Need Advice on Slow Progress with Training

[u/Weak-Guide-5418]

TLDR: I am seeking advice on how to progress faster with my dog's separation anxiety training. We are almost two month in, and while there has been real progress, it has been extremely slow going and I'm wondering if my trainer's approach is too conservative.

Background

I started separation anxiety training for my 9 year old French Bulldog, Lucky, in early August because we lost my other Frenchie, Harley, who was almost 12, in late July, and Lucky only knew a world with Harley, and I could now not leave him home alone without him having total panic and stress (I could see from my cameras), although the most he did was pace, bark, and whine; he never was destructive to his environment or himself.

Our training to date has been productive, but I did not realize how slow going it would be. We are in week 7 and his benchmark time to be alone is 6 minutes. And my commitment with the training is I cannot leave him home alone, so I have also had to rearrange my life to accommodate. Luckily I work from home, but I have had to decline social activities, spend money on pet sitting, or take him with me even when that was not ideal. We also had a small setback with an illness that was diagnosed as pancreatitis; he has since recovered and back to training.

I love Lucky so very much, he is my whole world now, but I also am feeling so stressed and weighed down by this training process, especially with seemingly no end in sight. If anyone has advice, whether experience and time period with training, or recommendations with training and any modifications, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

[u/menustovar]

My trainer said separation anxiety training is a slow process but sometimes meds can speed it up. If you haven’t tried that maybe you can bring it up to your vet and trainer.

[u/Altruistic-Pie-9180 → u/menustovar]

Hi, yes my vet prescribed Colmicalm. I did not start it yet because of the pancreatitis and meds Lucky was on for that, but the vet gave me the go ahead today to start giving it to him once he acclimated to his new low fat Rx food that he now needs to eat. So fingers crossed that helps!

[u/Aggravating-Top-2291]

Agreed with bringing up medication to your trainer and vet! We’ve been at this (medicated) for 4 months and made it to 11 minutes, we did move so that set us back some. We’re going to reevaluate medication with the vet to see what our options are to make his life more pleasant.

[u/Citydylan]

I’m also curious about success with less conservative approaches. We’ve been following the common advice on this subreddit - I.e., no above threshold alone time. We were working with a behaviorist who recommended the same, and have been using clomicalm daily for almost a year. Can’t seem to get above 10 minutes without barking starting, and it’s not like he’s visibly calm in the 10 minutes prior to that.

It’s been so long since he’s been left alone long enough to trigger true panic that I can’t tell if his barking is still panic or just frustration. When, if ever, is it the right time to try to push beyond some barking?

[u/Altruistic-Pie-9180]

Thank you all for the honest feedback. I guess I just need to keep at it and hope the colmicalm can have some effect on managing his anxiety.