Separation Anxiety Is Killing Me

Hi all,

I have a 2yo male Akita that’s been regressing with separation anxiety recently and has been peeing/pooping in the house. We’ve made progress working through it before, but for some reason he’s regressing and the last week and a half has been especially difficult because my partner is away for work. He was regressing before my partner left, but this has sent him so far over the edge that I’m at my breaking point. I called out of work for the next two days (when my partner returns) because I can’t take coming home to multiple pee puddles and poop piles in the house. I’m at my breaking point and I don’t know what else to do besides cry. It seems to mostly be when we leave for work and he knows we are not in the house. I know it’s not an issue of holding it because we had a strong streak (over a year) of him being perfect when we were gone. The only change I can think of is that we had to put our senior dog down the beginning of this year. During the day they would be separated since he had puppy energy and she was too old to keep up 24/7. I believe this is what set off his regression since he adored her but I don’t know how to help him.

A little back story on him – we got him as a puppy, but we were his 3rd home within 6mos. One family got him for his girlfriend but the girlfriend didn’t want a large puppy, second family the boyfriend was beating him and left him outside. So we took him from that family and work so hard to build trust with him and he’s a great boy, besides this.

Our normal routine:

Husband wakes up ~5am

Husband feeds him and lets him out

Husband leaves for work ~6am

I wake up ~7am

I take him for 30min-1hr walk

I leave ~8:30am

Husband comes home ~4pm and lets him out

I come home ~7pm and feed him dinner

I play with him for 30min-1hr, depending on what we’re doing (treat puzzles, tug rope, fetch, etc. im spending time with him outside of that, but I set aside time specifically for just me and him)

Myself or husband let him out ~10pm then we go upstairs to bed

Our modified routine (husband comes back in 2days so will be back to normal then):

I wake up ~5am to feed him and let him out

I take him for a 30min-1hr walk ~7am

I leave ~8:30am

I come home ~7pm and feed him dinner

I play with him for 30min-hr

I let him out ~10pm then go upstairs to bed

What I’ve tried so far and doesn’t seem to be helping:

Longer walks – we’ve tried longer in the am and adding a night walk

Extra play time in the am

Crate training – we tried when he was a puppy but he would continuously hurt himself on the crate so we opt now to contain him to a room

We’ve tried containing our cats in a room during the day and letting them free to see if it makes a difference

I have a pheromone diffuser

I put a pheromone collar on him

Play white noise

Special treat he only gets when we leave – he will not eat it while we’re gone

Calming support powder added to his breakfast