separation anxiety very common behavior
problem that a lot of people and their
dogs have to deal with and suffer
through and the good thing is if you can
know how to fix separation anxiety in
the cause you can actually get it to go
away quite quickly so we need to do is
first identify what is separations like
you what causes this and the answer to
that is fear all right
separation anxiety is essentially your
dog is afraid you're leaving an ease he
starts freaking out because he doesn't
know if you're going to come back so
that's basically the underlying problem
we want to start doing things - number
one get your dog to see that you leaving
is not a bad thing that is a good thing
and number two we want him to be able to
be calm when you're not there so there
are many things that we can do to you
know help our dog get to that point so
here is one of the first ones right a
very big part of separation anxiety is
how you come in how you go all right
when you're leaving your house or coming
home that's the time where your dog is
going to have fear triggered when you go
to leave he starts freaking out with
yous know if it coming back and we can
be making that fear worse so the way we
leave and enter isn't very important
when it's time to go you just walk out
the door there's no you know club
calling them and okay you be glue boil
be back and then no you slowly walk out
the door and you open the door peek back
in to make sure he's okay
and then you walk to the car you come
back you peek through the window and he
sees you when you do that you're just
building up the anxiety for your dog and
you're making it worse and worse and
worse
alright so when you leave it's time to
go it's time to go you just walk out you
make you know you leaving seem like it's
no big deal at all half the time when I
leave I don't even I don't even
acknowledge him he's into the room he's
on the bed somewhere it's tough for me
to go I just leave the house I'm going
to say goodbye to him so one big part of
separation anxiety is the way we leave
we make it
big deal now the other part of this is
how we come home when we enter the house
because if we come home and you know we
find your dog and all of a sudden and we
turn into the most excited person in the
world and although I missed you all come
here or give all this attention or
getting them all worked up so what ends
up happening then is when we do leave
all about time while the dog is waiting
for us to come back and energy is
building up because they're waiting for
that anticipation of when we come home
and they finally get that release ok so
very similar to what we leave we enter
the same way we come home we make no big
deal hi dog and you keep walking you do
your stuff for a couple minutes let the
dog you know just kind of cool off and
after 3 to 5 minutes then you can come
over and sit down with them to give them
a little bit of attention but the way
you leave and enter is huge it needs to
be no big deal ok and this is a super
big part of separation anxiety is us
leaving needs to not trigger that fear
response so this is the first part right
another thing that you can do to help
with separation anxiety it is to do a
fake schedule ok
now dogs are creatures of habit so you
have the same routine Monday through
Friday you get up you eat your breakfast
you take a shower you get dressed you
grab your keys and you go out the door
and you do that Monday through Friday
your dog picks up on that routine that
when I hear the shower start that means
that they're going to get dressed and
when I hear the jingle the keys that
means they're leaving so your dog starts
to kind of get worked up and it starts
to have the separation anxiety set up
already so here's what you do we took
them on a day where you don't have to do
that schedule let's say Saturday ok you
don't have to work Saturday you get it
up you eat your breakfast you get
dressed you take a shower you grab your
keys and then you put your keys down and
you can take off your clothes and go
back to bed and we kind of do this fake
schedule to trip our dog we wanted to
see that these triggers that you think
are always going to mean you know we
humans are leaving doesn't always mean
that so we kind of do a you know fake
schedule
and that can be helpful here's another
big part is puzzle toys all right toys
that you can put food into now whenever
you leave we want to give the dog
something to do we never want to leave
the dog unsupervised without us in some
way saying hey dog will do this alright
and puzzle toys or you could do like
bones as long as they're wrong this is a
great way to do this right puzzle toys
are toys where there's a openings and
you can push food into them things like
COG seems like busy buddies and
basically what happens is the dog has to
work on that toy and get the food out
and he keeps them busy
click mental stimulation physical
exercise we're having today you know bat
it and knock it around so we want to
always leave our dog with something to
do
now if your dog has really bad
separation anxiety I want you to find a
really special puzzle toilet or boat
whatever it is and we're going to put
something really good in there something
that normally doesn't get all the other
times he gets his toys you can use you
know kibble dog treats but when it's
time for you to go he's going to get a
puzzle toy Kong is really good with the
best treats ever and these are
high-value treats things like chicken
like hot dogs like cheese all right
human food and we're going to put that
in there and the only time he gets that
puzzle toy with that super high-value
food is when you leave I want the dog to
go from thinking my humans leaving oh no
to my humans leaving yes I'm going to
get my toy now we want the dog to look
forward to us leading because they're
gonna get something good okay so the
puzzle toys are a huge thing to take
advantage of all right since it has been
proven that lavender is a very calming
scent for dogs so here's a dog who's
worked up and has a lot of separation
anxiety issues burning incense before
you leave I have a lavender smell you
can try the
plugins I don't know how effective the
plugins are as a post actual no real way
of investing is if you actually buy
lavender plants that's the safest thing
because you can leave that out 24/7 and
since you don't want to leave burning
when you're not home but lavender is a
very calming scent for dog so you go you
know let's say you always leave your dog
into a specific room when you're not
home by a lavender plant or two and just
leave it in there and just the scent of
that can help to keep your dog calm
alright
music there's also been proven that
classical music helps to calm dogs down
so again what is time for you to leave
you have a extra radio or and you know
iPod something that you can leap with
music going try it because giving your
dog that mental stimulation or just just
hearing sounds and classical music in
particular it's been proven that that
helps to calm dogs down right so lots of
stuff here we have a few more things all
right few more things you can do another
big thing is exercise as best you can we
always want to try to make sure we take
our dog out for a good run or to give
them you know take about the dog park
ride very minimum go walking with them
before we know we're going to leave them
alone for long periods of time because a
dog it doesn't have exercise has a lot
of built-up energy and that built of
energy is very easy to get channeled
into separation anxiety if I know that
I'm going to have to go out for 8 to 10
hours one day and I'm not going to be
able to be home I purposely make a point
of getting up an hour and a half early
that day so I have a full 45 minutes I
can devote to going to the dog park and
letting my dog run around and that's
just sacrifice I have to make because I
know if I leave them at home for I get
10 hours without having done that he's
going to have so much energy that even
with puzzle toys that leave form and
stuff these other bones and whatever is
I leave for him to do
they're all attentive energy chances are
that he will get into something because
he will he will get bored eventually he
keep a 10 hours a long time not to have
any type of physical you know exercise
and that release that the dogs need so
as best you can if you can give your dog
exercise before you're going to have to
leave them alone
that is going to be a huge thing alright
now there's one more thing I saved this
for last because it's not my favorite
that I really prefer to save this as an
absolute last resort is actual you know
medication now this is getting one more
comment that veterinarians can actually
prescribe you know drugs that can help
with separation anxiety that can help to
keep your dog calm down
things along the lines of you know just
tranquilizers better that are you know
on the lighter scale I'm not not a super
heavy medication but it still is a
medication coming personally I prefer to
keep everything for dollfie to myself is
you know natural organic as possible
now the medications if we have a
situation with a dog that has such high
separation anxiety keeping my that
medication is not a solution it's just a
band-aid it's not going to solve the
underlying problem if you if your dog
needs medication you and you put them on
it that's fine but then you need to make
sure you're doing all the other things
so it can be useful as a tool to help
your dog calm down for example dogs that
are so stressed out and so fearful they
won't eat
they can't even focus on food so if you
leave your dog with a puzzle toy for
example and you come back and that food
is still in there then that might be a
signal okay now you try something so go
to the vet it give us some sort of
medication we can used it to help a dog
relax we try again with the puzzle
toilet because remember the medication
is just to help us with the other things
while we're training the dog to not have
the separation anxiety so we put it on
the medication we try the puzzle fly
again and
what happens we come home and all the
food is gone so now we know okay now
we've gotten a dog to a level where he
is able to eat and go for food and then
we try the other things and eventually
you win the medication away and the
separation anxiety is gone so that is an
option but before you go with your head
before you do that try everything else
first
all right and if that doesn't work you
don't see you no improvement then we can
try the medication route and then but
again remember it's just a band-aid it's
just a tool to use while we continue to
do all the other things and then
eventually we want to lean it away right
so separations I there is a lot you can
do for it the biggest thing is you know
the way we mend it because that's
usually the number one thing that we dog
voters we have a hard time do we leave
and feel bad and hold on the line it
doesn't come home we're so excited to
see our dog after the day and it's super
hard but it's very important you gotta
make leaving and coming home not a big
deal and you know like I said you come
home give your dog ignore him
saying hi I got pat on the head and then
walk away for three to five minutes and
just give him at that break to separate
you coming home in that surge of
excitement faint out for 3 to 5 minutes
yeah then go over and you can pet him
and you can play with him and you can
you know give them some love but would
give but by waiting at 3 to 5 minutes
you're separating the option of you
coming home
and that overexcited you know built up
energy that you would normally be
teaching them to have waiting for you to
come home right so separation side
hopefully this gives you the answers you
need to solve your dog separation
anxiety problem very common behavior
problem is people have dogs to eat poop
now there's lots of things we can try to
you know get our dog stops behavior
but first I want to go over why