rescue dog is too attached to me

Hi

I got a 1 year old king charles/jack russel cross male dog from a dog rehoming place a week ago. He is the most fabalous looking dog. Well house trained. He is so clean. Also he is great on the lead. Within the first hour of me getting him he more or less latched onto me. He has to be by my side. If I leave the room he follows and stands at the door crying until I return. But we have made progress with him in some ways. For the first 4/5 nights he cried and howled for about 1 hour. But the last two nights he has settled really quickly with no holwing or crying. Also I put him outside in a dog run for a while during the day. he cries untl I go into the house but after that he just sleeps in the dog house. But ehenever I go outside he will cry until I go back in. The other thing is he does not know how to play with toys. no idea what to do with a ball at all. Will only chew on food. Has no idea what a kong is about, well he will get the top bit of food out and then give up and walk away. I am putting him in a crate at night and he does ok in the crate during the day. Although he will cry to start off but it is getting less and less.

Anyhow I am looking for advice on:

1. how to solve the problem he has with having to be by my side. Gets on pretty good with my husband and I am having my husband do as much as possible with him to try and get him less attached to me. Also if anyone comes into the house I make sure that they give him all the attention and I keep away and just give him minimum attention. Anything else I ca do? Over time will it ease off? Do I need a pet behaviourist to sort this?

2. how can I teach him to play with a bal, kong etc?

Any tips would be greatly apreciated. He is an absoutely brilliant dog in every other way. I want to socialise hiom with dogs and people as much as possible. I would be a bit worried that his attachment to me could cause further problems in the future such as over protectiveness of me or become agressive.

Any advice appreciated,
Many thanks

Hi

thanks for your reply. I out him in a crate at night. The last two nights he has not cried once. First 5 nights he howled and cried for an hour in the crate before settling. So at least there is progress there. I put him in the crate during the day when I am in the room with him and he is fine. Will cry for a short amount when I leave the room but then settles. I only have him over a week yet so maybe it will take more time. I feel bad leaving him in the crate most of the day when I am there. But I guess if I walk him enough he should be ok.

I am looking at getting a dog behaviourist involved but I am afraid it is going to be very expensive and I am not sure I can afford it. But I defiantely won;t be giving him back as he is the nicest dog ever. The crying just frustrates me.

Izzy every dog is different and does it for different reasons. In my house I have one boy who I got when he was already almost a yr old. He is a very dependant doggie. He is that bad that no one else exists! when I have him out for showing he wont even look at anyone else,sniff,interact with anyone else at all he is focused on me 100%. No one else can lead him if I am there he will scream the place down. If I am not in view he stresses lookinf for me. At home he goes crazy over reaction when greeting i ignore him and he is better but still giddy. improving all the time. he is just like that because he was separated from his previous owners so we understand his mad ways:))  I also have a dog who we got from pup she was codependant on another do we have. So separation and separate walking time was needed,,,,alot of time goes into these doggies!! Keep up the work do what you can to improve his stress.

Hi Izzy,
I really think you need to give your dog time to settle in. You have only had him a week and he has come from rescue so the poor dog has been pushed from pillar to post. Sending him somewhere else for a few days will not help he wont know whats going on and needs to realise that he is in his forever home. Just be consistant and give him a few weeks to settle in.

I had a foster dog who had very bad detachment anxiety also.  Don't give up some dogs are just mourning their past and getting used to what is new.  My dog took a while as his owner had died and he used to sit on his knee all day and sleep in his bed at night.  He followed me everywhere even stood outside the shower! In our house he had to sleep in the kitchen and he didn't like it one bit (even though he had company with my other dog).  He cried for at least 2-3 hours every night the first week when we left him - it was like having a new born baby we couldn't even go to the toilet or he would start all over again.  We now know what its like to be crate trained - we were afraid to move for fear he would start crying again.  After the first week we were exhausted but as long as he knew we were always going to be back he eventually settled.  Some dogs are drama queens as well but unfortunately we can't tell tantrums from distress until we know the dog properly.  Keep up the good work and you will get some quiet time eventually.  All he needs is to feel loved and safe.

I'm sorry, I just think it's weird that you are leaving him in your parents house so soon after rescuing him, I would agree and echo what Woulfe said. Very confusing for the dog. Andrea's advice above would have been sufficient in helping with the separation anxiety etc. leaving him with other people for long periods of time is just not really necessary. Best of luck anyway.

hard any beagle I haver ever seen is head down tail up! My brothers dog is a springer boxer and you are lucky to see her head up at all when she is out, she is determined to follow scent. somtimes she goes into a scent trance! thats the only way i can describe it. nothing NOTHING gets her attention,,,then when the intrest has goneits like a flick of a switch and she knows she has done wrong but its selective hearing !

Yeah I was told that he was ckc/jr cross by the rehoming place but to me he looks more like a ckc/beagle.