Separation Anxiety in Dogs

I had a wonderful dog whose was the sweetest dog on the planet when we were together. It was when we weren't together that she did not handle life so well. I would go off to work and come home to a house full of torn papers, an occasional pool of urine, and obvious claw marks in a definite path on the carpet. I began to get complaints from neighbors that my dog howled during the day, and I quickly determined that it was times during which I was off working. It became clear that my sweet dog was terrified to be by herself.

I had "rescued" her at a flea market pet drive. She wasn't one of the pets at the drive, but someone had brought her, hoping to find a new home for her. Apparently, her previous owner had left town leaving everything behind; his job, his girlfriend, and this sweet dog. Well, I couldn't walk away from her, even if the story wasn't true. She was super well-behaved and delightfully cute! I took her home and things were great for a few days, then I had to go to work.

I consulted my vet and she told me about separation anxiety in dogs. There is loads of material out there on the subject, but not much of it told me exactly how to handle the situation. What ended up working was so simple that I was super pleased and ecstatic about how grand the whole thing turned out. Basically, I got a train-your-dog-at-home course and bonded with her while at the same time increased her discipline and self confidence. That was it. The course worked great and she never had any more anxiety attacks of which I knew.

The course that I worked through included both great instruction for me as well as my dog. What did I need to learn? Body language, dog psychology, and many other related factors contribute to separation anxiety and are just as much of the problem as the results of the anxiety that you find on the floor of your home when you come back from work. The good news is that learning how to bond and work with your dog is the key to reducing the anxiety.

I found that there are several of these programs available online. I dug around and found about ten, but I have to admit that only two or three seemed to be courses that would reduce anxiety in pets. I have actually reviewed the ones that I liked the most on my blog site listed below - the Dove Cresswell's Online Dog Training package, the Sit-Stay-Fetch package, and another that claims to have super fast results of only one evenings work, the Dog Discovery package. I am skeptical about the latter one, but I have heard good things about it. I recommend talking with your vet and seeing what they say about the idea. I conversed with my vet about it and she did not seem in the least bit surprised. Instead she seemed to think that she should have thought of it before!

If you have a pet that suffers from separation anxiety problems, I suggest that you and your vet look into the possibility of incorporating a train-at-home course (online or otherwise) for you and your dog.

I hope you found my article helpful. If you like please visit my blog and read more about the online programs that I feel are most likely to assist reducing behavioral problems such as separation anxiety in dogs.

Quentin Yu

About the Author

I am a musician and scholar in Honolulu. Please feel free to read my blog for more of my writings and reviews at http://myonlineproductreviews.wordpress.com/

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