New Dog Owner - I have a few questions

So we're settling in with Maddy, and she's really coming into her personality - interacting with us, responding to her name, and ready to play! We adopted her from a rescue shelter on Saturday and it's been three days so far. I thought it was take a little longer after the adoption, but certainly not complaining at all.

Yesterday I left Maddy with my brother and my husband (she has major separation anxiety) while I went to the store. I came back 45 mins later, and she pulled my fleece pajama pants into her bed with her...I teared up just knowing how attached she is to me. My question is this: I spend a lot of time with Maddy since I work from home, will she get adjusted to my husband soon? Any helpful tips would be great.

My second question is this:
She's crate trained and housebroken, and spends a majority of the day between the crate and the bed just resting. Every 45 mins or so, she'll come over to me on the couch or bed, or in my office to just check in and I try to play with her, but she runs back to her bed to rest.

When I leave the room to go to the bathroom, she ends up peeing/piddling a tiny bit - I figure this is separation anxiety as well, but what do I do? I have to go to the bathroom! Should I bring her with me to the bathroom (I already leave the door open and talk to her while I'm in there), do I put her in the crate and close it for the 4 minutes? Or, do I do nothing and she'll eventually stop doing it once she's been with us a little longer?

Re: New Dog Owner - I have a few questions

Hmmmm - There is definitely some separation anxiety going on - not uncommon for the forst few days/weeks home.

As far as warming up to your DH - have HIM be the one to give her her meals (if possible), have HIM be the one to give treats, etc, this way she sees that going to him = a reward. I hope that made a little sense. We tried that with Lilly when we first got her home and it worked like a charm.

I would also suggest joining a breed-specific forum. I am on one strictly for Italian Greyhounds. It's a nice way to discuss particulars of the breed and have more of a baseline as to what "normal" behavior is for your specific breed (Havanese, right?)

I googled "havanese forums" and a whole bunch popped up

I probably wasn't much help - sorry

Re: New Dog Owner - I have a few questions

First off, congrats on getting a dog!!!! I can honestly say that owning my dog has been one of the BEST experiences of my life and hope that will be the case with you and Maddy!

In our case, I got Viva when I was still living with my parents and my dad is retired so he was with her all day. Still I found that she is most attached to me and grew attached to everyone else in the home and DH also (who didn't live with me, but saw her kinda often). I think since she's only been with you for 3 days, she may need more time to adjust. Also, I have found that my dog gets attached to people who "get attached" to her if you know what I mean... like people that love her genuinely and play with her, rub her head, etc. - those are the people she returns the love to. So I think as long as your DH shows her love, even though he doesn't see her as often or rather, for as long each day, as you do, that she will grow attached to him.

As for the peeing/separation anxiety, I'm not sure. My dog's sister (same litter) who lives with my brother/SIL/niece is a nervous pee-er and that hasn't really changed. When we first got both of our dogs, I picked them both up and my dog's sister got kinda nervous and peed on me just a little, lol! That was 3 years ago. For this Thanksgiving, they brought her over to my place since I was hosting and so she could play with my dog, and when she came in and saw all the people, she peed on my hardwood floor (meanwhile, she's 100% trained to go outside!). So if your dog is only peeing when you leave her for a minute, then I think with time that may go away, but if she's just a nervous pee-er, that I'm not sure about.

Maybe bring her into the bathroom with you and close the door? Then she will know you're not going anywhere... then again, she might get trained that way and then you'll be stuck with her always wanting to go into the bathroom with you... I don't have a good answer unfortunately...

Congrats again!!!

Re: New Dog Owner - I have a few questions

I rescued too, so I think there are a whole host of other issues. It's been since February when we brought Sarge home and we still see the separation anxiety and the need to make sure he is always RIGHTNEXTTOUSATALLTIMES

It'll definitely take time.

The only thing I'll say is that there are times we do put him in the crate so we can eat, go outside to do work, etc. etc. I don't view the crate as anything but his home, so I never feel bad about asking him to go in .

Sarge sees me as his BFF and my DH as the leader, for sure. He definitely listens to him more, gets more excited to see him...in general, he likes men more than women (chauvinist! )

Good luck!

Re: New Dog Owner - I have a few questions

Ladies - thank you so much for your feedback. You were very helpful, and I'm keeping an eye on her. I may just leave her in the crate while I go to the bathroom and see where that leads me. Eventually, she'll get more comfortable with me leaving and hope that I won't have to leave her locked up.

I do view her crate as her home/bed so I don't feel bad about it. Especially since she sleeps like an angel!

thanks for the tip about joining a Havanese forum - it's on my next to-do!