Kai Ken - separation anxiety - Help!
Any other Kai Ken owner experience a ridiculous level of separation anxiety from their Kai?
Kona is like addicted to Jen or something, he cries and freaks out when she walks upstairs and he is left downstairs! He throws his body at the wall and windows as if he thinks he will somehow open a portal to the upstairs by doing so - he is kinda crazy!
Any suggestions on how to deal with this? (non-Kai owners help too - please)
We have dealt with a lot of dog issues, but this is the first separation anxiety that we have had to deal with (at this level at least).
We have enough dogs so this type of thing is usually not an issue for us (meaning the dogs have each other, so they don't really care if we are around or not).
Comments
I've never dealt with seperation anxiety, I just thought your description of Kona throwing himself at the walls and windows "as if he thinks he will somehow open a portal" was really funny.
Not that his seperation anxiety is funny, just the description.
Good luck dealing with this. I'm sure you guys will figure it out.
Mot and Piglet both had horrible separation anxiety when they first moved in. What I would do is I would take an article of clothing like a tshirt. Sleep in it for a couple days and then put it in their sleeping areas. I also put on talk radio so they had people chatting around them at all times.
That seemed to help.
*the portal comment was kind of awesome*
I've never had to deal with it either. In fact sometimes I think Lucy is relieved to get rid of me for a little while.
Seriously though, I have heard of a few things you can try. They basically are different forms of desensitization training. The idea is to start small by having Jen leave for 30 seconds or a minute and them come back. Slowly build that up until Kona doesn't mind that she leaves anymore. To help him through it, you can try to distract him a bit. You can distract him with a treat every time that Jen leaves so he won't actually see her leave. Or, you can have Jen give him a treat right before she leaves and if he is good while she is gone for a minute or two, then another when she returns.
Another approach is to give him a specific toy right before she leaves so he'll be more interested in the toy than her leaving. Make sure to give him a minute to get interested in the toy before she leaves the room. Be consistent and always give him that toy so he knows that's the toy I get when mommy goes away and comes back.
I hope this helps!
Both of our dogs have a problem with separation anxiety. It's a difficult behavior to overcome. Before we got Keigo, Mika got so anxious, she would eat the dry wall by the door. As a pup, she would whine and bark incessantly. Keigo's anxiety came in the form of destroying our bathroom. He'll take all the towels and mats out and shake them til they ripped. Once the dogs became a pack and learned to rely on each other, the problem was resolved.
While Dave is right about the interval training, I'm not sure distracting with a treat is a good idea. You want to reward good behavior, not bad. Since the issue comes up with Jen leaving the room, how about having her be less affectionate to him...Dare I say, having her ignore him completely? If Kona turns to you for more affection, give him a little affection and then brush him off so he goes to the other dogs for his needs.
Barbara - Mika & Keigo (Akita Inus); Jewel and Brittney (Kitties)I don't have such a big pack, so I don't know how this is going to play out for you. Nor do I know if this is the right thing to do. Just brainstorming.
This issue is going to take some time and practice. First off, Do you notice him getting anxious when you do a certain thing before you leave (put on your coat, jangle your keys, blow dry your hair, say something in particular). Once you figure out what triggers him to start getting anxious before you leave I would suggest doing whatever it is you do when he gets anxious and sit on the couch. If its jangling you keys, jangle them, put them down and sit on the couch, then you can do it and move to a different room, then you can do it and walk out the door for a second and come back, then walk out and stay out for 5 mins and come back and just do it for longer periods of time. Its like conditioning. He needs to learn that just because you do a certain thing and leave the room doesn't mean that you're never coming back. There is a book that I read when I was trying to figure out Ninja, its called "I'll be home soon!" by Tricia B. McConnell. It was very helpful and it listed all the signs of separation anxiety, some people mistake the pups issues sometimes(like me, ninja doesn't have separation anxiety), but it was very thorough and informative. She's quite a funny author as well.
I hope this helps! Good Luck! Poor Kona.
Thanx for all the guidance! You guys are always so helpful. :c)
Kona seems to get the most upset if he is left out of his crate, it seems he has learned his crate is his "safe place" and in that place he is ok and comfortable - but this only works if Loa is in her crate too, if she is left out and he is not he gets even more upset. We have a gate in front of the stairs and when Jen goes up stairs, if he is left out, he will cry at the gate, and then do the wall jumping thing. Sometimes he will come over to me and cry, and throw himself on me as well - tho I ignore him, I'm good at ignoring things.
The anxiety goes as far as him drooling excessively and making himself sick.
So this what I am going to try - kinda mixing everything you guys wrote - tell me if you think this makes sense.
When Jen has to go upstairs, maybe she can have Lao and Kona go into their crate and give them a treat... something that would take a bit to chew, like a "Bully Stick" or something. Also, maybe we could utilize the t-shirt trick Jessica mentioned and put a shirt that Jen sleeps in (or a blanket she can sleep with) on the dog bed in my office. My office is right under the upstairs, so this is where he comes to freak out - maybe that will give him a little "mommy smell" and not feel as upset.
What do you think?
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As for the portal comment - I was half being funny, and half trying to describe it to the best of my abilities... it really does look as tho he thinks he can fly through the wall or something.
Generally, Kona seems to lack an understanding of dimensional space... it worries me a bit. If Jen takes Ahi and Loa out, and Kona wants to be out as well, he will run - pretty fast - and just slam his body into the door... like he is trying to break it down the way a cop in a movie would. After he does this he kinda stumbles around like a drunk guy and looks at me like - "WTF Dad? Where were you on that? I could use a little help here!"
Really, he is an odd one - I will try to record it.
Brad - Thats a good way to start off, by giving him the treat and Jen walking away, it kind of signals that everytime she leaves he gets a treat and being alone without her isn't so bad afterall.
You might want to watch Kona when he does that and correct him. When he gets stronger, he may be able to break things down and hurt himself. In that book I suggested, the author had an experience where, when the owner left, the dog actually charged through the window and jumped out shattering the glass and getting hurt pretty badly. And another case where the dog chewed through the door and got splinters all in his gums. Im not saying Kona IS going to do that, but if he starts to do it harder or more often, you might want to watch him. I guess like humans, dogs do crazy things for love
That's interesting because Kona shows the least amount of excitement out of all the dogs when we get home... tho he shows the most distress when we leave. Strange... but I think you are right, a strong bond is mos def a breed specif trait it probably just reveals itself a little differently per dog. Kona is super dominant, so I think that probably why there is an opposite reaction for him in comparison.
His anxiety has gotten a bit better tho, he is not as bad as he was. then again, we had him at training yesterday w/ Lani, I had Kona and Jen had Lani... All Kona did during the class was try to get to Jen, it was really frustrating.
Brad,
Dont feel bad. Kenji prefers me over my husband any day. He shows no emotions at all when he gets home, but when I get home he is so ecited to see me all he wants to do is hug me and dance with me. He also follows me everywhere I go, I mean EVERYWHERE. lol. So dont take it personal....maybe they just prefer girls.
However, it makes it that much harder on you to train him because all he wants to do is listen to Jen.