The will of the Bradley

Never underestimate the will of the Bradley. Or the brain of the Bradley. Or the ability of the Bradley.

We are in the throws of it. Love with a healthy dose of worry. Our dog is smarter than we are. Superdog. Faster than a speeding bullet, able to leap tall buildings and all of that jazz. He is also the most gentle, docile, and eager to please pup in the universe. But we've got one crazy case of separation anxiety on our hands here, folks, and a dog who has figured out how to open (and in one case destroy) the doors of solid steel kennels, climb four foot high kiddie fences (did I mention that he's 5 inches tall?), and a whole other host of obstacles that would confound your average human (including me), but then have NO idea what to do with himself once his mission has been accomplished. We are totally stumped. The Bradley cannot be contained. We will just call it an 'adjustment' period, and thank our lucky stars that he has no inclination to chew or destroy anything. And if he's playing Bach on the piano when I come home from work, that's it, I'm hiring a trainer.

All love,

*Andrea

Comments

[julia]

seriously, our friends just adopted a one year old labsky (lab/husky) and are having the same issues. although in their case, the dog is about eight times the size of bradley and has figured out how to ram through steel-reinforced GARAGE DOORS! so at least your guy is little! he'll get used to it.

[Claudia]

Same thing happended with Brian (our small cockapoo). So after a few weeks we called a dog psychologist (no comment please) and he told us to make a slipcover (or a blanket if you just want to try for a few days if it works for your dog) for his kennel and that he would fall asleep in 5 minutes. And it's true. If Brian is in the dark he just relax and doesn't have separation anxiety. No more freaking out doggy!

[Eunice]

Oh separation anxiety... that's a toughie. Bradley hasn't gotten the idea that you're his permanent family and that you'll never leave him for real...he might have been surrendered once.

This isn't going to be easy, but here's my suggestion: leave the house for 5, 10, 15 minute periods, then gradually move up to 30, 45, an hour, two hours, etc...until Bradley gets used to the idea that "oh yes, they're coming back. might as well as take a nap."

Is Bradley food-oriented? For the dogs that used to hate leaving me alone, I would usually leave a treat, or in extreme cases, a kong filled with peanut butter and biscuits inserted inside (the idea is that it will take some work and uhm, a lot of drool, to get them out), so that they'd get a positive experience when I leave them and they're too busy trying to figure out how to get food to worry about me.

[Kathi D]

Since I have a couple of puppies, I have been doing scads of reading about dog training and behavior lately. I found a most interesting view of separation anxiety that makes sense to me. Most people think that the dog is scared because "Mommy and Daddy" are gone, when in fact, the dog thinks he or she is the pack leader and she is worried about her pack members who are gone. Think about how frantic you would be if your toddlers suddenly left the house and you didn't know where they were! So the beginning of solving the problem is to establish yourselves as pack leaders and take the responsibility from the dog.

[Jacqueline Barnett]

Bradley sounds an awful lot like his uncle Oban. Obi can open every door in our house to get to me, he's bent the bottom of his solid wire crate, and we have oven racks hanging from all of our doors to keep him out. This is with 16 weeks of training.

[cryitout]

Did you make the cool dog coat? sweet!

[Caroline]

Hmmmm. Does he have any stuffed animals that he can pal around with? We had a cat that would hump a pekachoo as soon as we would leave. If you forgot something and had to run back inside, he and the stuffed toy would be getting busy. He would look as you as if to say "What? We were just talking."

[katie]

just came across your blog--and glad i did!
pets are just the best :]

[TD wool design]

i have the same coat.
for me, not the doggie :)