Can You Really Deal With Dog Separation Anxiety?
Dog separation anxiety is probably one of the most common problems you can encounter with your dog. Dogs are very social animals heavily relying on companion, whether that be the companion of another dog or their human, for their happiness and health they need to engage in plenty social interaction.
In order to solve dog separation anxiety you will need to first understand this anxiety disorder that brings on a state of extreme panic in your dog. The main cause of the distress is the separation or isolation from their owner.
You can normally easily recognize the signs of this problem even though many people think their dog has just been naughty or is asking for attention after having been left alone. Also it is important to understand that some dogs dont mind as much while others go completely out of control.
Springer Spaniels, German Shephards, Airedales and similar dog breeds dont do very well when being left alone, so even before buying a dog you really need to look into the particular type of dog to ensure yourself your dog will be happy in your home.
Shelter dogs also have the fame of being dog separation anxiety prone, not because of their genes but because of the possible traumatic experiences they have been through before ending up in the shelter. Once they are taking in by a loving owner and start building trust it will become very hard for them to left home alone.
Another class of dogs with a higher risk of developing dog separation anxiety are the pups being taken away from their mother too early on in life. This is particularly common in the puppies you can buy in pet stores. They are separated well before the minimum age of 8 weeks and then left in cages waiting for their new owner to come along, which causes feeling of insecurity and anxiety.
So now that you know the particular case in which dog separation anxiety is more prevalent, lets look at why your dog can develop this behavior disorder.
The number one reason for your dog to develop anxiety is neglect. Now this might sound harsh but I am referring to the type of neglect like leaving your dog alone for longer periods of time without having him prepared properly for you absence. Your dog needs a lot of attention, love and company to become a happy and content pet.
Being left alone, your dog will start looking for you and when unable to find you or unable to get to you, all sorts of anxiety symptoms will appear.
Some signs are dogs becoming nervous the moment you are leaving the house (or even as soon as they notice you are preparing to go) and in the extreme cases your dog will completely trash your house while you are away.
Great improvement can be seen when using the right tools and training methods, but completely solving your dogs behavior problem can be a tedious process in this case. Be prepared to properly deal with it the moment you find your dog becoming stressed when you arent around, that will save you a lot of time and effort.
I am happy to let you know that there are very effective ways to deal with your dogs anxiety problems, even if you already have “tried it all”.
As a dog owner myself and having dealt with dog separation anxiety on several occasions already, I know how hard it can be, coming home each time and find that your dog has been chewing on furniture, peeing everywhere and basically trashing the house, not to mention the number of angry calls from the neighbors.
dog training | Danah Reed | 14 February 2009 |
1 Comment
Other Links to this Post
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
By Bev from Dog Anxiety.com, August 15, 2011 @ 7:35 am
Thanks for this insightful article about dog anxiety. I learned a lot about dog behavior.