Janett Salas
Jul 27, 20183 min
We’ve had our dog, Nico, since May 2018, and we thought that at first he was just acting out and getting used to us. But he wasn’t just destroying things, he was super attached to us and would never want to leave our sight! Since I work from home, it’s normally not a huge problem, but for those moments I have to step out, it’s game over. We looked up different things online hoping to figure out how to help him relax and be less anxious, and that’s when we realized he has some sort of separation anxiety.
After some research, I gathered this list of 10 things to do for a dog with separation anxiety. Here's that list:
So instead of hugging him goodbye and saying how much you'll miss him, just grab your stuff and walk about the door.
Nico Results: He was calm when we left but the camera footage showed him freaking out.
When you only give him a special treat when you leave makes him switch his mindset of dreading you to leave to getting excited for you to leave so he can have his special treat.
Nico Results: We put his special treats in his kong and the footage shows him eating it and also barking away.
Exercising your dog in the morning will help them get a ton of energy out early in the day so they have less energy to wreck your home when you're gone.
Nico Results: He loved the exercise and it did tire him out. This is the most successful tip and while he still was distressed when we left, he seemed to be more calm.
Just like you would train your dog to do a trick by providing a treat every time they did it right, you would give them a treat every time they successful stayed in a room by themselves without freaking out. This can start as short as just closing the door and opening it up immediately and extend to longer periods of time.
Nico Results: We have not tried this yet.
If you've tried any of the above methods or anything different, please let me know in the comments. I'd love to learn more about how to help my doggo be less anxious!