Hello All,

My one year old Yorkie, Kobe, I think is suffering from separation anxiety. We have him papertrained (which is in the kitchen). Whenever we are home with him he always goes on the pads. We used to let him have free run of the downstairs but then he started to chew the base molding and pee on the walls and curtains. So, we started to confine him to the kitchen. Mistakenly, whenever we got home and saw that there was pee on the wall we would confine him in the kitchen (because we were mad)... this had him thinking that the kitchen was a discipline. However, over a month we began showing him that this is no longer a discipline area, but rather where he eats, can sleep and go to the bathroom.

Recently (about two months) he has started to begin to pee on walls again, curtains and now, my Christmas Tree skirt. I thoroughly clean it up with cleaners that remove the smells. I no longer discipline him after the act has already been done, unless I can catch him sniffing the areas where he pees (I can never catch him in the act because he only does it when we are gone). So we started to confine him again at night and when we leave (keep in mind that the kitchen area is about 210 sq ft... so plenty of room). As soon as he sees us putting up the gate he runs away. We pick him up and put him in the kitchen and we go in there as well with him and work on his training (sit, down, paw.. etc) and give him treats. After he is calm, we then either go upstairs or outside and the whining begins. He never barks. He paces, pants, whines, rips of the pee pad, throws his food and water bowls and bed around. Recently he has been starting to scratch and bite the gate. If I am upstairs I peek over the railing to see in the kitchen and he is just sitting up against the gate whining. We try to ignore his whinning as a lot of websites advise... but after 20 or 30 minutes, I firmly tell him NO! Or Tssk! We no longer make a big deal about are comings and goings like many websites advise(ignore him until he calms down then pets him). We have also been leaving him in the kitchen when we are at home to have him get used it when we are at home too... but again, he whines. We also have been working on our leadership skills (invite him on the couch or to play, rather than him jumping on our laps or barking at the doorbell or jumping on people as they come in the door).

He is very obedient in other ways, he walks really good on a leash (side or behind of me with a loose lead), and listens to commands. He is VERY hyper and excitable though. He seems to NEVER get tired no matter how long the walk or run or playing. I have tried giving him treats, Kongs stuffed w/ treats but he just ignores them completely in the kitchen... he doesn't even eat or drink water when he is confined. I started to give him peanut butter in the KONG he def loves that, but once it is finished he is back to his whinning, pacing, panting ways.

Can anyone please give me advice? My husband and I are desperate! :(

Thanks,
YorkieMom

Sounds like he needs to be crated. Others here will explain that all to you but I wanted to share my experience.
My dogs that had separation anxiety did do the pee and chew things to 'get back at you for leaving'. My pit bull that I have now outgrew the separation anxiety by 2 yrs old but my keesh-lab never did outgrow it. She did learn to quit chewing stuff up but she never quit 'crying'.
If you can't crate your yorkie while you are out I would at least confine him to somewhere else if possible. I have a small furnace laundry room that I confine my pit bull because even though she is over the separation anxiety you never know what she is going to chew simply because she is a pit and they like tearing things up.

Oh and when you get home give your yorkie loads of love and attention so he has something positive to look forward to.

Hey I just recently read your post and I was wondering if you managed to solve your dogs separation problem? I have a female Yorkie, Daisy, who is also 1yr, and displays EXACTLY the same behaviour! She is a rescue dog and I got her 5mths ago - unfortunately she came with this separation problem and I'm not sure how to fix it! Like you, I've tried everything, and I keep her behind a gate in the kitchen when we are out but she doesn't ever settle until I come home, not much barking but she knocks her food and water over, whines and tries to bite and scratch the gate. Also like your yorkie, she NEVER runs out of energy - she gets a 1 and a half hour walk, sometimes run, every morning, but nothing seems to help! Just keen to know if you had any success with this problem! Sorry I can't help! Jude.

Hey Judette,
Well, we got Kobe neutered and that seemed to do the trick. Unfortunately, yours is a girl. After we got him fixed we decided to not leave him in the kitchen anymore, kind of like a fresh start.

He automatically stopped peeing on the walls. We had never let me upstairs because he would ALWAYS pee at the top of the stairs so we had the baby gate at the bottom of the steps. It is very obnoxious though to keep climbing over the gate and tripping over it half the damn time. So, we tried 5 or 6 times to undo the gate and see what happens... he is such a good boy for 4 days and then BOOM... he spots (not full pee... thank god). So we tell him no and put the gate back up. This is repeated like 5 or 6 times with like 2 week breaks. We finally gave up.

About 3 months pass by, and about a month ago we were getting so aggravated with that damn gate that we decided to try again. Same thing happened. But this time we didn't put the gate up, just wanted to see if he could learn his lesson. Next couple of days, no pee! Yay! But then 4 days later, pee. We did the same thing, not putting the gate up... and it has been about 2 weeks and NO PEE! I think we finally got him.

With the energy part, now that he is almost a year older, he has calmed down a bit more. We walk him shortly in the morning and about an hour at night. But we play fetch with him up and down the stairs. Before he could go on forever, now he actually gets tired and stops by himself. So, I think it is definitely age related.

My advice to you is to stay patient. I know it is hard and sometimes you want to scream and hit her, but that really does make it worse. Also, take her food bowl away when you leave, we started to do that. Make the feedings more of a routine to show that the food is for the dog when you say... not whenever the dog feels like it. Water bowl, that's a different story.

Can you leave her out of the kitchen when you leave? Or does she chew and destroy things?

Hey YorkieMom,
Thanks for replying so soon! Well Daisy is going to be spayed in May - not sure if that makes any difference at all to female dogs behaviour but she is a little bundle of energy so here's hoping!
No she doesn't chew anything whilst I'm out, the only thing she does when given free run of the house is to pee, sometimes poo, and she tore all my carpet at my door with her frantic scraping to get out... that's why I had to put a baby gate in the kitchen for her... I have been thinking recently of letting her out of the kitchen whilst we are out, just to see if it makes any difference to her anxiety. I have gone as far as buying her stairs so that she can see out of the window! This has made a slight difference in calming her down and I've been thinking of moving them upstairs to the big window so that she doesn't feel so closed in and can sit and wait on us coming home.. I may give it a try given that your little yorkie calmed down enough when not in the kitchen...
I feed her now before I leave, straight after her morning walk and then I remove the bowl so that she can't knock it over, and I've put her water bowl in the corner away from the gate and that has helped, she doesn't knock it over anymore.
I may try leaving her out of her kitchen at the weekend and see how she does. Thanks for your advice and I'm glad little Kobe has settled down a bit for you, it makes me feel a little more hopeful!
Judette