Separation Anxiety is preventable. (Photo of a black and tan dog lying on a sofa.)
Your dog is used to you being home every day. She follows you to the washroom. She cries when you leave your apartment (even if you’re only going to the mailbox and back.) She paces and whines when you pick up your house keys or put on your jacket. She doesn’t CARE that someone else is still home — she wants you. Sound familiar?
Here are are three tips to help you be able to leave home knowing that your dog is safe.
EXERCISE - A tired dog will nap while you are out having lunch with your friends. The TYPE of exercise matters. Dogs need STRUCTURED exercise and they also need time to PLAY and EXPLORE. If you’re only taking them to the dog park and the rest of the time they are alone in your backyard, they are not receiving the type of exercise they need to be properly tired. To learn more about structured exercise, read this post: https://beyonddogtraining.ca/news/give-your-dog-a-break.
Play is only PART of what your dog needs on a daily basis (Photo of two dogs running on a beach.)
2. PRACTICE LIKE YOU PLAY - Forgive the sport reference, but I’ve been an athlete all my life. You need to practice leaving your dog alone multiple times before leaving them for a full 8 hour day. Your favourite soccer team doesn’t just show up and win the World Cup. There are STEPS to get to game-day. LOTS of steps. Be patient with yourself and your dog. Start small. Pick up your house keys and put them back down. Ignore your dog and go back to reading your book or watching a movie. Do this multiple times per day. Anything worth learning takes time. It’s worth it to have a dog who doesn’t jump through a window or injure himself trying to escape his crate.
A dog can get seriously injured when they attempt to escape from a dog crate. (Photo of a dog in a dog crate.)
3. BE CALM - This is the most overlooked way of being on planet Earth. If humans were calm when they left their dogs (and when they returned home) there wouldn’t BE any separation anxiety in dogs. Dogs are not BORN with separation anxiety.
Whether you’re preventing separation anxiety from ever occurring in your new puppy or rescue dog, or you need help overcoming this condition with your current dog — don’t be afraid to reach out for help.
I recently helped a young couple fix this issue over the phone. They had had a trainer come to their home and unfortunately made the problem worse. This trainer had one of them sit on the couch and the other one practice leaving the house. They were told to give their dog cookies while the other person left the house. The problem was that they weren’t coached on how to read their dog’s body language. They were feeding and rewarding an anxious, nervous, tense dog. Rewarding him for whining and carrying on.
I followed up with them two days later and the separation anxiety was fixed. They had struggled with separation anxiety long before the pandemic began and were super smart to want to prepare their dog for when they both went back to work after the pandemic ends.
Dogs can learn to be calm when left alone. All you need is the right teacher.
Have a wonderful weekend, Dog Leaders!
Alyssa
Photos by: Lydia Torrey (black and tan dog lying on sofa,) Mark Galer (two dogs running on a beach,) Hermes Rivera (dog in crate.)