Should we try Clomicalm or get a second dog?

afromaiko

We have a bit of a dilemma going on here. Mika is 8 months old now, so still a baby really, but we need to do something to calm her down when she's home alone.

Trying to make the distinction between troublesome bratty behaviour and genuine anxiety is difficult and we've been recording her on video to see what she gets up to. Yesterday we can home to find our canvas BBQ cover pulled off and torn to shreds!

She's home for about 8 hours on weekdays by herself and is well looked after, warm kennel, covered patio, garden to dig up Sad

and plenty of toys and stuff. Long walks every day, on & off-leash and almost every day gets to play with other dogs both new and regular friends at the park. The introduction to whole days alone was done very gradually.

She is getting better than she used to be, and probably not too bad for a Weimaraner, but we are concerned she may end up hurting herself. She barks and howls for a while in the morning after we leave but usually gives up after about 30mins to an hour solid. On bad days she will whine on and off throughout the day but that's rare. Our main concern is that she's been jumping up at the sliding glass door and windows trying to get inside. Unfortunately covering the glass is not an option. It makes a terrible crashing noise, she's a big dog now and we are worried we are going to come home one day to find smashed glass, lots of blood and... well, you get the idea. Crying or Very sad

We spoke to the vet about her barking as we had a complaint from a neighbour. He told us about bark collars but said his preference was for medication and although he recommended that she was a too young (we agree) said that it was ultimately up to us if we had a real problem.

So.. we are debating what to do. Of course, if we lived on a farm or something we would let her be and see if she calmed down as she matured. But we live in a regular house so have neighbours etc to think about too.

Medication like Clomicalm could help settle her now before the anxious behaviour sets in for life, but also getting another, different breed (calmer) dog may help as well. The only concern we have with that is that if it doesn't work we'll have double trouble on our hands!

I'd really like to hear anyone's experiences who has taken either of the steps above to calm their Weimar and how it worked out. Also, what age should she be before we resort to giving medication?

Thanks.

ange165 · Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 8:22 pm Post subject:

Have you got curtains near your sliding glass door? we have venetian blinds which we draw when we go out and when it's sleep time so Ruby can't see inside the house.
If she's outside and the blinds are open she will jump and scratch at the glass sliding doors (we have the fly screen doors as well, but I don't think they would last very long with that behaviour).
Once we close the blinds and she can't see in she leaves the doors alone and amuses herself..
We've had to Weimproof the entire backyard this passed weekend. She has learnt to jump up on things and pull stuff off them.. So we have left nothing out there that can be destroyed. We give her plenty of toys and hide chicken necks/wings over the yard for her to find during the day.

ange165 · Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 8:25 pm Post subject:

I also wouldn't be inclined to get another dog until the behaviour is sorted out - otherwise you might end up with 2 naughty puppies!!
JMO

afromaiko · Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 8:37 pm Post subject:

We've taken the vertical blinds down that were over the sliding door because she would always get stuck in the chains along the bottom. The other window still has curtains and we have been experimenting with opening or closing them to see if it makes a difference. We found that when they were closed she didn't jump on that window so much, but instead now barks like crazy at it! So, to shut her up we've had to open those curtains again.

Every day she has a bit of kibble for breakfast, and then gets a a raw meaty bone, a Kong with treats inside and a couple more treats put into a swinging tyre for her to bash at and try to get out. Strange this is that she'll be chewing on the bone and still making whining noises at the same time. We aren't sure if they are sounds of stress or of delight!

ange165 · Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 8:46 pm Post subject:

I'm at a loss with the barking issue.. I think I've heard Ruby bark 4 times in total, the first time she scared the crap out of herself..
It's hard to ignore barking behaviour (which is what most people recommend) because of the neighbour issue.
My sister in law gives her dalmation some type of herbal stuff to calm him down. I can't remember what it's called so I will ask her but I'm sure she said that it had been working with the issue of his anxiety and such.

afromaiko · Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 7:51 pm Post subject:

You wouldn't believe it, we recorded Mika again yesterday and she was totally calm.. easily the best dog in the neighbourhood! I'd like to say there wasn't a peep out of her, but she did let off one little squealy yawn sound. That was it, for 9 hours alone. Nothing to bother the neighbours or be worried about. Didn't dig any fresh holes in the garden either.

She didn't jump at the windows, she only walked over and looked in the glass sliding door one or two times. It's like she can understand us when we decide that we should do something serious about her, and she quietens down for a day or so. I really don't know what to expect today, I assume she'll be mental again.

But, we did put the curtains back up over the sliding door however only pulled them half closed. She could still see through the door side itself but that has a metal security screen over it. We also left her the usual bone, but with some pieces of apple as a treat too. She has a swinging tyre that we put the treats into which makes it a fun game to try to get them out.

The other thing we did was to leave an old t-shirt in her kennel that I had slept in the previous night. While she doesn't really use the kennel outside, she did pull out all the mat and t-shirt and build a little Weim nest for herself under the veranda with them. I'd be really keen to see if this t-shirt helped.

At night we bring her kennel (plastic) inside and she sleeps in that, she absolutely loves having her own little bedroom. But sometimes when she doesn't want to sleep yet she'll be a bit stubborn and not go in. The solution we've found is to get a t-shirt that I've worn for the day, let her sniff it, and then put it in the kennel. She'll go right in and settle down immediately like magic.

Thankfully we've never let her sleep in our bed, or even in our bedroom, as I'm sure she'd get SA super bad then. One of our previous dogs used to sleep on the bed and hog all the space.. as well as being like a furnace in summer.. so we said 'never again' this time around!

afromaiko · Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 9:39 pm Post subject: