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Separation Anxiety

dusky21

Active Member
Our BM is right at about 18 months, doing great and just got a clean bill of health from the vet. We want to start keeping her out of her kennel while we are gone, but I'm afraid she has some minor separation anxiety. We initially tried at around 13 months. We started out leaving her for short periods and then went for a full day. The first two full days out of her kennel she was great. The third day she tore up some pillows and on the fourth day she chewed up the couch, fifth day tore up the bed so we decided it was to soon and went back to the kennel.She literally never gets into anything when we are home. She hasn't chewed up any shoes, pillows, or luckily couches when we are around and therefore its hard to teach her not to chew on those things when she never really does it. We offer her plenty of chew toys as well (Kong, ropes, etc.) We have a 7 year old lab pit mix that gets along great with her that we leave her with (he is never kept in a kennel). Also, when we are outside doing yard work but leave her alone she is totally fine as well. However, when we leave her in the kennel she will tear up any sort of bedding we put in there with her. Shes gone through probably 10 dog beds so we've began just putting towels in the kennel with her. She rips these up as well.Question is - how do we fix this problem? Should we wait until she it two to start trying to leave her out? I feel like we should start slowly allowing her the freedom to roam the house when we are gone, maybe an hour at at time. Just don't want to come home and find any more furniture completely destroyed. Also, want to add, she is my third dog - I've never had trouble with my other two when we have decided to leave them out of the kennel. We exercise her frequently as well, but do not over extend due to the nature of the breed. Not to mention she usually just lays down after about 10 - 15 minutes of running around.
 

tmricciuto

Well-Known Member
I have two EM girls (just at 9 months) and they each get 40 min walks in the morning and 30 in the evening. It's weird that she would chew things up when you aren't there...sounds like boredom to me. Have you tried putting her in an ex-pen to see how she does in that for a short amount of time? Also, you could put up cameras and leave for a short amount of time to see what she's actually doing? Most of the times my dogs (still crated as they are not trustworthy yet) will just sleep away the day. I used to have a problem with mine chewing up the towels in their kennel but I let them know that is not acceptable. They don't chew on it in the kennel but they like to pull them out and play tug...the second one takes the towel out of the crate I give a stern no, take it from them and put it back in the crate. I'd say if your pup is tearing things up to not let her have them in the crate. We put in bedding for our purposes and not theirs. My girls lay out on the gravel in the backyard so I know not having a towel doesn't matter to them. The funny thing is that they rarely actually lay on the towel.
 
What's wrong with NOT letting her out of the kennel when you are away from home? Take the towels out, the beds out, she gets no beds in her kennel. BAM problem fixed.
 

DennasMom

Well-Known Member
We had the same exact issue with Denna. When potty training was solid, she got free reign in the bedroom (baby gated in)... and was fine until I went away on a business trip a month or two later. The third day home alone = pillow destruction. She did have a dog-walker coming in twice a day, then, too... But each day either the dog-walker or my DH would find new things de-stuffed from the bed... she went back into her crate (we had to get a MEGA sized crate for her)... and she'd shred anything we put in there with her, too. We finally found a faux fur blanket that she didn't shred... she could 'fluff' it into a pile for a pillow, so we felt she had some sort of comfort in there, at least. After about 6-8 months more of crate duty, we tried letting her out again, and BINGO! She's been fine ever since. She now has complete free reign in the whole house when we're gone (and when we're here). Sometimes she re-arranges the covers on the bed (and I mean REALLY re-arranges them)... but other than that, no more destruction. She was about 15 months old then. So... I'd wait it out, and try again in a few months. Stick with a good routine when you leave, too (we always give Denna a treat just before walking out the door), and one day, just leave the crate door open after you put her in and walk out the door... then keep your fingers crossed... and maybe get a wifi nanny-cam so you can come home quick if you see bad things happening. :)
 

Molossers R Us

Active Member
the 1st time she chewed up some pillows, she was informing you that she is not yet ready for unsupervised time out of her crate while you arent home. At that point, she shouldn't have been allowed out of her crate for another month or two at least. Some dogs take what seems to be an extra long time before you can trust them alone without tearing up your house. You need to be more consistent with not allowing her to continue bad behavior multiple days in a row, as that teaches her bad habits faster than you can teach her good ones. She needs to be crated in a bare crate, no padding if she continues to destroy it. The padding is more for your sake than hers anyway. She will eventually outgrow this stage, but you need to be prepared for it take longer than you originally thought it would/should.