Vital Pet Health

Amy Hatcher is one of the UKs leading dog behaviourists and obedience trainers.  Her years of experience and cutting edge techniques are the key to her success in tackling some of the nations naughtiest dogs.  She shares her experience amongst the Vital Pet health expert team.  In this article she gives top tips on how to tackle the surprisingly common problem of Separation Anxiety.

Separation Anxiety is when a dog displays any form of problem behaviour relating to being alone and distressed. It is alarmingly common but easily avoidable.

With a separation Anxiety it is better to ensure a problem does not develop than try to fix a dog that has already developed a negative association with being left. Starting off with a routine of ensuring your dog or puppy is left from the minute he or she arrives home will help develop your dogs understanding that lonliness and boredom are both normal and nothing to feel panicked about. Try to avoid getting into a strict routine with your dog as  this can be disastorous if one day you cannot manage the same routine. A dog or puppy needs to be left every day in the beginning. You can vary the duration from one minute to several hours. Try not to leave him or her for a predictable time as this too can cause an issue if you get stuck somewhere.

Always ensure you dog or puppy is tired before you leave. There is no point leaving a hyperactive dog or puppy on its own. This may result in a trashed room! Restrict your dog or puppy to either a crate or a room, don’t allow the entire house as this could cause your dog stress from patrolling round. It will also increase the chances of him or her finding something fun to eat or chew.

What to do if your dog or puppy already has a separation problem…

Firstly avoid leaving at a predictable time and behaving in a predictable way before you leave. This method is known as ‘reducing the trigger’ and is the process of desensitising your dog to the behaviour you would normally display before you leave your home. This includes picking up keys, putting shoes and coat on and anything else you do before you leave your dog. This needs to be done without the predictable outcome of leaving. Pick up your keys and coat then sit down and watch tv. This needs to be repeated as much as possible.

The next stage is to introduce your dog or puppy to being confined to your designated area even though you are in. Set the room or crate up as if you are going out. Make sure your dog or puppy is tired and then place him or her in the area. I always recommend leaving food related toys to help your dog settle. Don’t leave anything that will over excite your dog. The best I have found is a small Kong ( regardless of your dogs size) stuff with tuna in oil or spirngwater and freeze. You could also use cheese or peanut butter or tinned dog food inside the kong. Freezing helps prodivde a challenge for your dog to get the food out.

If when you are home you usually listen to the radio or have the TV on set this up in the same way for your dog. You could also pretend to go out the front or back door but stay in the house. It is crucial that your dog gets used to being left in the designated area or crate every day for a varying length of time. This prepares your dog for the first time you actually leave. Being alone in that room or crate should have become normal over the period of about 2 weeks depending on individual temperaments.

It is also much better for your dog if you leave the door open and use a tall babygate rather than actually shutting the door. To actually shut the door becomes a little bit final and can be claustrophobic for your dog.

Separation Anxiety is a distressing problem for both dog and owner. It can lead to a trashed house or a really unhappy dog. In my opinion there is nothing wrong with leaving your dog whilst you are out at work but this must be introduced slowly and your dog must still receive a breed appropriate amount of exercise.