During my time as a professional dog trainer, one of the most common challenges I have helped people with is separation anxiety in dogs. It’s one of the most mentally and emotionally draining hurdles that someone can work through. If you’re like me, and most people I work with, seeing our dogs stressed out or upset or scared is incredibly difficult. My dogs are my family, and I love them more than most things in my life! To see them in such emotional distress is not on my top ten list. There is no way around it, separation anxiety is brutal. And, in most cases working through it is just as tough because it takes TIME - more time than people think. It also takes an insane amount of patience and consistency, not to mention building up our emotional wall so we can push through and get our dog into a better state of mind. What is separation anxiety in dogs? So what is separation anxiety and why is it such a monster to deal with? Think of it this way, your dog has developed such an attachment to you or such a fear of being alone or confined that they become irrational and their fight or flight instincts kick in where the only answer is to escape or otherwise face their impending doom… Doesn’t sound too fun right? When our dogs enter such a state they are basically on another planet mentally. Of course, there are different levels of separation anxiety, it isn’t always immediately a huge freak-out, but if left untreated it can and most likely will escalate to that. Some of the most common signs of separation anxiety are as follows: Excessive panting Continual lip licking Sweaty paws Pacing “Whale-eye” Timid body language Excessive barking/whining Destruction These are just a few signs of separation anxiety, but they also could be reactions from something else so we need to assess the entire situation before deciding what is causing the behavior. When a dog is in an intense reaction you’ll oftentimes see a combination of multiple signs. This could be excessive panting with their tongues all the way extended, dripping saliva onto their paws, the ground around them saturating their fur and the space they are in. They go through barking fits accompanied with pacing back and forth in the kennel or room you keep them in and from there, with no relief in sight, they resort to an escape attempt. This is where separation anxiety becomes very dangerous. Dogs can and will do whatever they can to get out of the situation. How do we help Separation Anxiety in dogs? If you’re like most people the thought or sight of your dog losing their mind because they are so scared or stressed is something you’d like to avoid at all costs. As with most behavioral challenges with dogs, there are things we can do to help prevent the issue or reshape and eliminate the reaction. One of the biggest things you can do if you have a new puppy is to leave them alone. That’s right! I said it… Leave your adorable little puppy alone in a safe space for a very short amount of time. I’m talking like stepping into another room and then returning a few moments later, amount of time. The idea here is that we want our puppy to start to learn that just because we leave them alone, it’s not the end of the world. The key here though is to always wait until your puppy is quiet before you go back in! The last thing you want to do is teach them that being boisterous and barky will get you to return. This is a similar concept as well for older dogs, or older dogs you may have rescued. If they are uncomfortable being alone we have to slowly expose them to that over a period of time. The idea is the same though, they need to learn that being alone is not a life or death scenario and they can and should be calm and relaxed. There is an exercise I like to do with people who are facing separation anxiety with their dogs that helps to keep the dog engaged and become more used to the idea of their human stepping away. Here’s the outline: Place your dog in a stay Walk away from your dog without making a big fuss. In the beginning, stay close to them. After a few moments have passed and your dog has not broken their stay, walk back to them and calmly give them a treat. Walk away again and repeat! Slowly increase your distance and duration over time to the point where you can step out of sight without your dog becoming anxious or breaking their stay. Now you might think this is just a place-stay exercise. To a degree it is, but the focus behind this is to show your dog that when they stay put and don’t make a fuss or begin to whine or stress out that is the behavior you are looking for and they’ll be rewarded. We want our dogs to become used to the sight and sound of us walking away from them, leaving them alone. This is just one exercise, and it may or may not work for your dog because as with all things dog training, there is no cookie-cutter approach! You may have to try different variations of the idea or something completely different to start to get results, but the goal behind it is the same. You might not see improvement in your dog’s behavior for some time. You also could have some really good days in a row, start to think things are getting better, and then out of nowhere your dog reverts into their typical freak-out self. That can be an incredibly disheartening moment, but take a breath and evaluate. When we are working on behavior improvements with our dog, your dog may experience something that’s called an “extinction burst.” This is where their behavior gets really bad, sometimes worse than it was before. When this happens, you don’t cave or give up! You have to stay consistent and committed to your process and work through it. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and that light is your dog’s bad behavior going extinct. It is not an easy thing to deal with, especially when it’s based around separation anxiety. Be patient with yourself, be patient with your dog. Try to understand the scenario from the dog’s perspective. Start with baby steps, then slowly increase those over time. And if it’s just too much for you, get help from a professional dog trainer.

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