moved to the neighborhood and don't want to get on the neighbors' bad sides just yet, not to mention we don't want our pup to be unhappy or uncomfortable while we are at work.
Our GSD is normally extremely calm and quiet. We have not even heard her bark yet! With the exception being the cry/yelp/bark combo noises made when she is in crate. She doesn't even bark or pay any mind to other dogs or animals (except the rabbits, she always wants to go after the rabbits). The old owner said she has always been very quiet but will absolutely bark when it is warranted/needed.
Any advice is greatly appreciated! We absolutely adore our pup and want her to be comfortable when we aren't home. We are already exploring the ideas of a dog walker/doggie day care to break up the monotony of our work week.
As a result, she had to find homes for 2 of her shepherds, as the HOA would only allow her a small dog.
The old owner was a breeder and trained our GSD and the others meticulously. They were all crate trained and always slept in their crate at night and would be in the crate whenever the old owner was not home.
Now the challenge we have been faced with.
While our GSD was trained and never had issues sleeping or staying in the crate ever since she was a puppy, her sister was always in the crate next to her at night and during the day. She was always part of the pack and was never the only dog in the home.
Unfortunately, as much as we would have loved to adopt her sister as well, it was not an option.
When we adopted her, the first few nights we attempted to have her sleep in the crate. The first night, she started crying immediately after we went upstairs and continued to do so for a few hours until I could not take it any longer. After a few hours, I went downstairs, let her out of the crate and slept on the couch with her at my feet. She didn't make a peep and slept like a baby. The next night was the same thing, after a few hours I let her out and slept on couch. While this was not ideal, I needed to get to sleep since I had to wake up very early for work.
After the first few nights, we decided to just let her sleep in our room. Which she has done every night since then, without any incident or crying or whimpering or anything. In fact, she looooves the doggie bed we got for her.
From this point, we would let her roam the house with the exception of certain rooms which we put baby gates up to keep her out, whenever we were at work.
We had not had any issues with her chewing stuff, having accidents in the house, or getting into mischief. We always made sure to leave her favorite chew toys out for her to play with and always returned to our home like we left it and her happy tail.
About a week ago, we came home to find she had gotten to some picture books that were within reach on a book shelf. She had chewed up the corners and destroyed the cover/bindings. This happened two days in a row. We have since removed any items from the shelves she is able to easily reach.
A few days later we get home and again she had gotten to other stuff in the home, made a huge mess, and even started chewing a can from the recycling, chewed up a tissue box, chewed up a head band, and peed in the guest room.
We have since started to put her back in crate while we are at work, to both prevent her from trashing the house, but for her safety as well, don't want her to chew anything that can make her sick/hurt her. We have made sure to leave the TV on, hoping the ambient noise may comfort her, not sure how well it has worked.
While our pup has no problem going in her crate when commanded to, or being in there when we are in the home, she will start crying/whining/yelping within minutes of us leaving the house.
Our neighbor has informed us that she does this for a long time after we leave and during the day while we are out.
So while she has always slept/stayed in the crate, with her sister at her side, we believe that she is experiencing some sort of separation anxiety that arises within minutes of us leaving the house.
Is there anything we can do to improve the situation short of getting her another companion? We recently moved to the neighborhood and don't want to get on the neighbors' bad sides just yet, not to mention we don't want our pup to be unhappy or uncomfortable while we are at work.
Our GSD is normally extremely calm and quiet. We have not even heard her bark yet! With the exception being the cry/yelp/bark combo noises made when she is in crate. She doesn't even bark or pay any mind to other dogs or animals (except the rabbits, she always wants to go after the rabbits). The old owner said she has always been very quiet but will absolutely bark when it is warranted/needed.
Any advice is greatly appreciated! We absolutely adore our pup and want her to be comfortable when we aren't home. We are already exploring the ideas of a dog walker/doggie day care to break up the monotony of our work week.