5 steps to take if your dog has Separation Anxiety

You leave for work, and you give your dog a bone, tell him to be a good boy, walk out the door and go to work. An hour or so later you get a text from your building association saying that your neighbors are calling about a dog that is barking nonstop and you need to do something about it immediately. You leave work and go home to find that your dog is panting excessively, there are nose marks all over the window and you see that he had an accident on the couch sitting underneath the window.

This isn’t new to you; it’s been going on for some time but now your once reliably potty-trained pup has now pushed your limits, and this is the last straw. The neighbors' threats and homeowners' association calls have to stop. You feel the sudden urge to end all the stress about leaving your dog, but you have no idea how to do that!

There are others in your shoes who are also dealing with their dogs' Separation Anxiety and deciding that enough is enough! Separation anxiety is an actual panic disorder in which a dog experiences physiological stress symptoms (elevated heart rate, shortness of breath, trembling, nausea, drooling etc.…) and expresses physical stress behaviors (barking, pacing, chewing, climbing, escaping) to try and relieve the feeling of fear or panic. Just get it to stop!! That is what your dog is thinking however, I am sure it is what you are thinking also!

I am here to tell you that there is a cure for this and there are steps you can do today to start that path of recovery. Here are 5 things you need to do to prepare for training separation anxiety.

1. Stop leaving your dog alone. This does not mean you yourself have to be with your dog 24-7 however, part of working with separation issues is making sure your dog does not experience the panic over and over so NOT leaving them alone is pertinent. This requires help from friends and family, daycare and sitters, neighborhood people, or dog walkers. Find your village!

2. Establish a camera system for watching them when you do start practicing leaving again you can observe behavior as it happens. This may be as easy as setting up a zoom meeting with yourself via computer/phone, but you may want something easier with less setup involved each time.

3. Set up! Think about where your dog is kept. Crates and confinement tend to make these things worse, but you might not feel comfortable leaving your dog free to roam so you might want to try something like an x-pen or blocking off certain areas of your home and allowing your dog to remain in the center of the home.

4. Find time in your schedule to work on this. The protocol for working on this takes about 30 minutes a day and you should have 4-5 days a week dedicated to doing it. If you start blocking off time ahead of time in your calendar it will be easier to make that time in the future.

5. Love your dog! Know that there is an end in sight, that your dog doesn’t mean to be doing the things he does, he just can’t help it. Love him all the same.

Stay tuned for our next segment where I will be giving tips on determining if separation distress is something your dog is experiencing or maybe there are other things to consider!