Hey, Mibbs! First off, let me say that I owe like a million of you responses to all of the lovely comments that have been left on my stories recently, and I'm super sorry for not getting to them sooner!
A transatlantic flight, a new dog, a final paper I really should be working on right now, a spay surgery, packing all of my stuff, dealing with side effects from starting birth control (headaches and nausea go away, right??), and several other things I'm sure I'm forgetting have had me pretty busy. Oh! And no internet. So I'm forced to be on my phone.
But yeah, I know I owe you all responses (and some of you responses to messages!) so just know I haven't forgotten you! I just need to wait until I have actual internet connection.
---&;
Also, dog separation anxiety!
I just got my first official (not counting the dog I grew up with that my parents had, obviously) dog! She's a great dog that my sister and brother in law have had (along with her brother) since she was a baby, so I've known her for a while and everything. She's 26 months now, and still crazy energetic -- which is totally great!
But what's not great is her current level of neediness. She was obviously a bit traumatized from the cross country flight she was put on, which was totally understandable, so I spent the following days letting her tag along everywhere and giving her a huge amount of exercize (which she desperately needed after having been crated most of each day because of my sister's new baby and everything).
Granted, I probably should have given her a little bit less attention there, but everything was really fine. She'd go in her crate (not the airline one, of course, but the normal wire one I bought her) when told, though she clearly wouldn't be thrilled. I was able to leave her crate while I went out and everything, no problem. The problem started when she got spayed.
Conehead is obviously a bit drugged still and needy because of all of the stress of surgery, but now she's suddenly terrified of her crate, even though she wasn't anywhere near this bad pre-surgery. I imagine part of the problem is the cone in confined space and all, but there's not much I can do about that because she needs to wear it.
I've started taking it off just for a brief period of supervised time while I have her in the crate (doors open still!) and am giving her some chicken so that she hopefully starts to positively associate with it again, but I don't know what else I can do to help! I don't want to force her in there and shut the door when she's not ready, you know? But at the same time, I need to leave the house to get to the library! And I need to finish packing boxes without her trying to follow me everywhere (she shouldn't be doing stairs right now, and it's hard enough to keep her calm when confined in a small, empty room with me!
But yeah, her level of neediness and her sudden fear of the crate is killing me right now! She's unfortunately going to have to be boarded for the holidays instead of staying with a friend now (partially because of the crate issue and partially because I'm just more comfortable with her at a vets office post-surgery) so I'm hoping it'll be easier to work with after she's healed and I pick her up from boarding, but I just... What do I do now?
Am I making it worse by not forcing her into her crate, or am I doing the right thing? I can't tell anymore.
Also, how do you make sure you don't let your dog get over attached to you? I was initially worried about her not bonding with me because she already has a bond with my brother in law and whatnot, but now I'm worried she might get over attached to me because I've been letting her be around me for the majority of the day.
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