23/02/2022
Separation anxiety is similar to having a panic attack. Thus please remember, it’s not your dog being mean to you or destroying things at home to show you’re a bad carer.
Phobia means that your dog perceives staying alone as a real danger, even though for us it might look irrational and illogical.
In the end you're coming back, right?
Before you jump into a training protocol, which of course is important in case of working with this behavior, focus on lowering the general stress level, by:
- providing the proper calming activities (which is definitely NOT ball chasing or crazy play in a dog park),
- changing the diet (preferably it should be diverse and natural in order to re-build the gut microbiota responsible not only for a good health but also for a calm and balanced behavior),
- learning the body language and how to respond to it accordingly so your dog feels heard and understood,
- make sure your dog sleeps around 16h a day in order to be fully regenerated and rested, as well as ready for new learning (include social sleep during the night, at least in your bedroom),
- providing on a daily basis good quality, natural chews in order to help your canine friend release emotional and physical tensions,
- analysing your own emotional state and thoughts regarding leaving your dog alone; how do YOU feel about it? Do you feel guilt, sadness, fear? Remember- your dog can "smell your emotions" due to changes which happen in your biochemistry.
Only then you can think about introducing the right training protocol which will teach the dog that staying home alone is actually not such a scary thing. Start with small steps and always work under the dog's threshold.
If you have a dog suffering from this condition, you can write me for more info :) Anyway, good luck with that and remember that it will rather take months not weeks to resolve this condition, thus patience is the key.
Lots of hugs to you! :)
PS I will soon share with you an amazing Holistic Booklet for Dog PAWrents which includes articles of 18 specialists from around the world. It's truly remarkable and you can receive it for FREE when it's finished :) I'm sooooo looking forward to sharing it with you!