My dog shadows me everywhere. How to stop this?

Hi guys,
I would really appreciate any advice.

I have 2 years old male staffy, who follows me everywhere literally. Also he gets very distressed if I am not around; even if he is left with a member of the family in one room and I am in the other, he goes mental to get to me. This starts to get out of control. Could you please help.

Not much help I am afraid, but probably basics just leaving him for a few minutes then come back whilst gradually increasing the time.
Do you leave him with a kong or anything like that?   

Bless, how many people are there living with you in the home?

Yes Inez Maria. I do leave him kong, toys but he is not interested. I also have left him treats, which were there where I left it.

Its three of us Rachel - myself, my husband and 16 years old son.

Okay great, at the moment who walks/feeds/spends most time with him?

LOL I do. He is with me 24/7. Although the others do feed and walk him as well, but not as much as me.

There's your problem lovely!! You need to get him more dependent on the others if you can you need to share it out more, getting the others feeding and playing with him when you're not about, and building a positive association with them when you leave the room xx

It is so difficult. Judge goes happily for a walk with either of them, but in the house - totally different story. If I leave the room he goes into "see no one, hear no one" mode. Just sits and make these high pitch crying noises at the door. But thank you for your advise.  

Sounds like a bit of separation anxiety too! I'd start by changing the dynamics, get your son and partner to feed him every morning and evening to begin with, and don't freely give him attention whenever you or he wants it.. If he has two walks a day, have one with you and one with them. He'll start to look for it elsewhere which is where they can come in to provide it. Where does he sleep at the moment, is he ever left completely alone? And how old is he?

Have you tried walking back into the room and not acknowledging him? Take no notice of him and walking back out a few times? Slowly, as it's not a game. My boy Rolo is very much a Mummy's boy. But I don't encourage his behaviour. I walk around in/out and I ignore him, when I sit down he's welcome to sit with me.. but I don't talk to him or acknowledge him for 5 mins when I come home and if I'm doing something I ignore him. If he goes and lays down or just chills out, I will throw him a treat or a "Good boy". Good luck I hope something works for him.

sash will follow me around alot too,even to the loo   ,my hubby works long hours so i feed her and walk her the most,but when hubby comes home he takes over and becomes her play thing!when the rest of your family are around take a step back and let them walk/feed him   

Please have a read through the link below which gives some great advice on separation anxiety:

http://staffy-bull-terrier.com/separation_anxiety

Thank you all for your response. I am going to follow your advise and see how it goes.  

Rachel, usually he sleeps on his own in the kitchen and there is no problem. All I have to say is "go to bed" and off he goes (although he refuses to go if somebody else tells him); but this works only at evenings, he wouldn't do it during the day.
He just turn 2 start of January.

wow and i thought i had problems,my boss is the same,if i so much as move hes alover me as tho he does not want me to move,my partner says if i go out and hes in he just wonders round the house and wont settle.if im sat at the table he jumps up at me,runs upstairs to look for stuff to bring down,paces around,he just wants me to sit in the room so he can lay on me,he does not cry for me tho.and im the same,i feed him,i walk him,i basically do it all..lv him to bits tho but yes can get you down abit..id say the same as the others,get them more involved feeding and walking x

sasy_smile wrote:Thank you all for your response. I am going to follow your advise and see how it goes.  

Rachel, usually he sleeps on his own in the kitchen and there is no problem. All I have to say is "go to bed" and off he goes (although he refuses to go if somebody else tells him); but this works only at evenings, he wouldn't do it during the day.
He just turn 2 start of January.

Okay, that's good that he can stay alone at night. And is he okay being left alone when you're all out of the house? Perhaps get the others to start practising the bed time routine with him too! Do you have a crate? And if so, is he crate trained? If you can create a positive association with the crate and make it a little den for him to have some quiet time, you can slowly build up some time away from you during the day even if you aren't leaving the house. Even if you don't have a crate, you can send him to his "place" in a seperate room from you and leave him alone (initially only for a few minutes at a time) with a kong or toy and gradually build the time up while you get on with your business about the house. It sounds like he needs to build some confidence and take some leadership skills from you Biscuit was very clingy when I first took her home, and Max my current foster has a little seperation anxiety. Biscuit will happily go and sleep in another room now on her own, and Max tends to follow her lead, though will still whine if I go upstairs! It'll take time and patience but you will get there

Recently I was asking your advice on how to stop my dog following me everywhere. I followed your advice and let my son to do the feeding (although he was doing it from time to time). The first day was fine, but then the dog stopped eating. Now he wont eat unless I tell him go get your dinner and stay there. What am I doing wrong?  

Oh dear! How long did you last before you went to him when he wasn't eating?

He had nothing one whole day, next morning didn't had his breakfast and that night when he refused to eat again, I got a bit worried (I thought he is sick or something), so I just said to him go get your dinner and stayed there and he was straight to the bowl. So next morning was the same thing, went sniff and walked away. As soon as I walked in and said go get your dinner he was straight there. I just don't understand. In every other way he is a wonderful dog - good with people and dogs, follows commands, etc, just so attached to me. Although, I had a small victory- yesterday was the first time ever in two years I was on my own in the toilet and he was not crying, just lay outside the door.  

Sounds like his problem is quite severe, do you have the finances to afford a behaviourist coming to see you?

I was looking for one (just to inquire for prices and so on), but can't find any (we are based in N. Ireland). I was also told that a guy from the SBT club is pretty good with this type of issues and I am too meet him at the end of the month. I just didn't realised how badly Judge is attached to me.

It does sound like you guys need a major rebalance of your relationship, these problems don't come about by themselves and it is very possible to "over-love" dogs of certain temperaments. Each should be treated as an individual. Don't go with the dominance rituals, they're very outdated, but boundaries are a must and hopefully an expert can help you with this! A quick google search has brought up lots of behaviourists in Northern Ireland, are you just concerned about which one to choose?

Not very good reports on the ones I found Rachel (with similar problem to mine). There were also a few that I asked for recommendations and after that never heard of them, some I asked where did they study and what experience they had, again no replies. I find it difficult to know who is really a therapist and who has given themselves the title of one. But the majority of the ones that come up on searches deal with obedience training, aggression, barking. Not that many with experience in anxiety tho.