Separation Anxiety in Dogs

How to help a dog with separation anxiety

dog behavior

5 Tips to Help Noise & Separation Anxiety in Dogs on the 4th of July

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Hopefully if you have to leave your dog with separation anxiety home alone this 4th of July you live far away from where the fireworks will be happening! I’ve heard of dogs jumping out of windows and escaping their houses because they were so freaked out from the loud booms and bangs!

Luckily even though I’ve had dog separation anxiety AND I am generally an anxious dog I am not afraid of loud noises (unless they are right behind me!). My sister Brie is very afraid of them and my owners like to give her Rescue Remedy when they know that there will be lots of booms and bangs around. I also recommend having a friend around that is not an anxious dog. My friend Ipanema the Brazilian English Bulldog is the best. Since she is a bulldog she is bomb-proof! She is very brave and she makes me and Brie feel calm and relaxed (as long as she doesn’t get up in my face… then I growl at her and give her my Elvis Lip!).

Separation anxiety in dogs as well as noise anxiety can really cause dogs to hurt themselves very badly and can be VERY DANGEROUS! Make sure to keep your dogs in a safe place where they will not be able to jump out of windows, escape and run away or hurt themselves in any other dangers to themselves.

Here are a few tips to help dogs with separation anxiety or noise anxiety on the 4th of July:

  1. Counter-Condition Your Dog to Loud Noises

    If your dog is extremely anxious you might want to skip the fireworks and stay at home with them. If you prepare a really tasty treat like cooked chicken or turkey you can start working on counter-conditioning them. Every time there is a loud BOOM immediately give them a generous proportion of the tasty dog treat! Eventually they will learn that the big BOOM predicts a tasty treat and they won’t mind the booms so much because they are always followed by something yummy! My owner learned about this from reading Patricia McConnell’s book The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs

  2. Rescue Remedy is always a good idea!

    Always give your anxious dog Rescue Remedy at least an hour before you anticipate a stressful event

  3. Lavender and other smells also have a very calming effect on dogs

    Use Nutri-Vet Pet-Ease Natural Calming Spray for Dogs. This stuff smells great and really helps calm me down! Active Ingredients include Natural Canine Pheromone Extract 3%(just like in the DAP Diffuser), Extracts of St. John’s Wort, Valerian Root and Lavender 2% to help dogs stay calm and relaxed! Our dog trainer really highly recommends this stuff!

  4. Dog Appeasing Pheromone gets rid of dog anxiety by mimicking the smell of a whelping mama dog!

    Consider getting a DAP Diffuser to keep in the room your dog hangs out when they are the most anxious. We’ve heard of great results with dogs with separation anxiety or any anxiety in general.

  5. NEVER punish dog separation anxiety or noise anxiety

    If you punish a dog for anxiety it will only make it worse! If your dog is feeling anxious always be supportive and comforting and remain calm.

I hope these tips help you and your dog friends! Have a safe and happy 4th of July!

Woof!
Manchego the Anxious Dog

3 Things Dogs Hate About Humans!

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Hey Humans,

I am going to take a break from writing about separation anxiety in dogs and tell you about three things that most dogs HATE about humans! There are so many things that you guys do to us dogs that are so RUDE and I bet you don’t even realize it!

1. Hugs may make you feel good but boy are they RUDE in dog language!

Ok, I know you guys are primates and all but we are NOT. In fact you will probably notice that most dogs (especially fearful and anxious ones) will lean away from you or look away when you attempt go give them hugs. If your dog lets you give im or her hugs then count yourself lucky but chances are that they are only letting you do this because you feed them and give them a home… inside they are so annoyed that they are thinking about how they can annoy you just as much as you are annoying them. Maybe putting your shoes into the toilet or humping the leg of the next visitor that comes to your house?

Be conscious of how your dog reacts to your “affection”. Yes we like to be pet but we’d prefer that you pet us under our chin or on the shoulder that is next to you rather than having you reach over top of our heads.

2. Staring a dog in the eyes or bending over top of a dog are not friendly gestures!

Every time a new person meets a dog they always bend over top of us and look us straight into our eyes. This is by far the most confrontational and rude behavior! For a dog that is the equivalent of another human coming right up to you and trying to push you around to start a fight! It’s one thing to let our owners hug us and be rude but now we are expected to let total strangers stare us down and challenge us without even barking or growling? That’s not very nice!

Dogs prefer to be approached from the side and if you want to pet us then crouch down and don’t look us directly in the face! If you meet a fearful dog you might even have to put your back to him or her and let her come up to you while totally avoiding eye contact!

3. Every time we find a delicious scent to roll around in you give us a bath!

What the heck?! We finally find something to make us smell fabulous and roll around it it so we can smell GREAT for days to come and that very same day you ALWAYS decide to give us a bath in the stinkiest smelling soap you can find?! It’s bad enough that we have to live around you humans that wear that stinky stuff every day but do you REALLY have to bathe us in it too?

I hope you humans find this educational and informative! Maybe your dogs will write me letters thanking me for informing their owners of how they really feel about those hugs!

Woof!
Manchego the Anxious Dog

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