Home alone

Question
About two months ago my wife and I adopted a 2 year old Boston Terrier.  Both of us work 8-5 jobs M-F.  Initially, we were concerned about separation anxiety but that doesn't seem to be a problem.  Although it's obvious (sometimes more than others) that he hates it when we leave, he's well behaved while we're gone.  However, there are two things I'm concerned about.

When we arrive home, his favorite toys that we've placed out are exactly where we left them.  He also doesn't seem to eat much (if any) while we're gone.  But when we get home he goes completely bonkers and immediately runs to grab his toy.  He jumps up at us and paws at our legs.  It's not just that he's excited, he go's completely mad!  He sprints and spins around the house and it takes him about a half hour to calm down.  It seems like he can't even control himself.

Basically my questions are, A. Should I be worried that he's basically depressed during the day?  And B. How can I calm him down for when we arrive home?  We are already making our departures and arrivals very low key.

I know this isn't really a serious problem, I'm just trying to make sure he's happy while we're gone, and doesn't freak out when we arrive home.  We would appreciate any feedback.  Thank you very much!

Answer
Hi Todd,

Congratulations on your new addition. Let me put your mind at ease, your dog is completely normal. My own dogs don't play when we aren't home either. They sleep. Life is apparently very boring without us. Although we don't leave food out for our dogs (we do not believe in free feeding so our dogs eat twice a day at designated times) we do leave them water. And they almost never drink it very much. I think they know they can't go out until we come home so they don't want to fill up their bladders!

Your dog's greeting is perfectly normal; mine go bonkers when we come home too and run and grab toys to play with us! Wouldn't it be horrible if they didn't care at all when we arrived back home? We send all our out to the backyard when we come home and let them cool off out there for 5 minutes. Sometimes they are still excited when they come in but we also keep it low key for the most part. Sometimes we'll take them out and engage them in some ball play to get the excitement over more quickly.

So it doesn't sound to me like your dog is depressed at all during the day although you could use well-stuffed kongs and interactive games for him to keep  him occupied for a little while during the day. He will most likely, however, interact with them as soon as you leave and then sleep most of the day while you are away. You can find these on the internet.

Hope this helps!

Jaz