buddy's story

our buddy

Buddy is a 2 ½ yr old Catahoula Leopard. He joined our house two years ago after Kari found him at the Lollypop Farm animal shelter. We already owned our shepherd-lab mix, Sam, for just over a year and had talking about getting a companion for him. Kari finally convinced me that we should "just look" at the shelter. I knew what that meant.

At the shelter Buddy was a sorry sight. Sad and mopey looking, he was very skinny and seemingly malnourished. He caught our eye right away with his distinctive markings and "houndy" look. After I read his info sheet which said that he "totally destroyed the house" when left alone, I decided to look at other dogs. But it was too late, Kari was already smitten.

"How bad can it be?" she said. "Look how sad he is? How can you leave him here?" After quickly assessing her intractability, I gave in and issued my usual protests and prophecies of doom whenever I know I'm not going to change Kari's mind. (She never listens to me, but it at least makes me feel better.) We brought Sam in the next night to make sure they would get along okay and were excited when they started romping around the play area like best pals. We signed the paperwork and planned to pick Buddy up two days later after his neutering procedure.

We were excited but a little nervous. With Sam, we had already experienced what we thought was separation anxiety and decided we were prepared to deal with Buddy's problem. Little did we know...there is a big difference between a spastic dog who doesn't want to be away from his owners (Sam) and a dog whose anxiety is so strong that they can't psychologically handle being alone (Buddy).

I borrowed a wire crate from a coworker to keep Buddy confined while we were away from home. He went in willingly enough, but as soon as the door was closed, the barking started. There was be frantic barking and scratching and pulling at the crate door, but we left the house with the assumption that he would calm down after a few minutes.

I came home at lunchtime to find Buddy at the side door and the door gouged and chewed on. He had somehow worked the door of his crate open. (!) After eating lunch and playing with the dogs I put Buddy back into his crate, again with no problem. When I came home that night, he was still in the crate, but barking frantically.

The next day, Buddy went back into his crate again and we put a padlock on the crate door. We also ran a tape recorder to see just how long and loud his barking was. That day we left Buddy for the entire day, thinking that the luchtime visit was probably just an added stress for him. When I got home that night, Buddy was loose again, with more damage to the door and bleeding gums. He had worked his way through one of the corners of the crate. (!!) It's hard to explain except to say that it must have been a very tight and uncomfortable squeeze for him. I played the tape which ran on for a full 6o minutes of barking and whining interrupted only by periods of cage rattling noises, when Buddy was pulling on the wire cage with his teeth.

We were at our wit's end. We tried leaving Buddy for only 1/2 hour in an unused room thinking he'd be more comfortable there than in the crate. Instead, we got a shredded door and molding. We called doggie day care locations and set up appointments to visit. We never made it to any of the appointments. The next morning, Kari gave up trying to get Buddy into the crate (he was no longer buying it) and nearly in tears, took him to our local vet to stay there for the day. It worked so well that the vet's office became Buddy's dare care for the next six months.

Buddy became the unofficial mascot of the vet's office. He quickly figured out how to open the door of his cage there as well. They would put him into the cage, turn around and find him standing in the doorway. So...they just left the cage door open since he was happy enough inside as long as people were around.

At home, we began working with Buddy, leaving him alone in "his room" (the one with the shredded door) for a few minutes at a time and slooowly extended the time to ten minutes, fifteen minutes, a half hour, hour, etc. We also put him on anti-anxiety medication: "puppy-prozac," we call it. We read books, got advice from trainers and worked closely with our vet. After six months of day care we began leaving Buddy at home while we went to work.

Now we can leave him at home almost any time; however, we aren't prepared to leave him in other places. We tried a highly-recommended kennel, but found that he was damaging his teeth on the cages there. So now we use a baby sitter if we are away from town for more than 8-10 hours.

It was a lot of hard work and a long, anxious time for us (every now and then we thought about taking Buddy's medicine ourrselves!), but the effort was worth it. I can't imagine a better dog than Buddy. He has rewarded our hard work with unconditional love and his unique personality (dog-ality?).

For help with canine separation anxiety check out some of the links to the right. Or, post a comment about your own experiences.