What To Do About Your Dog's Separation Anxiety

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How To Break A Dog's Separation Anxiety?

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Dog Separation Anxiety Symptoms

How do you do your best to determine if your dog has separation anxiety well my experienced dogs with this issue will typically follow you around everywhere or wine or frantically bark when you're out of reach see excessive repetitive barking whining and pacing seems to have a way of calming many dogs when they're anxious they may also have some involuntary physiological responses like dilated pupils are drooling or panting or even sweaty paws for your paws sweaty no they may often attempt to break out of their confinement to concentrate their destructive chewing or digging a viewer at exits and windows and in extreme cases they don't really care if you leave a toy like this or a bone stuffed with peanut butter behind and you might notice increased rates of potty accidents too and it's even probable that many dogs are predisposed to separation anxiety.

Dog Separation Anxiety Training

I mean think about it we selectively bred them to interact just with us whether that be for companionship or for a working partnership and it's hard to fault our dogs for wanting to be with us all the time that probably means that you have a wonderful bond with them and that is so important understand though that just because your dog barks chews things or has potty accidents when you're away does not mean that he necessarily has separation anxiety that actually is very common with puppies but it's also a sign of anxiety with many dogs as well but for whatever reason he's anxious maybe he's looking for his dad maybe he's just more a majority of dogs who do these things they're just bored or if not properly house trained yet if your dog is under five months old much like puppy is over here your dog is probably meeting a lot of the symptoms that I've gone over so far but this is really normal for puppies and you want to do your best to avoid having them spend too much time alone at that age anyway a study in the Journal of the AVMA was designed to look at risk factors and behaviors associated with separation anxiety and had some pretty interesting results the study looked at records from the Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine behavior clinic of 400 dogs 200 of them had pre identified separation anxiety defined in this study as showing signs including destruction and appropriate elimination or excessive vocalization that occurred only when their person was absent and 200 control dogs.

Curing Dog Separation Anxiety Quickly

Dogs that acted hyper attached you know by following their people around excessively or starting to get anxious when they noticed a portrait cues like putting on shoes or getting keys and getting excessively excited to greet you upon return were significantly associated with separation anxiety many have wondered including myself if the dog being separated from their mom at a young age might contribute towards some having separation anxiety that hypothesis however was not supported by this study most often resolving separation anxiety comes down to making sure your dog is getting plenty of mental and physical stimulation along with preparing them for being alone ahead of time long term as most dogs mature and to our way of life they tend to get more comfortable when you leave them alone but if you want to speed up that process exercise them regularly a study in the journal PLoS ONE found that the largest environmental factor significantly associated with separation anxiety was the amount of daily exercise a dog received see if your dog has a serious physical outlet they're a lot more likely to just chill when you're gone giving your dog a proper outlet for their excess energy just before you leave them alone maybe all you need to do for immediate relief dogs are incredibly smart and they have a way of picking up on those very subtle cues that indicate that.

They're about to be left alone focus on identifying that first trigger that really Clues them in that you're getting ready to leave routine is underway once you identify these early cues you want to start to condition your dog to look forward to these events so instead of oh no you're leaving we want oh boy I get something I want I'm gonna pick these up jiggle them so we're trying to get him to associate the sound of the keys with getting a good tree drop them and look at it he's automatically looking at me so it looks like he's already starting to make that Association once you've done this exercise for a few minutes you might then want to start doing something that's a little more realistic maybe your keys are on your table like this yes it's important to do these when you're not completely focused on your dog so when you're just chilling out watching TV or whatever pick up the keys jingle them give your dog a treat now I'm gonna pick them up a little more realistically just toss them down you pick up your keys frequently when you're not actually going to leave and you provide a good consequence.

Dog Separation Anxiety Medication

Your dog isn't going to associate the keys with you leaving every time and so once they're getting that then you might pick up your keys walk towards the door and then just walk back over here right see sometimes you might do that it doesn't mean you're gonna leave every time these are the kind of exercises you do really early on in the training process that are very short-term and just start to give you a little bit of traction and even if your dog isn't anxious you should still do exercises just like this to keep these problems from arising in the first place maybe your dog tends to figure out that when you put on your jacket that you're about to go somewhere sometimes when I put on my jacket I just sit down and hang out this is how you get them feeling good about you picking up your keys or putting on your jacket or your shoe or whatever so if your dog associates your going to work routine with getting something great and you don't always leave then you're well on your way to reducing their anxiety.

Oh looks like you got a little anxious that time there so I left him alone a little bit too long I want to get back in there before that barking and that anxiety really rises to the surface since many dogs with separation anxiety especially the extreme separation anxiety
aren't gonna be very accepting of a bone even if it's filled with peanut butter when you leave you've got a condition your dog to like these ahead of time and the way to do that is to introduce this to them in moments when they are not anxious like right now and so you might do things like tickle the keys give them a bone one way to measure success is that he continues to engage with this bone while I'm out of the room for a moment oh no look at that isn't that interesting he stopped so that might be a sign that he's a little anxious because we know he loves that peanut butter inside there I'm gonna kind of spy on him so right there he's realized that I'm gone.

Dog Separation Anxiety Crate

I saw him glance up but that's all right he went right back to the bone so this is a sign that he's comfortable and he's content I'm gonna come back in before he starts barking and doing all those other things that dogs with separation anxiety do and let your dog enjoy the bone for short periods of time throughout the day and do this really often the next thing you'll want to do is get your dog really comfortable with spending some time alone in the area where you're gonna leave them when you do eventually leave but keep in mind dogs with extreme separation anxiety don't do very well and crates most of the time instead dog poop a part of your house where your dog can't really do any damage and where you can tolerate accidents put them in that area and then let them out before they become anxious that way they slowly get comfortable with being in that area and in the beginning you might just do this literally have them alone for seconds at a time see by easing your dog in to this whole idea of being alone we're trying to make it easier for them to accept us being gone for longer and longer periods of time to come back in gonna pick up the bone right here.

Hey you did a good job and I'm gonna put the bone up so now he's gonna look forward to that bone the next time it comes out hopefully they don't get me wrong this is easier said than done because you have to do these things consistently over a period of weeks for most dogs try to keep these home alone toys like this special so that your dog only has them when they're actually home alone or when you're doing training sessions like we're covering today now if your dog does destroy something while you're away or otherwise that's not their fault it's your job to control the environment so don't punish them for that your dog seems unusually anxious or this behavior is new you may want to talk to your vet about a potential underlying medical issue too don't rush and be prepared to take a step back as necessary only you are gonna know when the time is right to let your dog have the general run of the house.

This process can take a few months in some cases and you may never be able to completely cure your dog separation anxiety in extreme situations but you can almost certainly reduce it over time if you implement the tips we covered today in the meantime while you're working through this it's a good idea to find alternatives to leaving your dog alone like having a friend or relatives spend some time with your dog our sponsor Rover can make that very easy for you -what is your name gonna end up being tell me in the comments below what you think the best name would be teaching your dog everything they need to know about separation anxiety with your dog I'll have those links below good job puppy you did amazing see you guys in the next articel walk in a circle around me and keep doing it indefinitely start as smart.