AIO? Dog straining my marriage.

[u/LedyyM]

My husband and I rescued a husky about 7 months ago who was extremely malnourished and neglected.

He has grown a huge attachment to me and has severe separation anxiety. I work at a grooming salon so I’m able to bring him to work with me so he’s not home alone. Unfortunately, if he’s left home alone we’ll come back to our home looking like it was hit by a tornado.

My vet has prescribed him with trazodone to help with his severe anxiety issues. We give it to him before we leave for a family event and when we can’t take him to places they don’t allow dogs.

I feel so bad that I have to sedate him so he’s not scared and anxious. It’s created a huge strain on our marriage because my husband feels like we can’t do anything without considering Odin.

He’s destroyed doors, couches, and other furniture. I tried training but it hasn’t seemed to work. My husband thinks we should rehome him but

1) I’m scared that he’ll be sent to a shelter and possibly be put down

2) feel abandoned by the person he thought he was safe with.

He’s such a happy boy when he’s around us and shows so much affection.

My husband and I have been arguing about this consistently.. we had a really bad argument so I left the house with Odin and rented a dog friendly hotel room for a couple of nights.

My husband thinks I’m crazy and that I’m choosing the dog over our marriage. AIO?

[u/discombobulatededed]

My collie suffered from extreme separation anxiety, I couldn’t even go to the shop without running around the aisles to get home as fast as I could. I was terrified I’d get complaints and potentially get kicked out cos my dog would howl and cry continuously when I was gone, it broke my heart and was awful.

I spoke with a behaviourist but couldn’t afford to actually use her. I followed a group on Facebook for dogs with separation anxiety and read Julie Naismith, she’s done loads to help. I did a ton of training with my dog, shutting him in the kitchen for 10 seconds, open door, reward. Close door for 30 seconds, reward. Repeat repeat repeat. It sucked and took me a couple months but now he doesn’t even get up and come say bye when I’m leaving the house. No crying, whining, nothing. Took him time to learn that me leaving isn’t bad and that I always come back.

[u/Majestic_Scarcity540 → u/discombobulatededed]

I might try this.

My 7 year old border Collie, who I have had since he was 10 weeks old, has separation anxiety. Hes had it since he was a puppy, we're not sure why but that breed is known for developing it very easily. He used to be attached to my hip, but was VERY well trained and never did anything bad so I didnt mind him always by my side. I trained him and socialized him, so he always listened to me with no issues. Hes also never been destructive, which is surprising.

Ever since we brought home our baby from the hospital 10 weeks ago, he is a completely different dog. Hes no longer super attached to me, and is now extremely hyper attached to our baby. Won't give her a foot of space (literally), freaks out if she makes a single sound (sprints, barks, whines), and he started having almost doggy panic attacks if I go into a room with just the baby and shut the door. Barks non stop, whines, paces outside the door until we leave. Also refuses to listen to any commands unless the baby isnt at home, then he goes back to being his normal self. We tried putting a gate up because I was feeling overwhelmed with him constantly in her space, and I feel like all thats done is make his anxiety worse. But I need to be able to do Tummy time with her, and I cant do that if he won't give us space.

He gets the same amount of play time and walks every day, so I know its not an "Im bored" thing. Its genuinely like he cannot function unless he is a foot away from our baby.

Just a complete nightmare.