Dog Separation Anxiety

This kind of seperation anxiety can go both ways. Recently on vacation without my dog, I found myself anxious about how he was doing without me and missing him terribly when seeing other people with their dogs walking along the beach!

But this blog post is not going to cover human-dog separation anxiety, rather will explore the very real destruction caused by dog separation anxiety. Dogs can tear up a piece of furniture due to separation anxiety or destroy a whole room or rooms of your house. This is something to address early in your dog’s training.

The first thing to keep in mind is that dog crate training is not a cure for separation anxiety. You can only cure pet dog separation anxiety with counter-conditioning and desensitization procedures. Some of which are: not tolerating the behavior by looking the dog straight in the eyes and saying a short, firm NO. Never make departures too emotional; make it brief by patting your dog in the back a few times and then turning your back without making sorry faces or reassuring voice about its whining. If you need to use the crate, then do so; but be sure to return after 3 to 4 hours.

Dogs are very sensitive to your emotional feedback to their behavior; keep yourself in check when separating from your dog. Often times, I have given my dog an order upon leaving “keep the house safe” – “watch over kitty”… this seems to give his mind something to think about (?) or at the very least is a way of parting which isn’t laden in goodbyes.