Separation Anxiety In Dogs
| Are You Sick & Tired of Do you wish that there was a simple way of house training a puppy quickly and easily? |
The Causes of Dog Separation Anxiety
Dogs are pack animals. They feel an immediate attachment to their masters and once you leave your house, they will grow distressed. However, much of the anxiety they feel is due to the attachment of certain actions you take to your absence. While a dog does not like after you leave, there is no direct reason they should grow so agitated.
It happens because you provide them with attention before and after you walk out or you go through the same process every morning. Their behaviors are reinforced on a daily basis and the result is a dog that cannot control his anxious feelings when you leave the house.
Reducing Dog Separation Anxiety
There are many ways to reduce the stress and anxiety your pet dog feels after you leave your house. Here are a few of the easiest methods.
Change Your Process – Start by switching your morning routine. If your pet starts behaving odd the second your alarm goes off, they’ve tagged that sound to the whole process of you leaving your house. Get up at different times, get dressed earlier, take your keys down before you leave and wait for a while. Little variations will reduce pre-leaving stress and anxiety.
Don’t Reinforce It – Once you pet your pet before you walk out or lavish them with attention once you get home, you’re only reinforcing the behaviour. The easiest way to reduce dog separation stress and anxiety is to remove the association between you’re comings and goings and their attention. Ignore your dog for 10-15 minutes after you get home, never pet them when you walk out and stop giving in when they make sad noises. This can be practiced with crate training or putting them in a separate room in your house then leaving and coming back in intervals.
Building Up to Longer Times – If your pet dog grows anxious the second you walk out of the door, start working on going out of the house for shorter periods of time. Leave for a few seconds and then come back. Dog separation stress and anxiety can be treated by changing the dog’s expectations for how long you’ll be gone and when you’ll return. If they see you are coming back each time, you can stretch out how long you are able to leave each time.
You’re Not Being Nasty
Lots of people feel that the solutions to anxiety are cruel to the dog. In reality, you are helping your pet dog to relax and know that you are not only coming home but that you are in charge of the domain and there is no reason for them to feel that anxiety. Reduced dog separation stress and anxiety is good for their health – both physical and mental.
If your pet has prolonged, severe stress and anxiety problems, it is important to address it right away. Even if your pet merely gets upset and doesn’t destroy anything after you walk out, you can greatly reduce their feelings of abandonment if you teach them not to associate your comings and goings with the pack order and their survival.
Learn more about dogs behavior problems. Stop by Annette Lode’s site where you can find out all about what it can do for you.
September 14th, 2010 at 11:05 am
If you come home and your puppy greets you with a ton of anxiety, freaking out as if they’ve not seen you for a year, simply ignore them. Settle into the house and get yourself comfortable for several minutes before you bother to greet your dog. If, on the other hand, your dog begins to shed these habits of anxiety, reward that. Don’t resort to medication lightly. Even if your puppy’s case of separation anxiety is severe, try to deal with it through active training processes for at least a couple of months before considering medication.
September 16th, 2010 at 5:36 am
Get your dog used to your getting-ready-to-leave cues, like picking up keys and jacket. Go through these actions repeatedly during the time when you’re staying home, without actually leaving. If your dog has already learned to associate his fears with your departure cues, it will take a lot of repetitions before the dog will get it. Try to make interactions with your dog on your terms, not his. You pet him, treat him, or play with him when you want, and not when he asks for it.
September 18th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
The first thing to keep in mind is that the amount of time you’ll need to devote to helping your puppy overcome separation anxiety, depends on the amount of stress your puppy experiences. Make sure that, whenever you are away from your puppy, he has everything he needs (aside from you) in order to be comfortable. For example, bedding, food, water, and possibly even entertainment. On the flip side, if you’re giving your puppy plenty of exercise and play before you leave the house, they’re going to be both contented and tired when you leave. This will drastically reduce the risk of misbehavior as a result of your absence.
September 20th, 2010 at 11:55 am
Give your puppy the biggest meal of the day just as you’re getting ready to leave. Filling their belly will naturally cause a high degree of comfort. As it becomes habit-forming, they’ll begin to associate being well-fed and comfortable with your leaving, helping reduce the habit-forming nature of gaining stress when you leave. (Of course, keep in mind that puppies have to go to the bathroom about 10-20 minutes after eating.)
September 20th, 2010 at 11:57 am
Make sure that you use crate training. If you find yourself needing to confine your puppy, this will make them comfortable inside their personal space. This way, if your puppy starts showing destructive behaviors due to separation anxiety, then putting them in a crate won’t add to that stress and may somewhat reduce it. It’s very important, however, that, if your puppy has not been properly crate-trained, then stuffing them into a box while you’re away from home is going to make it worse.
December 20th, 2010 at 3:50 am
My dog often experience separation anxiety, when i leave out for 2-3 days, it becomes difficult to handle my dog for my gf. The reason i heard is they feel alone or something. The best advice is to not keep them so alone or should have a partner. Dogs are so emotional compared to humans!!