Marian has had Charlie for a week now with VERY few problems.

The transition from me to her was better than I could have hoped for.

I'm currently breaking the bonds between Charlie and I as poor old Charlie has gone back to square one with his separation anxiety after moving to his new home.

I helped out being considerate to Marian's neighbours last week by bringing him back when he got upset being left alone but as you can imagine this was the WRONG thing to do but I didn't recognised the fact that Charlie had regressed in this department (well I guess I will know for next time).

So over the last couple of days or so Marian and I have been working together trying different tactics to help Charlie get back to the 2 hours that he could be left alone.

This has involved taped voices, music, tv, lights with very little improvement so we have definately stopped taking the softly softly approach with Charlie and have gone onto the full blown hard tactics of ignoring him on departure and arrival (which is VERY hard considering Charlie is a real sweetie). Marian is also trying to break his following her about the house traits by shutting doors between her and Charlie. As a result of our new tactics, Charlie is now NOT barking and howling as much as he was last week and we can see a real improvement over yesterday and today.

Charlie still has the odd bark and howl but there are more silences than noise sessions with him now. He has also got a bit of company in the ways of my black labrador Max to help him in the transition between homes.

The prognosis for being left alone for 2 hours again does now seem to be a real possibility soon.

I'm sure Marian will post progress reports of Charlie as soon as she is able but in the meantime I will keep you posted an any new developments.

Cheers
Katrina.