Exhausted – puppy anxiety.

I’m sorry in advance- this is going to be long and all over the place. We’ve just had our follow up with the behaviourist trainer and she seems to think our 5.5 month old cavoodles anxiety has gotten worse. (In her words, escalated.) and that was before she even had a chance to walk in the door. We’ve had him since he was 8 weeks old and have not successfully been able to leave him alone since. He is super clingy (worse so with me) and cries and won’t eat when we walk out the door. Weve tried quite literally all the advice to teach him to be alone. Some days he’s ok left in his playpen and I leave the room for up to 45 mins or shut him out of a room to get just a little bit of peace. But most days, he’s impossible. This isn’t even the extent of it. He’s anxious around new people, new environments and situations. Sensitive to touch which has made lead training difficult to say the least. We had a small break through today after trying a new tactic shown by the trainer but that only lasted a few minutes before he was completely flipping out over the harness.

She thinks he’s a good candidate for anxiety meds. Situational to start (separation anxiety, outings, grooming, things he gets highly stressed over) and if we see positive improvement we can move to daily meds.

I’m not sure I’m prepared. I’m not sure if he is the right fit for us anymore. I’m not sure if I have the energy for his high needs. It has been constantly exhausting since he came into our home. Don’t get me wrong, the general shitty puppy behaviour has gotten better, but not being able to leave him alone even for 30 mins to duck out to the shop is not something I thought we were signing up for and I just feel so sorry for the little guy.

I guess I’m just venting. Feeling the puppy blues in a different way now. There is no way we could give him up. We will do whatever we need to do to help him. Has anyone else been through something similar and can share if there is light at the end of the tunnel? 😔