Ways to Help Your Dog Cope with Separation Anxiety

There is much truth to the phrase absence does make the heart grow fonder, or in a dogs case his belly. We are all familiar with those sad puppy eyes and the whines that tug at your heart saying “Please don’t leave” which can be a challenge. It’s no fun to leave for work in the morning and hear your dog barking and howling in misery as you drive away. Remember that dogs are relational and love to be with their loved ones all the time. But with work and errands this is not possible. Hmmm…if only you could get paid to stay at home with your dog.

It’s even less fun to come home and find that your dog has gone on a chewing & destroying spree. To your surprise with his insatiable appetite he has managed to tear up papers, eat your home work and gnaw your coffee table. Instead of sending you a Hallmark card to say “I missed you” your dog has opted to use his design eye to redecorate your home by digging a hole in your couch and de-stuffing pillows. With missing you and having extra time on his paws, your dog can get in a lot of mischief only to leave your home looking like a frat house.

Besides, indulging in the occasional comfort snack or box of pop tarts your dog can exhibit other coping behaviors. Your dog may bark, cry, dig, chew, scratch at doors, howl or leave the occasional surprise soil on your beautiful hardwood floor.

But don’t be discouraged there are a few things you can do to help your dog’s separation anxiety:

1. Keep arrivals and departures low-key- This is the hardest thing for any loving parent to do but does work. When you arrive home, ignore your dog for the first few minutes, then calmly pet him. This may be hard for you to do, but it’s important to train your dog to remain calm and collective.

2. Distract your dog from whining, pacing, and reeking havoc on your home by giving them a new outlet.Give your dog a fun eco-toy to occupy his time. Toys with treat spots are perfect because times flies when you are having fun.

3.

Leave your dog with an article of clothing that smells like you—such as an old t-shirt that you’ve slept in recently, but one that you don’t mind being possibly chewed or torn.

4. Turn on the tv or radio to a soothing station truly helps any dog to relax. When you leave, put the radio on to a soothing station: classical music is ideal, but any station featuring lots of talk shows is also ideal. Keep the volume quite low, and it’ll calm him down a bit and give him the feeling that he’s got company.

Lola the eco dog loves catching up on the Food Network or Animal Planet.

5. Exercise your dog- If you are going to gone for a long time tiring your dog out will help him sleep while you are away. A good vigorous 15-20 minute walk can really help so enlist the help of a dog walker for mid-day strolls.

6. Get him accustom to you leaving- Try this out!! Taking things nice and slowly, practice getting ready to go: jingle your keys about, put on your coat, and open the door. Then – without leaving! – sit back down and don’t go anywhere. Do this until he’s not reacting any more. When there’s no reaction, give him a treat and lavish praise for being so brave. Next, practice actually walking out the door (and returning immediately), again doing this until there’s no reaction. Gradually work up – gradually being the operative word here! – until you’re able to leave the house with no signs of stress from him.

**Important - Never reward you dogs crying and whining by saying “Its okay, good boy !” this only makes things worse. Although this may sounds mean patting and cooing your dog only makes the situation worse and reinforces the behavior.

But if all else fails you can also try Spot Organics Chill Essential Oil which helps calm and relax any restless dog. Great for separation anxiety, during trips to the vet, training sessions, during storms, family gatherings or parties, or any situation where calming might be needed. Take it from a pet owner whose dog has had her share of whines and tantrums, this product works wonders!!

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www.pawlux.com for eco-friendly, all natural & organic goodies for your furry family member & travel buddy. We carry a great selection of Odor Free Bully Sticks / Dog Treats / and Dog Toys !

Help! I think my Dog has separation anxiety!!

Written by: Sam Kabbel, CPDT-KA, President, Pet Behavior Solutions

Newly adopted pets may be more prone to adjustment issues in their new home.Often times newly adopted dogs attach quickly to their humans as their source of security while they are negotiating the environment and learning the routine.With most dogs, they adjust quite readily but in some cases, they can become anxious and inconsolable when their owners leave.This article is designed to help you identify whether or not your dog may have separation anxiety.It will give you some general guidelines to help your dog adjust and tolerate being separated from you.

What is Separation Anxiety?

Separation anxiety describes dogs that are overly attached or dependent on family members.They become extremely anxious and show distress behaviors of vocalization, destruction, house-soiling, or inactivity when separated from the owners.Most dogs with separation anxiety try to remain close to their owners and become increasingly anxious the greater the separation.They may follow the owners from room to room and begin to display signs of anxiety as soon as the owners prepare to leave.Some of these dogs crave a great deal of physical contact and attention from their owners and can be demanding.During departures or separations they may begin to salivate or pant profusely, vocalize, eliminate, refuse to eat, become destructive, or become quiet and withdrawn.Most often these behaviors occur within about 30 minutes of the owner’s departure.While typically the behavior occurs each and every time the owner leaves, it can only happen on selected departures, such as work-day departures, or when the owner leaves again after coming home from work.

Many dogs enjoy chewing and engage in the behavior when they have nothing better to keep them occupied.House-soiling may be due to medical problems, leaving the dog alone for longer than he can control his bladder, or inadequate house-training.Vocalization may be due to territorial intrusion by strangers or other animals and can be a rewarded behavior if the dog receives any form of attention when he vocalizes or rewarded by the stimulus leaving.Some dogs will attempt to escape or become extremely anxious when confined, so that destructiveness or house-soiling when a dog is locked up in a crate, basement, or laundry room, may be due to confinement or barrier anxiety and associated attempts at escape.In addition, noise phobias such as a thunderstorm that passes through during the owner’s absence, may lead to marked destructiveness, house-soiling, salivation, and vocalization.

What can I do immediately to prevent damage?

This is an extremely difficult question.The goal of treatment is to reduce your dog’s level of anxiety by training him to feel comfortable in your absence.This can be a long intensive process.Yet, most owners will need to deal with the damage or vocalization immediately.During initial retraining it may be best to hire a dog sitter, take the dog to work, find a friend to care for the dog for the day, board the dog for the day, or arrange to take some time off from work to retrain the dog.Crate training or dog proofing techniques may work especially for those dogs that already have an area where they are used to being confined.Crates should be used with caution however with dogs that have separation anxiety and/or also have barrier frustrations because they can severely injure themselves attempting to get out of a crate.

What should be done prior to departures?

Before any lengthy departure, provide a vigorous session of play and exercise.This not only helps to reduce some of the dog’s energy and tire him out, but also provides a period of attention.A brief training session can also be a productive way to further interact and “work” with your dog.For the final 15-30 minutes prior to departure, the dog should be ignored. The key is to avoid as many of the departure signals as possible, so that the dog’s anxiety doesn’t heighten, even before the owner leaves.Brushing teeth, changing into work clothes, or collecting keys, purse, or briefcase are all routines that might be able to be performed out of sight of the dog.As you depart, the dog should be kept busy and occupied, and preferably out of sight, so that there is little or no anxiety.Giving favored treats and food for departure times (and taking them away when you are at home) can help keep the dog distracted and perhaps “enjoying himself” while you leave.Dogs that are highly stimulated by food may become so intensively occupied in a peanut butter or dog food stuffed dog toy, a new chew bone, or some frozen dog treats, that they may not even notice you leave.Be certain that the distraction devices last as long as possible so that the dog continues to occupy his time until you are “long gone”.Frozen treats placed in the dog’s food bowl, toys that are tightly stuffed with goodies, toys that are designed to require manipulation and work to obtain the food reward, toys that can maintain lengthy chewing, and timed feeders that open throughout the day are a few suggestions. Naturally, food will not be effective for dogs that will not eat when the owner is preparing to leave.If you have multiple dogs, you should take caution about competitive situations with food and treats.

What should I do when I come home?

At homecomings, ignore your dog until he calms and settles down.Take this time to get changed, check your e-mail or read your mail.When he has calmed from his initial reaction, then you may calmly greet him.Exuberant greetings or any type of punishment for misbehavior will only serve to heighten the dog’s anxiety surrounding homecomings.

None of this is helping, what should I do?

Sometimes, a dog’s anxiety is so severe that none of these things work.If this is the case, you should contact Pet Behavior Solutions or another behavior expert, or your veterinarian.You will likely need a systematic protocol to desensitize your dog to departures and separation from you. These protocols will contain exercises designed to teach your dog to relax and accept longer periods of separation from you.These protocols should be specifically designed for your family, environment, routine, and your dog.Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions at all.I can be reached at sam@petbehaviorsolutions.com or at 602-324-8948.

Separation Anxiety Help

As some of you may know, I did a DVD on separation anxiety. However, when I tell this to a lot of trainers they tend to flip their hand at me and say, “Yeah, yeah, I already know how to deal with that.” What they think I have done is put into one video the techniques that many people have used over the years to deal with this issue. What I actually did with the video was to use it to introduce two new techniques for resolving separation anxiety. My video does not include the use of drugs or calming agents, nor do I simply explain how to use a distraction device such as a kong. Although I have two illustrated two different ways to desensitize the dog to leaving cues, that are not the unique information this video has to offer.
    I made the video because I discovered two completely new training techniques to teach a dog to learn to calmly accept being alone. The first one is called the “I’ll be Back” technique, and the second one doesn’t have a title but was used on a more severe case that solved the dog’s issues.
    With the I’ll be Back” technique, the dog learns incrementally to relax about you leaving the dog. I started with a short distance and short period of time, and slowly increased until the dog got past that golden fifteen minutes where dogs are documented to do their most damage when stress due to separation anxiety. I’ve had a lot of feedback from people who have used this technique about how well it worked.
    I’d had the question asked by people using my video if the “I’ll be Back” technique shown on my video can “only” be trained over a weekend. Pacing the training over a weekend is done to allow for the quickest change in behavior. But, the process can also be done over several days and I have trained it this way. The key is to progress through each stage at the dog’s
pace. Once the dog graduates, people can practice over the next few weeks to secure the new habit, that of being calm when left alone.
    People who have done a lot of work with separation anxiety will agree that insecurity in a dog is at the root of most separation anxiety problems. Dog owners, although often unintentional, can interact in the wrong ways with a dog and actually encourage or even create separation
anxiety problems. For that reason, I added material on those kinds of human behaviors in the first section, and in the troubleshooting guide. I also tried to emphasize that allowing dogs to perpetuate certain habits, such as clinging to their owner when the owner is home, can set up a dog for separation anxiety issues.
    In the last segment of this video, I shared my second new technique which I had to use on a mill dog rescue to help her with separation anxiety. This dog had not yet learned to trust people, so she really didn’t care if I left her, but she would absolutely panic if I took her companion dog out of the pen. This kind of a  technique can be adapted by trainers when working with a dog who does not have a relationship with the trainer. The “I’ll be Back” technique is more intended for people who have basic training in a dog.

I’d like to invite you to read my new blog series on separation anxiety. This series will begin on July 18th, 2013

More at www.peggyswager.com
DVD: “Separation Anxiety, a Weekend Technique”
http://youtu.be/mqNl2-uywC8
Books: “Training the Hard to Train Dog” and “how to start a Home-based Dog Training Business”
Other YouTube videos: search Peggy Swager for my channel.

Separation Anxiety in Dogs – Get Help with Calming Care for Dog Anxiety and Stress

Separation anxiety is a very common behavioral problem in dogs. It comes about because the dog fears or dislikes isolation. This causes him to engage in undesirable behaviors such as excess barking or whining, inappropriate urination or defecation, destructive behaviors or hyperactivity. Typically these dogs engage in these undesirable behaviors while the owners are gone and then have an excessive and prolonged greeting when the owner returns.

What causes separation anxiety? Sometimes it is caused by trauma in a young dog’s life. Dogs that are separated from their mothers too early or are abandoned and raised in cages in animal shelters or pet stores, never form proper attachments with their mothers. In an older dog a similar condition can occur if the person to whom the dog is attached to leaves permanently or temporarily, or if there is a lifestyle change where an owner goes back to work or where a new family member is added. These poor dogs then start to show abnormal or inappropriate behavior.

Destructive behavior such as barking and chewing is the most common behavior displayed by these dogs, but other “bad” behaviors are also seen. Some dogs sense that the owner is going to leave and become anxious even before the owner leaves. This anxiety peaks about 30 minutes after the owner leaves and this is when the most destructive behavior usually occurs.

What do you do if your dog shows signs of separation anxiety? Behavioral modification involving planned departures is recommended. The dog is initially left alone for only very short intervals to get him accustomed to being alone. The time left alone is gradually built up to 1.5 hours. Departure and return should be as quiet as possible to avoid anxiety in the dog.

Insure that your dog gets enough exercise as dogs who get more exercise have less anxiety. If the dog is more confident in what he can do ( such as herd sheep, or run agility) he will be less dependent on his owner and the anxiety will decrease, so a “dog job” is a great idea.

Conventional anti-anxiety medications can be prescribed for these dogs to help them adjust. I usually like natural treatments such as Dog Appeasing Pheromone sprays or collars, L-theanine, Melatonin or Belladonna and Herbal Calmers. One such calmer is Calming Care for Dog Anxiety and Stress ( Link is here: http://www.petwellbeing.com/products/calming-care-for-dog-anxiety-and-stress).

Prevention of separation anxiety is key when raising a puppy. When a puppy or new dog is brought into the house it is important to avoid situations which will encourage excessive attachments. All puppies should be crate trained and taught the crate is a safe haven and a good place to go, never a punishment. Good diets with quality homemade products help these dogs as well because some dogs are very sensitive to additives and preservatives in commercial foods and these can cause hyperactivity.

HAVE YOU USED ANY NATURAL TREATMENTS FOR ANXIETY?

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