Hello from South Carolina

[BabyJoker]

Hey Everyone,
Just found these forums so I decided to join up. My boy's name is Joker and he just turned 1 year old in March. I was told he was a German Shepherd but his brindle coat threw everyone off. After looking up some other Shepherd breeds I pretty much came to the conclusion that he is a Dutch Shepherd instead.

Here are some pictures and a video of him.






Now to the bad stuff...

Knowing shepherd personalities I knew I was in for very loyal, intelligent dog. Unfortunately I also knew that I would have to deal with all the side effects of such a loyal dog. I tried kennel training him, but he quickly grew out of one and literally chewed through the metal bars on his bigger kennel. I moved to keeping him tied up with a choker collar in an room that had nothing but a floor and a metal futon with 150 lbs of weights on it but he would literally move the futon and weights at 8 months old. Since he's gotten older I've experiment with letting him roam around the house, but he's learned how to use door knobs and he jumps so he'll probably get what he wants anyway. I feel terrible but the only real solution I've found thus far is putting a muzzle on him. I'm pretty sure its just separation anxiety (he'll pull my clothes out of drawers or the closet and make a little bed with them in the living room) but I thought he would have at least shown some improvement by now. I was very careful raising him, trying not to spoon feed him, but giving him the attention he deserves. He isn't neutered and I'm not sure I want to go down that road nor do I really want to look into medication. He's very well behaved when I'm around, but the second I leave he freaks out. I run him at least 5 miles everyday and throw the ball for at least 30 minutes before I leave for work, which generally wears him out for about an hour, so I try to get all his energy out. If there are any suggestions for me I'm more than willing to try anything.

Thanks in advance. Hope everyone is having a good day.

Nate

[BishonVonAachen]

Welcome to the board,
Well the only real advice I can offer towards your problem would be to slowly reintroduce the crate to your puppy in a fun and positive way to be able to keep him safe and crated while you are gone. Start slowly and make it as fun as possible for him.I had a pup with some separation anxiety and it does take time to make them comfortable and make it their safe place but once you do the work and it pays off it is definitely worth it. I can send you more specific details later but I'm posting from my phone at the moment. This is of course my Hopefully some of the other members can chime in with more ideas?
Also if you could stop by on your lunch break or possibly get someone to stop by half way through your work day and take him for a walk or even just play ball with him in your back yard to help burn of more of his excessive energy while you're at work.

[Christie M]

Hi Nate,

Welcome to the forum!! Based on those photos, I would say "Yes" you have a beautiful Dutch Shepherd. Before I go much more in depth about the issues that you are dealing with - let me first ask that you visit the User Control Panel and create a signature with your name....and you can upload one of those pics as an avatar for us all to see I do appreciate that you signed your post, but this will keep you from having to in the future!!

Based on your overall description, I would agree with your separation anxiety diagnosis (but obviously, internet diagnosing is only just so good). A good trainer/behaviorist would be my first recommendation!

You have obviously provided for the physical needs of your dog. The only place where I could recommend improvement is with formal mental stimulation. Motivational obedience and trick training, formal classes, working off the property...etc. All of these things could help a ton. Dutch Shepherds are super intelligent and tend to get in trouble when they are the smart kid being bored in class. Also, interactive toys that make them work for every bite that they eat are great distractions when you are not home. Dogs were hunters/scavengers first, so making him work for every meal taps into all of their senses and helps alleviate behavior problems.

If all that you had mentioned was his overall behavior NOW when you are gone, I would have only made these recommendations. He is screaming that he is a problem solver (opening doors, drawers...etc). However, I think he takes it to a whole new level when he breaks out of crates and hurts/injures himself doing so. One of the classic differences or symptoms of anxiety disorder is the disregard of personal comfort in an effort to escape. Anxious dogs will urinate, defecate and physically hurt themselves. A bored dog doesn't typically go through all of that just for entertainment.

I would recommend REALLY bumping up the mental stimulation. I mean really!! Make him work for every bite of food and make a large portion of those bites come from independent rewarding activities (kong, buster cube, squirrel dude....). Make those meals only available when you are out of the room or out of the house (once he understands how they work).

But if he continues to engage in behaviors that could physically injure him, then I do think medication is a good option. I ran the behavior programs for a referral veterinary practice for 5 years. I think it is important to look at anxiety dogs as suffering because they are incapable of dealing with social isolation. Appropriate medication does not cause sedation, it is anxiety specific. It gives the owner a jumping off place to work behavior modification more effectively and it gives the dog relief from the discomfort that occurs daily.

One more thing. We all go through rituals before we leave for extended durations. I recommend desensitizing to those rituals and switching up your routine as much as possible. He needs to not know if you are going to be gone for 2 minutes or 2 days when you walk out that door. They anticipate everything, even the negative stuff.

Good luck, keep us posted and please do seek out competent help in your area.

[Kristie E]

Welcome! I can only add on to what Christie said. Gwen is not so much an issue but I have had to deal with serious separation anxiety issues with my retired from work GSD.... I ended up using a combination of things. I knew it was bad one day when I got home and he busted out of his crate got into the garage and came running out of the garage when I put the door up to drive in. (i'll never forget it. I started yelling at him to get back inside (you see Lonnie also quite dangerous to have around strangers, as a working patrol dog he was not encouraged to be social and as an old man he was quite crotchety) my son looks at me (7year old) and says "Mom, why are you yelling at LOnnie?" My only response was "he's supposed to be inside!!!)
Any how, I changed crates to a heavey duty vari kennel with the thick metal bars, since he ruined the nice one and made the front all twisty..I know it wasn't perfect but he could never get his teeth into the squares to try to twist it. I know he tried to get out since there were scrapes on the side. I got some dog specific music to play during the day while I was gone, I invested heavily in thinking toys that were medium to high degrees of difficulty in getting the food out, I worked him in the morning (mind games, find it, tricks, what ever I could think of to teach him) and again at night when I got home. I also used Clonicalm for a few months. I found a relaxation protocol developed for separation anxiety and all those things with some time and patience left me with a dog that eventually I trusted to be left out of his kennel for short periods of time while I stepped out.

Hope some of this was helpful.
Kristie

[Sugars Mom]

Hi and welcome. Your pup is beautiful. He looks a lot like Sugar, if she didn't have floppy ears. I'm sorry to hear about the anxiety Joker has. I took in a German Shepherd for a while with separation anxiety and he would poop like 10 times if I was gone for even 10 or 15 minutes, and bark and run around (he did not have a crate). I couldn't leave him outside cause he had bitten before and it was such a problem. The poor dog to have to go through that (and the people too). All the best with trying to deal with it.

[Raven]

Welcome--and a good looking dog you have. (Those two light-colored spots just in front of the base of the ears are horns, by the way....)

How much time in training are you investing every day? And what are you training and how are you doing it?

As Christie stated, mental stimulation is an important component, as is exercise; just don't confuse what she said for something else...this brings it back to time in training, what are you training, how are training, etc.?

It could very well be separation anxiety...but it could be boredom and angst and....just please don't jump the gun and call it something that it MAY not be.

You have an intact young male. That will provide some extra excitement to your day. May I ask why you are not inclined to neuter?

Could you offer up a little more information (clearly, for my own benefit)?

[vneerland]

Welcome Nate. Good looking Dutch shepherd (yes, indeed) you have!
I a sorry to hear about his anxiety and can only agree with what was already said on the subject.

[BabyJoker]

Thanks everyone. I got him a large Kong treat dispenser that he seems to enjoy a lot. It took him about 2 days until he realized to use his paws. This along with the running has helped a lot.