Hello all! I recently adopted what they think is a 1 year old labradoodle (60 lbs) about 48 hours ago. I wanted a dog for a while, and my boyfriend was hesitant but agreed. Backstory on my girl: in September she was found tied to a pole with no food and water, super skinny. A rescue took her in and adopted her out after she got to a healthy weight. Not exactly clear on why they returned her Dec 22 but they because of family health problems. We are now January and I adopted her after being back at the rescue for about 12 days. Before adopting her out they trained her and crate trained her but who knows what the previous family actually kept up with. When I met her she was super chill and perfect for my situation. I’m a dental student my boyfriend is a pilot so we wanted a dog that could be active when we want and chill when we’re home. After mental and physical exercise of course. So… first day she was great, calm, I could tell she didn’t really listen to “come” “uh uh” anything like that but knew “sit” “down” and will easily go and lay down in her crate if you throw her food in there or a treat. She has SEPARATION ANXIETY. She follows us everywhere, not a problem. She doesn’t want to be alone when we’re here, not a problem. But today I had to go back to school and we tried kenneling her for about an hour and she BARKED and would not settle. We practiced positive reinforcement, she goes in there no problem and eats her breakfast and lunch in there with the door open. I think she isn’t afraid of the crate, she’s afraid of us leaving her. I even put a blanket over, an indestructible toy, and calming puppy music on for her. I also noticed she is lunging towards dogs on walks because she wants to play. I know she’s friendly with dogs and wants to say hi but I don’t know how to correct any of this behavior and I am feeling SEVERELY overwhelmed and just need some reassurance that things will get better. She also is as tall as the counter tops and tries to eat the food off the hot stove even when I block her and try to get her to lay down. I haven’t slept in 2 days because she wants to sleep in the bed but she kicks in her sleep and takes up the whole bed. If i crate her she will bark all night, if I leave her out she jumps in the bed after I put her back into her bed and she keeps me up all night. I feel like my boyfriend is going to resent me. I have no problem training her but I want her to be okay with being alone sometimes when I’m at school for 6-8 hours. I can come home mid day but was hoping to not have to do this every day when my boyfriend is flying. She settles amazing in the evening when we’re not moving around but I just don’t know what to do. Did I make the wrong decision? I’m very overwhelmed. Please don’t make me feel bad about this, I’m already dealing with the anxiety of school plus worrying about her.
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