# Puppy Mill Momma's Separation Anxiety



## Elsa'sMommy (May 29, 2015)

Hello everyone! I adopted a six (almost seven) year old maltese girl about a week and a half ago. She has the all too typical mill story. The rescue obtained her at an auction where they were told that there was one maltese and ten yorkies left. If the rescue did not buy them, they were going to be "disposed of immediately." They paid $10 for her and one dollar for each yorkie. I reserved her about two months ago but still lived in my college dorm at the time so I did not pick her up until recently. In total, she spent five months in a foster home. And that did make a large difference. Her foster mom cared for her well but kept her emotionally distant, allowing the adoptive parent an easier path. Because of this, she bonded to me and my mom (although not as strongly) almost immediately. She has been an absolute joy when we are home. She is doing great with potty training and is happy to be either in your lap or in a dog bed as long as you are in the same room. 
When we leave is a different story. At first I tried kenneling her, she clawed at the bars so much that I began letting her go free on the main level with our other two family malteses for fear that she would hurt herself in the kennel. She began a new routine with this: pacing around for the first fifteen to twenty minutes, pottying in the house (which she rarely does when we are there) and then resorts to howling. We know the time frame because she does this any time my mom and I are both gone. My brother and dad, who are slowly trying to gain her trust but do not want to push it as she is apprehensive of men, can be sitting right there and she acts like no one is home. We thought that maybe a happy medium would work, so we set up a puppy playpen in the living room: giving her a bed and PLENTY of special "Mommy is gone" chew toys and treats. This seems to have helped the most, as she can move around and the other dogs are around but she is not overwhelmed and looking for us. She has only pottied inside a few times since we began leaving her in there, so that is an improvement. But, I put a video camera on her last time and she is still barking, crying and pacing. I need to help her through A.) because I don't like her being this stressed and B.) because I am moving back to school with her in august and she can't be disturbing my roommates every time I go to class. I also tried a thundershirt, which has had little effect. I just bought some calming supplement and pheromone spray, hoping one of those will work. 
Sorry for the long post, the main thing I am looking for here is to hear other people's experiences and what helped your dogs with separation anxiety or from similar backgrounds? What worked and what didn't, I want to hear it all. At this point, I am simply trying to narrow down the options.


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## taquitos (Oct 18, 2012)

You need to get her used to you leaving. Here's a good video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGxhcb-itO4

And congrats on your new dog! I have a puppy mill rescue myself. I got him used to the crate by crating him at night next to my bed, crating him for his meals, as well as crating him in the same room when I was relaxing. Once he got used to being crated when I was around I crated him and left him for a few mins, then half an hour, then an hour, etc. until he was used to me leaving and coming back.


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