Separation Anxiety
Train Your Pup provides the greater Dayton, OH area with an in-home dog training for separation anxiety, and will diagnose the root of the anxiety.
One common complaint by pet parents is that their dog becomes destructive when they leave the home. Even though this can indicate that your dog does not have appropriate house manners, it can also be symptoms that he or she may be a dog with separation anxiety problems.
If your dog exhibits a combination of the following behaviors, he or she could be suffering from separation anxiety:
- Digging and scratching at doors or windows when you leave.
- Destructive chewing of articles he or she would otherwise not touch.
- Howling, barking, and whining when left alone.
- Urination and defecation (even with otherwise house trained dogs).
- Your dog obsessively follows you from room to room whenever you’re home.
- Greeting behavior is excessively frantic.
- Negative behavior no matter the duration of time left alone.
- Distress, such as drooling and showing anxiety begins when you prepare to leave.
- Excessive drooling in the crate and crate destruction
Causes of Separation Anxiety
It’s not fully understood why some dogs suffer from separation anxiety and others don’t. But it is important to realize that the destructive behaviors are the result of a panic response. It is imperative that you recognize that your dog isn’t angry with you for leaving; he or she is simply displacing his or her stress.
Even though there is no definite cause of separation anxiety in dogs below are a few scenarios that could cause a dog to develop separation anxiety:
- Certain breeds are more susceptible: Bully Breeds, Weimaraners, Pointers, and German Shepherds.
- A dramatic change in the family’s routine; such as a child going to college or parent working out of the home.
- A dog suffers a traumatic event, such as time at a shelter, or any type of abuse.
- A change of environment, such as a new home or new family member; dog or human.
While some medications are helpful and recommended on a few occasions, Train Your Pup offers a permanent solution. Through progressive training and extensive confidence exercises, your dog will be able to spend time alone. While medications may be used during the early stages they will be gradually decreased, Train Your Pup does not believe in the use of medications unless ABSOLUTELY necessary and all other venues have been exhausted.
Each separation anxiety case is different, so each dog and family will require a different lesson plan and there is no time frame in which behavioral issues will subside.