Help Before I Give Up On My Dog!

[JoC]

Wow, I think you're pretty amazing for not only statying here after getting some less than friendly posts, but also trying the advice too!

 

That speaks volumes to me about how much you want to help your dog, which is fab

 

I can only imagine how tough things have been for you lately, and while the stress undoubtedly would have affected Amber, ther'es nothing you can do about that now.

 

I actually think that Ambers behaviour *is* a problem, because if she's so reliant on you, when you're not around she'll struggle.

 

She does need more stimulation and exercise, and more constructive attention (basically just stoking her when you're doing something else is as 'good' attention as clicker training) but she also needs to learn to cope alone.

 

Start when you are doing something like making a cup of tea, go out of the room, shut the door behind you so she's left in, go and switch kettle on and then go back with Amber. When kettle is boiled, go and pour it inot a cup and then go back to Amber, when it's brewed, go and put the milk in and then go back with Amber. So she's only alone for seconds at a time. She might whine and bark to start with, but the more you leave and come back the more bored she'll get and eventually she'll just lie down and wait for you to come back.

 

With SA, the trick is to build up in teeeeny incriments, like go out of the door, wait 1 second come back, go out again, wait 2 seconds then come back. The more repetitions you do the more bored she'll get of the whole thing and the more she'll relax. You need to start off gettting her relaxed when you're in the house before you move on to leaving her alone.

 

Because you do voluntary work, is there any chance you can take some time off to work through the problem with Amber? If not you'll just have to do something different to distinguish a 'real' absence from a 'training' absence. For example, if you shut her in one room for a real absence, she'll see that as a sign you're going out and will be worried, but if you give her free run, she'll know it's 'just training' and relax. Eventually when you go out for real she'll think of it as 'just training' and will relax.

 

Obviously if she's not getting her basic needs met in other ways, no amount of training will change how she feels about being left alone.

 

A seperate point, because she's so bonded to you, when you're not there it makes sense she'd want to be somewhere that makes her feel secure and that smells strongly of you, which would be the sofa. Not only is it comfortable but it also makes her feel safer. If you don't want her on that's fine, but if you're a bit more relaxed why not just chuck a throw over it so it doesn't get covered in hair and let her lie on it?