Hey guys. This is gonna be a long post but its for context. tl;dr provided.
ive had my dog for about 4.5 years now. Shes 5 now (turning 6 this year)
She is a rescue husky x great dane x lab mix, and before yall say "you need to give her exercise!!" i most definitely do, i take her ti the park regularly, for walks, and give her playtime/enrichment.
So, Maya has always had separation anxiety, but in my old house she would just have anxiety accidents and initially she tried to be destructive but it wasnt anything serious.
I tried crate training, she absolutely would NOT have it and she would continously try to hurt herself by gnawing the gate and eventually she broke out. I tried many things to slowly introduce her and make it feel like a safe space, and she just was not having it.
So i used this desensitization method where you say something (i say "i'll be back") and leave for a minute, come back, then repeat for longer periods of time so she understand that what i say means im gonna come back.
So that worked!
It was very annoying and tedious but it worked. and she was fine. She was also fine when we moved to a different house. She just carried on like normal. No accidents, no destruction. still anxious, but she was fine.
As long as she was looking out a window for me. My mom told me all she did was look out the window til i came home, go to her bed for a bit, and repeat.
I didn't think that the window was so important for her. But it is, clearly.
I moved out of my parents house with my bf and we live in a basement apartment (expensive city, its all we can afford. its a 1 bedroom apt)
I thought she'd be fine since she was fine the other time.
Yeah... It's like all my training went out the window and she is just worse than ive ever seen before. She tore up parts of 2 door frames. There is a basement type window that she gets up on the couch to reach, she tore up the bottom window frame and now like part of the literal wall. She was biting the literal window and she somehow tore it free from the lock and like opened it in the emergency feature way (like??? how) and got out into the backyard (in the rain obviously) so now theres teeth marks on the window frame.
Tried leaving her in my room instead and thats how the 2nd door frame got f'd.
Im just tired. I dont think theres a solution. Its been 6 months. its just getting worse.
i cant leave her alone by herself, which just makes her anxiety worse, and i cant afford to bring her to daycare. Like how can i live my life if i cant even leave her alone for 15 minutes???
She is also not food motivated or toy motivated. i trained her with praise a reward bc thats all that worked. She will not eat or drink when im gone.
I feel like my only solution is to just get a new place with an accessible window that she can look out of. But its impossible to find an affordable place here.
Any help would be appreciated... im at my wits end.
TL;DR
my dog used to have separation anxiety, trained it out of her, we moved and she was still fine. She needs a window to look out of. I didn't know this so i moved out into a basement apt which is all i can afford atm. all the training went out the window and shes extremely destructive and i cannot train it out no matter how hard i try.
ive had my dog for about 4.5 years now. Shes 5 now (turning 6 this year)
She is a rescue husky x great dane x lab mix, and before yall say "you need to give her exercise!!" i most definitely do, i take her ti the park regularly, for walks, and give her playtime/enrichment.
So, Maya has always had separation anxiety, but in my old house she would just have anxiety accidents and initially she tried to be destructive but it wasnt anything serious.
I tried crate training, she absolutely would NOT have it and she would continously try to hurt herself by gnawing the gate and eventually she broke out. I tried many things to slowly introduce her and make it feel like a safe space, and she just was not having it.
So i used this desensitization method where you say something (i say "i'll be back") and leave for a minute, come back, then repeat for longer periods of time so she understand that what i say means im gonna come back.
So that worked!
It was very annoying and tedious but it worked. and she was fine. She was also fine when we moved to a different house. She just carried on like normal. No accidents, no destruction. still anxious, but she was fine.
As long as she was looking out a window for me. My mom told me all she did was look out the window til i came home, go to her bed for a bit, and repeat.
I didn't think that the window was so important for her. But it is, clearly.
I moved out of my parents house with my bf and we live in a basement apartment (expensive city, its all we can afford. its a 1 bedroom apt)
I thought she'd be fine since she was fine the other time.
Yeah... It's like all my training went out the window and she is just worse than ive ever seen before. She tore up parts of 2 door frames. There is a basement type window that she gets up on the couch to reach, she tore up the bottom window frame and now like part of the literal wall. She was biting the literal window and she somehow tore it free from the lock and like opened it in the emergency feature way (like??? how) and got out into the backyard (in the rain obviously) so now theres teeth marks on the window frame.
Tried leaving her in my room instead and thats how the 2nd door frame got f'd.
Im just tired. I dont think theres a solution. Its been 6 months. its just getting worse.
i cant leave her alone by herself, which just makes her anxiety worse, and i cant afford to bring her to daycare. Like how can i live my life if i cant even leave her alone for 15 minutes???
She is also not food motivated or toy motivated. i trained her with praise a reward bc thats all that worked. She will not eat or drink when im gone.
I feel like my only solution is to just get a new place with an accessible window that she can look out of. But its impossible to find an affordable place here.
Any help would be appreciated... im at my wits end.
TL;DR
my dog used to have separation anxiety, trained it out of her, we moved and she was still fine. She needs a window to look out of. I didn't know this so i moved out into a basement apt which is all i can afford atm. all the training went out the window and shes extremely destructive and i cannot train it out no matter how hard i try.
