Separation Anxiety in Dogs

How to help a dog with separation anxiety

Dog Separation Anxiety Tips

Dog Separation Anxiety after Travel

by 1 Comment

dog separation anxiety cure familyWoof! Hi friends, I know I have been away for a while and not posting. My family went on a vacation and I haven’t had any time to get caught up!

After being with my parents for a week straight driving in the car, camping and hiking my sister and I were a bit worried when we got home about being left home alone. But you know what… as soon as we were given our Kongs with Peanut butter and treats (our favorite!) we were back on track feeling calm and comfortable when left at home. It has taken a lot of work and we still get excited when our owners come home, especially our Dad because he gets equally as excited to see us! (Mom just acts calm and relaxed…but we know she’s faking it and is really jumping up and down inside!)

Here are a few times that our owners use to keep our dog separation anxiety away:

  1. Give us a Kong stuffed with a high-value food treat. If you don’t have a Kong, order one on Amazon.com today!
  2. Put Music on to keep the scary sounds from the outside masked – it especially helps if you use Through a Dog’s Ear CDs, which are scientifically proven to calm dogs. Get your copy on Amazon!
  3. Leave the lights on if it’s night time
  4. Keep us contained in our “Safe Room” where we can’t get into garbage or other dangerous item around the house. This is a room that we feel safe in.
  5. Don’t give us a view of the outside world, because it makes our dog separation anxiety worse if we see other dogs and people walking by the house all day

I hope you are all doing well! My mom said that she is getting close to having our dog separation anxiety program ready so be sure to sign up for our mailing list to find out when you can get your copy! (signup is in the right bar ——> )

Please leave me a comment and let me know how your dog separation anxiety is!

Woof!
Manchego the Anxious Dog

Dog Separation Anxiety Cure Exercise Pens

by 1 Comment

When my sister and me have dog separation anxiety we tend to get into things that aren’t very good for us…like prescription drugs and garbage! We’ve both been to the emergency room for eating things we shouldn’t have! Luckily in our new house we have a room that we can be kept in safely. I heard it’s supposed to be the dining room which is good because we do a lot of dining out of our Kongs while we are in there!

If you don’t have a safe room to put your puppy friend with separation anxiety in then we recommend getting an exercise pen so that they can still move around but can’t get hurt! It will also keep your house from getting destroyed if your dog’s separation anxiety causes him or her to tear or shred or go to the bathroom inside.

My Mom did some research and here are some of the best one’s that she thinks are good:

Soft Exercise Pen
This looks like a good sturdy pen that is soft. If your dog is a chewer he might be able to chew though this but you could always spray it with something yucky tasting! The advantage to a soft pen is that it won’t scratch or ding your floors.

White Indoor/Outdoor Plastic Pet Pen
This exercise pen gets great reviews on Amazon.com and at a great price! It is plastic so would be less likely to scratch your floors like the metal exercise pens and looks nice to boot!

Extra Tall Decorative Walk-Thru Gate
This gate is very fancy and nice looking. If you want a nicer looking gate and have a room that you only need to block the door of this is a great option.

3 Dog Separation Anxiety Cure Tips for Thanksgiving

by 6 Comments

Well, it’s just about that time of year again where humans get to eat yummy tasty turkey and us poor dogs don’t get ANY! We get tortured smelling it all day but never get to eat it. Some dogs get left home alone even with their dog separation anxiety while their owners go out and eat dinner with family and friends. It’s just not fair!

Here are a few quick tips to help your dog with separation anxiety on Thanksgiving

Dog Separation Anxiety Cure Tip One

Remember to leave the lights on. This isn’t something that often gets mentioned or even thought of but when I was a puppy I got left in the dark and it really scared me! That was why I destroyed my friend Ipa’s carpet! Remember that it gets dark earlier this time of the year so even if you leave the house when it is light out if you have a dog with separation anxiety you should turn the lights off before you leave.

Dog Separation Anxiety Cure Tip Two

Try a little TTouch or massage to calm your dog before you leave. My owner recently learned about Tellington TTouch and how it can help to calm an anxious dog. She said we are going to do a post about it later but you can learn more about it on the TTouch Website. She has been doing TTouch on me and my sister Brie and trust me your dog is going to LOVE it!

Dog Separation Anxiety Cure Tip Three

Of course I’m not going to leave out the most important part… A stuffed Kong! Check out our recipe for Turkey Dinner Stuffed Kongs from last year! When the Kongs are taken out at my house I am so excited that I go and wait on my bed. I don’t even care that I am going to be left alone, its not even a big deal because the only time I get such good treats is when I get left home alone. That’s worth staying home alone isn’t it?!

Have a safe, happy and Dog Separation Anxiety Free Thanksgiving with all of your friends and family!

Woof Woof!
Manchego the Anxious Dog

3 Signs It’s Time to Hire a Certified Dog Trainer for Your Dog’s Separation Anxiety

by Leave a Comment

I hope that our tips here are helping you and you with your dog separation anxiety but sometimes you need to call in the big guns! A positively focuses professionally certified dog trainer will be able to observer your dog’s behaviors and help you find the root cause of the dog separation anxiety.

Here are a three signs that you need backup to help a dog with separation anxiety:

1. Your dog’s separation anxiety is causing physical harm on a regular basis.

If you dog’s separation anxiety is making him hurt himself frequently and you have tired many of the tips on this site then you will need to hire a professional trainer. It is important to keep your dog safe and if he is causing physical harm and all of your attempts to give them a safe place have failed then it is time to call in a professional dog trainer.

2. You have tried training and your dog’s separation anxiety appears to be getting worse, not better.

If you are doing everything that should be dong and the dog separation anxiety keeps getting worse then there might be something that you are missing. Calling in a professional dog training might be a good idea because sometimes someone that is not close to the situation can see it from a different perspective and offer you help.

3. You feel hopeless about the situation.

Training dogs with separation anxiety can be very frustrating. If you are flustered your dogs will be able to sense it. Most of the time dog trainers help humans more than they help the dogs and it might be worthwhile to get a dog trainer to help you with the dog separation anxiety training in order to give you the moral support that you need.

Dog separation anxiety is a serious problem that can be very emotionally difficult on both you and your dog. In order to help a dog with separation anxiety it is sometimes necessary to get the help of a professional dog trainer.

Woof Woof!
Manchego the Anxious Dog

No, your dog is NOT getting back at your or mad… he has dog separation anxiety!

by Leave a Comment

I recently overheard a conversation that my owner was having with another dog owner. The person said if they come home and then leave right away their dog gets mad at them and decides to dig in his outside kennel or if he is inside he will tear things apart and chew on them just to get back at them. The person thinks that the dog is ‘getting back at him’ because he is mad that he came home and left right away.

This is an owner of a one year old dog who is used to a routine, when he finally gets a human around he is so happy and gets over-excited and then when they immediately leave him home alone again he has all of that balled up excited energy and no where to use it except destruction. The dog is not getting back at the owner or even mad at the owner he is exhibiting the signs of dog separation anxiety.

Just because a dog may not always have dog separation anxiety they can have it at times like this.

It may not be true separation anxiety but I would consider it a form of separation anxiety because the solution is the same. This person’s dog would have probably been less destructive if he had been let out of the kenel for five minutes to play ball to burn some energy and excitement and then given a stuffed Kong to give him something to mentally stimulate him and distract him from his owner leaving again so soon.

My owners did this just yesterday. They had to go out and run some errands, then they came home for only ten minutes. My sister and me were so excited to see them! They let us out to go to the bathroom and play a few mintues to burn our excitement off and then put us back in our safe room with a frozen Kong and left us home alone again. Guess what, we were fine!

Please don’t assume that your dog is feeling anger, spite or vengeance. These are human emotions and not animal emotions. It is more likely frustration and anxiety which is easy to help your dog cope with.

Woof!
Manchego the Anxious Dog