About two weeks ago we rescued a four month old German Shepard pitbull mix from a bad environment that has given him the WORST separation anxiety. My partner and I had talked about getting a dog (not a puppy) as our first furry friend and this puppy kind of fell into our laps way sooner than expected after pulling at our heart strings. Now feeling way in over our heads with how demanding he is, and I can’t help but feeling like we made a mistake. We live an active lifestyle that is good for him and I can take him to work with me so he really isn’t alone that often right now, but the issue is that I have to walk away from my desk to deal with people about 5 times a day at about 15 minute intervals, which he is NOT ready for. We’ve been doing diligent separation anxiety training and have started to crate train (he used to be locked in a crate for 8+ hours a day so it’s very slow going); but I can now leave the house for about 10 seconds when he’s in his “place” before getting up to look for me. Really looking for any advice on how to possibly help him understand that I’m always coming back? Idk if I have enough time or energy for a puppy with these issues but he’s already bonded with me so heavily that it would be traumatic re-homing him again and I love him. I’m just concerned for my job because when I do walk away from my desk, he barks and whines until I return which is incredibly disruptive for my coworkers and the customers.
For reference, he has a raised bed we’ve been using as his point of reference or “place”, where he gets all his high value puppy bones and we do our separation training from which comes to work with me. The space in my office gives him about a ten by ten space that he can roam around in which is blocked off by a large dog pen. He won’t sleep on his raised bed but will at my feet under my desk. He doesn’t bark or wake up when customers or my coworkers walk by or when the phone rings. But as soon as I step out of the penned off space (even after putting him on his bed and he can still see me) he immediately pushes at the pen and howls until I come back in. Last week I put him in a closed office space when I had to leave but that was worse for him even though it was less disruptive to everyone else. Any advice on helping him? I’m so exhausted and I can’t lose my job but don’t want to have to start crating him again sooner than he’s ready, or re-homing him to someone that has more time for him.
submitted by /u/Fujimotogecko
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