Apollo - 1 Year old Husky

bullshark

Hey everyone.. We are new here..

A little background:

We have a 1 year old pure bread husky that we adopted about 3 months ago. His owner died, so we took him. We got him through our friend, a dog trainer who boarded him until we adopted him.

Apollo has seperation anxiety. He has made progress in 3 months, but not as much as we would like. When left alone for even a few seconds, panic sets in. He whines, cries, and howls for hours and hours (we record him, and now we monitor him realtime with a webcam. He is crate trained and is perfectly fine in the crate when we are home. He used to be TERRIBLE in crate, he broke out twice and he used to rub his nose on the bars (created cuts). He has since calmed down in the crate and will pace a little, then sleep for a while and then get up again and pace. We actively train him everyday (praise based training, no food). He lives a very active life, spending hours at the park, running and training.


Now the Question:
About 2 weeks ago, Apollo started going to the bathroom in the crate (#2). It started off as a one time event and then didnt happen again for 2 weeks.. Then happened again and then again increasing in frequency until its almost an everyday occurrence. He isn't left for very long. We have opposite work schedules, he is left maybe 5-6 hours at most. Rarely longer.

We feed him twice/day. Two cups at 1pm, 2 cups at 9pm. We already changed his feeding time to prevent this from happening and it hasnt worked.


QUESTION: Can we feed him BOTH meals at one time? At night around 9pm?

That way he will go outside in the morning like he usually does and then not eat again until 9pm that night.

deege39

Welcome to Dog Forums!

Well, I'm not sure how others will feel... But I don't think it's that big of an issue as long as your dog is getting the required amount for his breed/body type/weight, so on...

I feed my dog once a day, somewhere in the afternoon time, he most usually poos in the morning or late at night; Since sometimes I'm not home during the afternoon time, I rarely, if ever, worry about coming home to an accident.

Donatello has eaten only once a day for almost a year now and he's doing fabulous; Both vets I've gone to both praise him on his weight... I've come to find that feeding once a day, twice a day, or breaking up it up into smaller meals is one of those "personal preferences".

As long as the dog is healthy, and like I mentioned, getting the required amount of food, I don't think it matters when or how often he eats.

Oh, and I do want to add; I suggest cutting back gradually. Instead of just cutting out a meal, would I offer him less in the morning, and more at night over the course of a few days or weeks, as long as you and the dog feel comfortable; Then I would substitute a healthy chew or a bone in replace of his meal for a few days until he's adjusted... That's how I adjusted Donatello around this time last year, and I received this idea as a suggestion from someone else on here, too.

I'm sorry about the SA, I'm sure that's really tough, but there are plenty of people here with experience in that department that might be able to help you if you'd like.

Kay Weber

Sounds like you are making progress with the crate though. How does he do when you're at home but leave him alone for a few minutes (just leaving the room)??

As far as the food, we feed our dogs once a day and it works great for us. But like deege39 said change it in gradually.

Northern_Inuit_Luv

Have you tried leaving treat puzzles with him when you leave him in the crate? Something to keep his mind busy for a little bit?