More About Canine Separation Anxiety How to Take Back Your Control

If your dog has canine separation anxiety you can never know enough about separation anxiety in dogs. If you have a dog that meets some of the separation anxiety signs shown below then please read “More about Canine Separation Anxiety – How to take back your control.”

Canine separation anxiety is a subject I deal with every day since my website provides an answer to parents of dogs with separation anxiety. We provide the strongest heavy duty dog crates available anywhere. Is this the solution, not really. It is a management tool so you can stop the property damage, relax while at work knowing your sweet dog isn’t destroying your home and, you will be preventing damage to the dog while all the while providing a Den for your dog to hopefully relax in safety.

Here is an article from the Seattle Humane Society with tips on what you can do to help solve your dog’s separation anxiety. These are all really great tips and about all you can do at home by yourself.

Seattle Humane’s Pet Tips: How to Handle Separation Anxiety in Dogs

How to Handle Separation Anxiety in Dogs:

The term separation anxiety in dogs is a term to describe the stress and anxiousness in a dog brought on by separation from the primary pet caretaker. Separation Anxiety can vary from mild to severe.

Mild to Moderate Separation Anxiety

For mild cases of separation anxiety, don’t make a big deal out of arrivals and departures. For example, when you arrive home, ignore your dog for the first few minutes then calmly pet him.

For moderate separation anxiety:

• Practice leaving without opening the door. Put on your shoes, pick up your keys, and walk to the door, but don’t leave. Do this a few times per day for weeks or months to quell your dog’s anxiety.

• Walk into closets and close the door behind you. Wait one minute and then reappear.

• Exit via an outside door that you normally don’t leave through. Wait one minute and then walk back in. If your dog doesn’t appear anxious, add time if the dog continues to be comfortable with it.

• Start working on walking out the main door and returning after a short period of time. Again, gradually increase the time according to how your dog handles it. Practice as many absences as possible that last less than 10 minutes.

Additional tips to improve your chances of success:

• Make sure your dog gets plenty of exercise. Being physically tired will help him relax.
• Provide a Kong toy stuffed with treats before practicing the leaving-and returning exercises. • Ignore the dog before and during the exercises.
• Provide background noise (the radio or television) during the exercises. The background sounds may provide a reassuring cue that you will return soon. You can also use a word as a cue. Say the words (“I’ll be back” or “Later”) every time you exit.
• Keep your arrivals and departures as quiet and calm as possible. Don’t indulge in long goodbyes or excited greetings.

Severe Separation Anxiety

Use the techniques outlined above. Teach your dog the sit-stay and down-stay commands using positive reinforcement. This training will help him learn that he can remain calm and happy in one place while you go to another room.

Create a “safe place” to limit your dog’s ability to be destructive. A safe place should:

• Confine loosely rather than strictly (a room with a window and distractions rather than total isolation)
• Contain busy toys for distraction such as a Kong or Buster Cube.
• Take your dog to a doggie day care facility or kennel when you have to be away.
• Leave your dog with a friend, family member, or neighbor when you’re away.

Remember that punishment is not effective for treating separation anxiety and can make the situation worse. The destruction and house soiling that often occur with separation anxiety aren’t your dog’s revenge for being left alone; they’re part of a panic response.

Written by: joyce_zoldak

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I find that most separation anxiety in dogs presents in rescue dogs. One day I will find a writing from an expert explaining that. If you have a dog with separation anxiety please do consider a heavy duty dog crate. Take control of the situation. Please do this before you buy your second or third wire dog crate. Wire dog crates will usually not hold a separation anxiety dog. You are p

utting your dog in danger allowing him to chew his way out of a wire dog crate.

FYI:  Heavy Duty Dog Crate also work well for dogs with noise phobia. At the notice of an oncoming storm just put your noise phobia dog in his den (heavy duty dog crate) with a covering over it so he or she will feel safe.

One comment on the post above regarding leaving a separation anxiety dog:  “Confine loosely rather than strictly (a room with a window and distractions rather than total isolation).” Based on the many stories I’ve heard from separation anxiety dog parents if you choose to leave a dog alone in a room he may decide to go through the window or chew or scratch through the door depending on the severity of the canine separation anxiety.

In reading this post: More About Canine Separation Anxiety How to Take Back Your Control – I hope you have found something to help you with your dog’s separation anxiety or a dog belonging to a friend. They need all the help they can get. Check with a dog trainer to help with ongoing treatment and training for your dogs’ separation anxiety.