Yeah, bringing them into the shower with you is unfortunately only reinforcing their need to be around you, creating more intense distress when you can’t be around
It absolutely is, yeah. Sadly, sometimes you just have to break down and make an exception.
My little boy, a dachshund, is 15, and was my mom’s before she passed. He loved her like nothing else, and since she has passed, he now has incredible separation anxiety with me. If I leave the house entirely it’s not so bad, he’ll walk around and cry, but eventually he’ll settle in and go to sleep, especially if my sister in law picks him up and let’s him nap on the couch with her (too old to make the jump up there himself). But if I’m home, he will literally make himself sick if I’m on the wrong side of a door, or behind the shower curtain. He will cry until he pukes. Big, heaving sobs that I genuinely did not know dogs could make, and I grew up with a mom who was a dog groomer, around hundreds of dogs.
So, yeah, a lot of days I shower with the curtain open and just he careful not to get the floor wet. And sometimes, little boy just takes a shower with me. Because, honestly, he’s 15, he lost the person he loved most in the universe, and so did I. So he gets a little extra kindness, and a little more ridiculous stuff, like taking more baths than most dogs, and getting moisturized because of all the baths he takes.
But yeah… In general, don’t play into separation anxiety, teach them to overcome it however you can.
Yeah, dogs like with people, when they become very elderly and it all gets complicated and messy, everything kinda goes out the window a little bit and you just do your best to get through it.
When they’re 15 and have lost their person theres no long term quality of life gained by working through it that would offset the hell you’d be putting them through to work on the anxiety. And I’m not even sure how well you could work through that anxiety when they’re 15.
That’s an unhealthy attachment disorder
https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/training/dog-separation-anxiety/
I was thinking my dog had this, but reading the article proved me wrong. Turns out, she’s just an ass who loves destroying trash cans
She may not have this, but she may have some other issue
Yeah, bringing them into the shower with you is unfortunately only reinforcing their need to be around you, creating more intense distress when you can’t be around
It absolutely is, yeah. Sadly, sometimes you just have to break down and make an exception.
My little boy, a dachshund, is 15, and was my mom’s before she passed. He loved her like nothing else, and since she has passed, he now has incredible separation anxiety with me. If I leave the house entirely it’s not so bad, he’ll walk around and cry, but eventually he’ll settle in and go to sleep, especially if my sister in law picks him up and let’s him nap on the couch with her (too old to make the jump up there himself). But if I’m home, he will literally make himself sick if I’m on the wrong side of a door, or behind the shower curtain. He will cry until he pukes. Big, heaving sobs that I genuinely did not know dogs could make, and I grew up with a mom who was a dog groomer, around hundreds of dogs.
So, yeah, a lot of days I shower with the curtain open and just he careful not to get the floor wet. And sometimes, little boy just takes a shower with me. Because, honestly, he’s 15, he lost the person he loved most in the universe, and so did I. So he gets a little extra kindness, and a little more ridiculous stuff, like taking more baths than most dogs, and getting moisturized because of all the baths he takes.
But yeah… In general, don’t play into separation anxiety, teach them to overcome it however you can.
Yeah, dogs like with people, when they become very elderly and it all gets complicated and messy, everything kinda goes out the window a little bit and you just do your best to get through it.
When they’re 15 and have lost their person theres no long term quality of life gained by working through it that would offset the hell you’d be putting them through to work on the anxiety. And I’m not even sure how well you could work through that anxiety when they’re 15.
Sending love and hugs my friend 🫂
Thanks :)
He’s still spry, though, lemme tell ya. Haha. Half the time little dude can barely get around, but he’ll haul ass when he wants to
What a fuckin cutie ❤️❤️
Also a recipe for disaster with eyes full of shampoo.