Tuesday Training Byte: Reducing separation anxiety.

During the pandemic when most people had to stay at home, many dogs developed separation anxiety. Here is a list of things the owner does that can create this problem:

•Pet your dog, all the time

•Talk to your dog, all the time

•Allow your dog to follow you, all the time

•Allow your dog to be on your lap or laying on your feet, all the time

•Pet, soothe, comfort your dog when it whines or barks for attention...or is simply anxious

•Allow your dog to demand affection/interactions

•Be emotionally dependent on your dog to the point that unhealthy dependency and interactions are no longer noticed

•Allow your dog to do whatever it wants, whenever it wants—aka, provide no structure, rules, or accountability

•Foster an environment of chaos, stress, and anxiety

•Refuse to train and pattern calmness

•Refuse to crate train your dog

•Refuse to correct your dog when inappropriate behavior occurs

•Refuse to train your dog how to be independent/alone by using a “Place” command, “Down stay, and/or “away” time in the crate

•Let your dog out of the crate when it whines or barks

•Avoid training or anything that makes your dog temporarily uncomfortable or unhappy—in other words, cater to your dog’s every desire/need, designing your life around your dog, rather than having your dog fit into yours

•And many, many more...

Basically, baby, soothe, allow, enable, disable, lean on, omit teaching necessary life skills, prioritize what feels good for you rather than what does good for your dog, and through this master plan of leadership-free chaos, and systematic cultivation of creating a toxic dependency between dog and human...you’ll ensure that when you leave, your dog will be a true emotional mess, because you haven’t prepared them to be calm, obedient, strong, resilient, robust, independent, and alone.

Here are some tips to fix it:

Establish a predictable routine

Environmental enrichment

Set a predictable protocol for rewards

Train the dog to "calm" or settle

Make a place for relaxation

Work on responses to basic commands

If you need help with this issue, please reach out for a private training session. If you live nearby, I will come to your house. Happy training!

This beagle has a place for relaxation.