Elsie is almost three, and until now has never shown any signs of stress when left alone.
The last couple of weeks, she's been showing increasingly bad signs of separation anxiety, and I'm having to work really hard not to get upset about it.
A few weeks ago we had a new roommate move in, and that's more or less when this started. She's crying in the room when left alone, which she's never done, and she's drooling on herself, and licking her front legs. We've always had roommates, usually two at a time, and she's never had problems like this in the past.
It also seems that she's only having this problem when my new roommate is home; she doesn't seem to have had anxiety/stress when it's just the old roommate around. My new roommate says she doesn't make any noise at the dogs when she gets home if they're shut up in my room, but she does take a more active interest than any roommate in the past (which is nice, but we have had to have discussions about boundaries, a little).
I would like to try crating her while we're gone, but I am limited by what I can try by the fact that we have roommates; she can't be allowed to bother them, particularly my roommate who has been here longer, since she works graveyards and sleeps during the day.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm a little baffled and super irritated, which I know is not a helpful emotion. I understand logically that she is not doing this to be irritating; she is upset and it is not her fault, because she is a dog, but because she's always been so perfect about being left in the past, and the quarter just started and I'm stressed, it kind of emotionally feels like this is being done 'to' me, which I know logically isn't true. I am having a little trouble adjusting to having our new roommate, even though I like her a lot.
I'm not even sure it's really separation anxiety, although that's obviously part of it. Last night, for no discernible reason, she was extremely stressed all night long, and right now, when I got home she was trying to race around pacing and panting. I made her down in the living room and she was stress panting and drooling non-stop. She's in her crate right now because it was bothering me.
Help?
The last couple of weeks, she's been showing increasingly bad signs of separation anxiety, and I'm having to work really hard not to get upset about it.
A few weeks ago we had a new roommate move in, and that's more or less when this started. She's crying in the room when left alone, which she's never done, and she's drooling on herself, and licking her front legs. We've always had roommates, usually two at a time, and she's never had problems like this in the past.
It also seems that she's only having this problem when my new roommate is home; she doesn't seem to have had anxiety/stress when it's just the old roommate around. My new roommate says she doesn't make any noise at the dogs when she gets home if they're shut up in my room, but she does take a more active interest than any roommate in the past (which is nice, but we have had to have discussions about boundaries, a little).
I would like to try crating her while we're gone, but I am limited by what I can try by the fact that we have roommates; she can't be allowed to bother them, particularly my roommate who has been here longer, since she works graveyards and sleeps during the day.
Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm a little baffled and super irritated, which I know is not a helpful emotion. I understand logically that she is not doing this to be irritating; she is upset and it is not her fault, because she is a dog, but because she's always been so perfect about being left in the past, and the quarter just started and I'm stressed, it kind of emotionally feels like this is being done 'to' me, which I know logically isn't true. I am having a little trouble adjusting to having our new roommate, even though I like her a lot.
I'm not even sure it's really separation anxiety, although that's obviously part of it. Last night, for no discernible reason, she was extremely stressed all night long, and right now, when I got home she was trying to race around pacing and panting. I made her down in the living room and she was stress panting and drooling non-stop. She's in her crate right now because it was bothering me.
Help?