Crazy when we leave

[pinkTAB]

Our almost 2-year old sheltie, Haydn, has been sleeping at night in a crate since he was a baby and was fine with it. During the day we would leave him gated in our kitchen with bed and toys. He was housebroken quickly, so we thought it would be good to give him a little room to move around. At about a year old, he seemed to get more and more frantic as we left and started attacking the door! Since we got his baby sister last summer, we put them both in wire crates when we leave for the day. She hops right into her crate, chews her treat, and goes to sleep. But our boy, Haydn, starts to bark frantically when he knows we're going. I know that he settles down very quickly after we leave, but I wish he didn't have to go through all the stress-stuff beforehand. Is 2 years old too late to hope he will ever settle down when we leave?
Haydn, 2yr old sable merle
Eva, 10 mo old sable

 

[danisgoat]

First of all, well to the Sheltie Nation Forum! Please feel free to introduce yourself over in our Say Hello section of the forum.

I hope that it is ok with you, but I moved this thread over to the behavior area of our forum. I figured since it was a thread looking for advice on a behavior, you may get more hits on the thread over there.

I would try putting your dogs meal in a kong, rather then feeding them out of a bowl. Give the dog his meal in the kong when you are ready to leave so that he looks forward to going in his crate and you leaving. If you don't want to do the meal, maybe just put a little peanut butter in there or something else that will not pack on the calories.

This may help ease the anxiety of you leaving.