anxious dog in new surroundings

[Bailey's Mom]

We took bailey on vacation with us a month ago and we thought she was just weirded out by the hotel room, she was very anxious...panting, crying at the door. It was so bad we did not even stay the night we ended up leaving. We thought it was just the hotel. Now we are noticing if we take her to friends or family houses she is the same way almost. the other night we took her to family, where she played with her pitbull cousin who is 5 months, as soon as he went into crate for bed and she was no longer distracted she started to get anxious and went by the door and cried to go home. If we called her away from the door she would just kinda pace and walk around never settling down. A few times she would give up and lay down, but before we knew it she was at the door crying. She was not asking to go potty, we definatley know the difference and there is a separate door at our familys house that she knows to go to when she needs to be let out to potty. another example, hurricane irene's tropical storm caused us to lose power for a night so we went to my boyfriends parents house, bailey was doing fine since she has been there quite a bit but when it was time to go to bed she freaked ( and she LOVES her crate). We knew this might happen because of the hotel incident. ( she also gets anxious when she sees her crate being taken apart or put together, again loves her crate and is very protective of it) So to prepare for that, we hid her crate from her. We did not let her see it be taken down and put into the car, nor did we let her see it be taken out of the car and set up in the guest bedroom as chris' parents house. Sure enough, when we brought her into the room to go to bed, she was a nervous wreck. She went into crate and constantly did a "race track" in her crate, she just circled and circled. If i even moved my leg under the covers she immediatley got up in her crate.

Does anyone else have any experience with dogs who are anxious everywhere but their own house? I really don't know what to think of this. I've also noticed she gets a little anxious when she notices us getting ready for work, but I wouldn't say she has seperation anxiety, just kinda sad that we leave. My main concern is the anxiousness outside of the house.

[tammyhuffman]

My oldest dog Emma is the exact same way. It became MUCH worse when we lost Ozzy in June. Now that we have Maxx things have improved greatly. I was told not to "baby" this behavior or even acknowledge it. Just go about your business as if she was not worried or anxious. (I know how hard this is to do!) I don't think that Emma will ever be comfortable in someone elses home or away from home and she will always get her "worried" face when we are leaving - I just take the Kongs out of the freezer and give her one and go out the door without a fuss. I know she is safe and I even had hubby set up camera in the house, within 2-3 minutes, at most, she settles right down! I always leave a TV on for her and she pretty much naps all day. They feed off of our energy so if she knows you are worried it will only make it worse, easier said than done but it does make a big difference. Good luck to you and if you find anything that works for your dog, please share!

[SharonaZamboni]

I'd guess she's looking for her crate to escape into when she's visiting other people. Maybe Bailey's too attached to her crate? You say she's protective of it; what does she do? What would she do at home if her crate was unavailable- would she be happy to lie down or would she wander around looking for it?