I talked to another breeder today who has a Sheltie I'm interested in. This one is about one year old and sounds like a great match for us. Owner says she's very playful, very sweet, well trained, well behaved, but ended up being too short for confirmation.
The breeder's one hesitation when I described our situation is that she doesn't know if she'll have separation anxiety because she's never been alone before. Of course she's been without people, but there have always been other dogs around.
We're going out to meet her this weekend, and just to learn more about Shelties in general -- I figure even if we don't get this dog it will be a good experience.
Anyway, what are people's experiences with separation anxiety -- is it something dogs get over? Could we test for it somehow? She said she could coop it up in the kitchen alone for a few hours, but she'd likely still know the other dogs are in the house and might be comforted.
Would it make sense to ask for a "trial" weekend?
I can do doggie daycare for a while, but not forever. I could do a dog walker forever, or doggie daycare say twice a week (e.g. we really wear her out on Sunday, she hopefully sleeps happily most of Monday, then Daycare Tuesday and Thursday?), but 5 days of doggie daycare is super expensive.
I just don't see how I'm ever going to find a dog that's had the experience of being alone. A dog from a breeder won't have that, a dog from a shelter obviously won't have that (or maybe will have had it before coming to the shelter but we won't know how it went), a dog from a rescue likely has been with other dogs.
Tell me more.
Please.
The breeder's one hesitation when I described our situation is that she doesn't know if she'll have separation anxiety because she's never been alone before. Of course she's been without people, but there have always been other dogs around.
We're going out to meet her this weekend, and just to learn more about Shelties in general -- I figure even if we don't get this dog it will be a good experience.
Anyway, what are people's experiences with separation anxiety -- is it something dogs get over? Could we test for it somehow? She said she could coop it up in the kitchen alone for a few hours, but she'd likely still know the other dogs are in the house and might be comforted.
Would it make sense to ask for a "trial" weekend?
I can do doggie daycare for a while, but not forever. I could do a dog walker forever, or doggie daycare say twice a week (e.g. we really wear her out on Sunday, she hopefully sleeps happily most of Monday, then Daycare Tuesday and Thursday?), but 5 days of doggie daycare is super expensive.
I just don't see how I'm ever going to find a dog that's had the experience of being alone. A dog from a breeder won't have that, a dog from a shelter obviously won't have that (or maybe will have had it before coming to the shelter but we won't know how it went), a dog from a rescue likely has been with other dogs.
Tell me more.
Please.
