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Tips for Eliminating
Puppy Separation Anxiety
Puppy separation anxiety is a common condition that affects many puppies that need to spend time home alone.
Fortunately, this condition is fairly easy to treat. Often, it's as simple as modifying our own behavior.
Let me explain...
Many owners, by acting in a certain way, encourage separation anxiety in puppies and dogs.
With time, even after the owner's behavior that caused separation anxiety stops, dog's response to being home alone will remain.
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I'll show you how we inadvertently encourage separation anxiety in a minute, but first, here are some tips for...
Dealing With Puppy Separation Anxiety
While there are a lot of techniques you can use to deal with your puppy's separation anxiety, your main goals are to…
- Make your puppy enjoy the time he is alone
- Keep him busy
- Act in such a way that doesn't encourage separation anxiety
Here is a short video that demonstrates how to help dogs with mild to moderate separation anxiety...
Learn more about How to Treat Puppy Separation Anxiety
Here are some tips that can help you eliminate separation anxiety in a puppy...
- Start training your puppy to be alone for short periods of time while he is still young.
- Trick your puppy into thinking that you are about to leave without actually leaving. Get dressed, open the door and then immediately close it. The next time you really need to leave, the site of you getting dressed will not make your puppy too excited.
- Before you leave your puppy alone, exhaust him. Engage him in some draining activity, like running or playing ball. When you bring him home, he may be too tired to pay attention to you leaving. He may even fall asleep.
- There is no need for long, emotional goodbyes. If you leave and then come back to reassure your puppy, he will think that you are rewarding his tantrums. You are actually encouraging puppy separation anxiety.
- Before you leave, turn the radio on.
- Love your puppy, play with him, spend time with him, but like with a lot of things in life, everything in moderation! Excessive attention that your puppy is getting can make puppy separation anxiety even worse.
- When you return, don't make a big scene. If you do, you are encouraging your puppy to look forward to your return. This anticipation will make him more anxious.
The Secrets to Dog Training provides more tips for dealing with your pet's separation anxiety.
To make your dog enjoy the time he is alone, get him a tough rubber toy that you can stuff with food. It's designed in such a way that he can't extract all the food at once. Getting food will be a time consuming effort, but the reward is so great!
Classic KONG Dog Toys for Average Chewers and
KONG Extreme Dog Toys for Strong Chewers are some of the examples of such toys.
Another product you may find usefull is Comfort Zone For Dogs.
Comfort Zone For Dogs is a plug-in diffuser that releases a calming pheromone.
It reduces stress-related behavior, including barking, whimpering and whining, chewing, urination, and defecation.
It also helps comfort dogs in stressful situations such as being alone, having visitors, adjusting to a new pet, moving, and visits to the vet.
Visit dog separation anxiety to learn more about treating puppy separation anxiety, as well as how to change our own behavior so we don't encourage this condition. You'll also find there part 2 of the video you just watched.
Another good resource is the Secrets to Dog Training guide. In addition to thorough discussion of puppy separation anxiety, it covers every behavioral problem in a dog you can imagine.
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