separation anxiety

Dogs who have mild separation anxiety can likely be effectively treated by their owners and we’ll outline how to do that here. Dogs with moderate to severe separation anxiety are harder to treat and owners should enroll the services of a professional canine behavior consultant, or risk making the dog worse.  Treating mild separation anxiety - Mild separation anxiety is treated by a process known as counterconditioning. This process involves associating the feared situation (or object , animal or person) with something the dog really likes. Then, over time, the dog comes to associate the unpleasant situation with something good. …

In Part Two of our series on separation anxiety, we looked at four of the most common reasons dogs develop this disorder. Now let’s turn our attention to the factors, both medical and behavioral, that need to be ruled out before you can say with condidence that your dog is suffering from separation anxiety. Medical Problems: Urinary incontinence - There are a host of medical problems that can cause a dog to urinate in the house. The word “incontinence” refers to the dog’s inability to hold his urine until he can get outside to relieve himself. Sometimes this incontinence can…

In Part One of this series on separation anxiety, we looked at exactly what separation anxiety is, what are the common symptoms and most importantly we underscored the ideas that the worrisome behavioral symptoms of this disorder that can include destructive behavior, is not the result of a dog being untrained, but stem from overwhelming anxiety at being separated from the owner. In Part Two, we’re going to take a look at the four most common reasons dogs develop separation anxiety so you can understand this at a deeper level. Canine researchers don’t yet have a definitive reason why some…

Separation anxiety in dogs is basically just what the words mean...anxiety experienced by your dog when you leave the house and he is left behind. Some dogs can exhibit separation anxiety simply by having their owner stepping out of sight and into another room. In this four part series, we’ll look at:  One - What exactly is separation anxiety and what are the symptoms Two - Why some dogs develop separation anxiety Three - What medical problems must be ruled out before separation anxiety can be blamed Four - What to do about your dog’s separation anxiety In some dogs…