With my dogs, large changes to their routine/environment can cause stress and anxiety, resulting in behavioral changes. Losing a playmate is a big change, and she may also be missing the puppy.

A similar thing happened to my Shiba Inu when my Husky puppy had to be away temporarily for surgery. Suddenly, the time he spent playing with my little Sibe is now empty. To help him through the transition period, I spent more time with him and took him out more, to quiet relaxing hiking trails. When puppy returned, Shiba’s behavior went back to normal.

I also set up a fixed routine and a consistent set of rules for my dog. Consistency helps to create certainty and certainty helps him to relax. If there are changes coming up, I try to introduce those changes slowly, at a pace that my dog can handle.

Kind of like, “You threw it away THREE times, YOU go get it.”

LOL! Yeah I know what you mean. None of my dogs are really into fetch. Perhaps your girl is mixed with Husky or Shiba. 🙂

I give her 45 minutes of hard biking morning and night (part of it on leash, part of it off leash), we’re in a training class once a week, she has a dog play date (8hours+) once a week, and goes to daycare for a full day once a week. Also every Sunday I take her to the farm to run and play with the farm dog and I’m teaching her to hunt gophers and pheasants (lots of digging, crouching, following my directions).

I have a camera indoors to watch her too and it doesn’t look to be separation anxiety, it looks to be 1000% boredom. She’s mainly napping and relaxes as soon as I leave, she’ll chew her bones and toys left out and then she’ll nap some more. But randomly she’ll go into the kitchen and take stuff, or rip through the couch. I had to leave work the other day to stop her from chewing a knife she took out of the sink :/ So needless to say she’ll be losing kitchen privileges soon and I may have to crate her while I’m gone again.

All of this started up in intensity after we had a foster puppy here for 3 weeks which has now went to a new home. She hadn’t destroyed anything, or acted out in months before that. She’s a year and a half old Collie mix.

She doesn’t exercise like a normal dog either. She doesn’t enjoy fetch, she’ll get it because you threw it and knows that’s what she’s supposed to do but will stop returning it and reacting to you throwing it after 3 throws. Kind of like, “You threw it away THREE times, YOU go get it.”
The only activities she’ll get into are using the flirt pole, hide and seek, biking, or hunting.

What type of training is your puppy used to? What is his daily routine like?

With my puppy, it really helps to have routine and structure. I set up a fixed routine and a consistent set of rules.
More on how I set up structure and teach my puppy self control.
More on how I trained my puppy.

Touch exercises are desensitization exercises to get my dog to be more comfortable with touches from me and other people.
More on touching and hugging my dog.

More on how dogs learn.
More on bite training.

When in doubt, I get help from a good professional trainer.
http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/finding-professional-help

With my youngest Husky, Lara –
1. We practiced bite inhibition exercises.
2. We did collar and leash desensitization exercises in the house. Once we are good with that we did leash training exercises in the house and in our fully enclosed backyard. We also did recall exercises in the house and backyard. Puppy Lara wanted to follow me everywhere, so it was a great time to get her used to recalls. 😀
3. We practiced simple obedience commands.
4. Lara played with my other dogs under very close supervision from me. I limit play to smaller areas so that I have good control of all the dogs and can quickly stop play if needed.
5. We did touch exercises, and then later grooming desensitization exercises.

We also did a whole lot of frozen Kongs. I put Wellness wet puppy food into a Kong toy, and freeze it up. This slows down Lara’s eating speed, gives her something very engaging to do, and teaches her to work for her food. In the beginning, she can’t get all the food out with her puppy teeth, so I would help her. This is great because it teaches her to associate people and eating with positive experiences. A puppy needs a fair amount of food, so frozen Kongs were an excellent way to keep puppy Lara occupied.

In terms of schedule, this will be different dependent on a dog’s temperament, energy level, etc. In the beginning with Lara we had about 2 hours activity, then about 1.5 hours nap time and so on during the day. We did one or two frozen Kongs right before each nap time, because they helped her to relax. At night, Lara would sleep for about 8-10 hours with one or two potty breaks during the night.

Finally, with my two other dogs we also did puppy classes. We specifically picked a fun class that focused on dog-to-dog socialization (we did SIRIUS puppy classes). I think we started at around 10 weeks, and the instructor checked each puppy for current vaccination records. We didn’t do puppy class with Lara because we figured she already has two dogs to play with in the house, but this was a big mistake. Of our three dogs, Lara is the most unsure of and most reactive to other dogs. We do a lot of exercises with her today, but I think she would have been more relaxed around other dogs if we did more to socialize her properly when she was young.

More on my first 10 days with Husky Lara.
More on dog socialization.
ASPCA article on puppy socialization.

she is very quick to pick up new games and will obey every rule except recall….

Haha, yeah definitely sounds like a Husky! 😀

Both my Sibes have high prey drive and they absolutely love to run, so I only let them off-leash in fully enclosed areas. They both also have a tendency to leap first and look later.

There is one final characteristic of the Siberian Husky which we must point out — their desire to RUN. There are many breeds of dogs which, when let out in the morning, will sit in the front yard all day. Not the Siberian Husky. His heritage has endowed him with the desire to run and his conformation has given him the ability to enjoy it effortlessly. But, one quick lope across a busy street could be the last run that he enjoys, ever. Because of this, we strongly urge that no Siberian Husky ever be allowed unrestrained freedom. Instead, for his own protection, he should be confined or under control at all times. Sufficient exercise for proper development and well-being may be obtained on a leash, in a large enclosure, or best of all, in harness.
~~[Siberian Husky Club of America]

The breed is also not reliable off-leash, and no amount of training can make them so. They were bred to run 30 feet in front of a sled, making semi-independent decisions. Remove the sled and they will be gone.
~~[Siberian Husky Club of America]

Big hugs to your Husky girl!

Big hugs to your Aussie girl. I am glad she has found such a good home.

I have had her around a month. She was a stray and the rescue group didn’t have much background information about her and the behavior information hasn’t been correct on most things. Food is her biggest motivation so we are training her with treats. I will try some games with food rewards. Thank you for the help. Your blog has really helped to give me more ideas.