Super Strength SA

So, I am at my wits end, once again, with Maggie's separation anxiety. How can such a small greyhound (45 lbs) do such a large amount of damage?! I was dealing with this SA when I lived in my old loft, a small, 600sf completely open space. It started when she would have accidents whenever I left, even if I was only gone a very short time. Her favorite place to pee was in her own dog bed, which everyone said was really bizarre since that was her "den." I thought a crate would help, so I spent $100 on a wire crate. She seemed ok for a couple of weeks but then she escalated quickly to the point where she literally ripped the thick plastic crate liner completely in half WHILE she was in the crate. After that, she started bending the wires with her nails and teeth to the point that there would be POOLS of blood on the floor when I got home, and her face would be all scraped up and bloody, along with her nail beds. I had tried leaving the radio on, leaving a shirt that smelled like me, etc. As far as I know, she's not vocal when I'm gone, just had accidents (but otherwise would easily hold her bladder for up to 11 hours while I was asleep, so I know she physically could hold it.) At this point, the vet tried Clomicalm. But it made her anxiety worse. Within 10 minutes of me giving it to her, she would start hyperventilating a LOT, and her heart would race out of control. After three weeks of that, I said no more. During this time, I was buying a new house. When I moved, I wasn't sure what to try, but I had newly refinished hardwood floors and was scared of what she might do in a confined space. She peed in the middle of my mattress the first day (I didn't have a bed at the time). Right when I moved, someone recommended the DAP diffuser. I thought it was a joke, but figured I'd just return it when it didn't work. Well, from the day I plugged that thing in, it was like having a new dog. Not a SINGLE accident, and she seemed to love the bedroom. After she had been seemingly balanced for a couple of months, I decided to adopt a second grey, Clive. Everything seemed fine for 9 months.

As I now know, change, especially a change in schedule, can be very traumatic for dogs with SA. I had hip surgery in January and was off work for 6 weeks and at home 95% of the time. During this time I was on crutches and couldn't easily wrangle the dogs from all areas of the house every time I needed to feed them or let them out. Also, I was very unstable on crutches, and Clive is a big grey (75 lbs) and is young and rambunctious (2 years old) and loves to lean on me, so I couldn't risk him knocking me over. So I left the bedroom and kitchen open for them to have and put a baby crate on the kitchen door. From the kitchen door, Maggie could see the living room. She hated being apart from me in the house and would sleep next to the baby gate even though there was no dog bed there (normally she won't lay down on ANY hard surface). She did her best to get under and over the baby gate, managing to wriggle it out of the door frame a few times. I felt bad, but I didn't have many options. Friends were coming over to help walk them, but I just couldn't get around well and wasn't allowed to put any weight on my left leg.

3 weeks ago I went back to work, and now Maggie's SA has returned TIMES 10. Now, not only is she soiling the house, when I'm gone, but is also peeing on the floors overnight when I'm in the bedroom with her. It's as if she has grown to despise the bedroom, and no longer sees it as her den, but as the room she was relegated to for 6 weeks when I was recovering (I did sleep in the bedroom during those six weeks, and she sleeps on her dog bed on the floor next to me). Clive is still having a hard time with not marking in the house, so he's crated and does just fine. I thought maybe keeping her just in the kitchen would work, since it's not the bedroom, the floors are easy to clean, and it's where she is fed. The first day she had 2 accidents in the kitchen but other than that she seemed ok. The second day, I came home to find that for the first time ever, she had been extremely destructive while I was gone, scratching at my (original, solid wood, circa 1926) doors and molding until there were HUGE holes in the doors/molding. Not only that, but when she managed to get the door open between the kitchen and the bedroom, she somehow opened Clive's crate and busted him out of jail, so they were BOTH running loose in the bedroom/kitchen when I got home! This, added to the upset stomach that Clive has had for over 20 days (yes, he is being vetted - we have seen the vet 4 times now), just absolutely put me over the edge. I didn't punish her of course, because she's not doing this to be a bad dog, but I just burst out in tears. I sat down on my bed and balled for about half an hour. The stress has completely worn me down. At work I'm worried about when she's doing at home, and at home I'm spending all of my time cleaning up accidents and destructiveness and doing alone training. And I'm neglecting my poor cats and my yard work and my friends, and I have no social life anymore.

So I decided to try the metal crate again. Nope. She escaped, again, and peed on the floor. Then I decided to try the huge plastic travel crate with the metal door, with her muzzled inside. (This was yesterday.) It seemed to work ok. When I came home, she was still muzzled, and I didn't see any blood from her trying to escape. There was, however, a great deal of drool on the inside of the crate near the door, so I knew she had been hyperventilating. Today, however I did the same thing, and came home to find she had RIPPED the metal door off of the plastic crate and had also ripped her muzzle apart. Her nose is swollen and bloody from her escape, and she had once again destroyed yet ANOTHER door and door frame. I am sitting here typing this, unsure of what to do next. the vet wants me to try a dog trainer before we try any meds, but I am literally out of money at this point for all of this. Between the 5 Px and multiple vet visits for Clive, and all of the products (dog products and cleaning products) I have bought for Maggs, I am BROKE. I find myself racking my brain to think of someone I could give Maggie to, and then I cry when I think of giving her away. She is SUCH a good dog, other than the SA. But she is just rarely relaxed anymore. Even when she's home, her brow is always furrowed and she seems anxious most of the time. She rarely plays. She never cockroaches anymore. She only rolls over on her back on sunny days when she's in the grass in the backyard. Even at the dog park, she never just runs and plays, she spends the whole time trotting the perimeter of the fence trying to escape (she almost got out once, as someone else was coming in). She just never relaxes!

If she has her preference, she always runs to the dog bed that is next to the living room sofa. (This is the sofa where I spent most of my recovery time.) I thought that maybe putting the crate in the living room would help. Nope. The only other thing I can think of that I haven't tried is a video camera, because I don't have access to one. But a friend of mine said he might be able to lend me his web cam, so it might be a possibility soon to actually see how she acts when I'm away.

These are all of the things I have tried. Please leave comments if you have any other suggestions. I just don't know what to do - please HELP!

TRIED:
-Alone Training
-Mixing up my routine so she never knows if I'm leaving or not and mixing up "cues"
-I leave quietly, and when I get home I ignore her for about 10 minutes
-Rescue Remedy
-Kong stuffed with treats and peanut butter and frozen, also used with alone training
-a Tug-A-Jug filled with food
-leaving an item that smells like me
-leaving the radio on and off
-feeding her in her crate or bedroom (safe place)
-left in the house loose, but muzzled
-left in 2 different crates
-left in the bedroom loose, muzzled and unmuzzled
-increasing the length and the amount of walks we take in the mornings
-increasing the amount of general obedience training we do
-only giving affection when she is in a calm state of mind
-Dog Appeasement Pheromone, both the diffuser and the spray
-a strict schedule
-Clomicalm, but only for 3 weeks
-Doing training/SA exercises from the "Greyhounds for Dummies" book, etc
-massaging her to get her to relax
-I have a call in to the dog trainer that my adoption group recommended
*I can't do doggy daycare because I work a night shift
*I can't afford a dog walker
*I am single and live along, so I don't have anyone to help me out with any of this.

Here are the pics of her destructive behavior from this week:

door and moldings:























door and moldings:
























door ripped off crate:

























destroyed crate #2:


















destroyed muzzle:


















Blood from her face, teeth, and nail beds, from her trying to escape the crate


















blood on the floor: