What Dog Separation Anxiety Solutions Really Work?
Search the internet and you will find a selection of different solutions for dog separation anxiety, but how many of them work? Here are a number of solutions that are regularly suggested.
Give Your Dog More To Do
Some websites suggest that separation anxiety in dogs can be managed or perhaps cured by giving a dog more to do and that boredom lurks behind a nervous dogs behaviour.
Nonetheless there isn't any evidence that dogs experience boredom in the way that humans do. Watch a dog in natural settings and you will not see them spending all day entertaining themselves, you are more certain to find them sleeping.
Naturally, they're pack animals so they do need to interact and play, but typically they save their energy for the vital task of survival. Domestic dogs are little different from their wild cousins they just get fed more frequently.
Nonetheless you can see where this view comes from, because if each time you go out, you come back to find something chewed up, you could think that your dog did it because they were bored. But it won't be the lack of entertainment that drives them to chew, rather the anxiety they experience at being separated from you and the fact that the method of chewing helps release a natural enzyme in the body that helps decrease stress.
Suggesting that leaving your dog with the latest wonder toy isn't truly the solution..
Stricter Training Programme For Your Badly Behaved Dog
If your neighbours complain about your dog barking nonstop while you're out, or you come home to find your dog's pooped or urinated on your carpet or scratched up the paintwork, its easy to suspect that you've a badly behaved dog, and the solution is more training.
But getting cross with your dog, roaring at them, rubbing their nose in it or disciplining them more won't stop them from feeling anxious while you're out, and all of the behaviours mentioned are a result of fretting about where you are.
Now training is maybe the best solution to dog separation anxiety, but it must be focussed on the root problem of anxiety rather than concentrating on the symptoms they show and it has got to be done in the best way.
Walk Your Dog More
Since the Dog Whisperer started talking about the need to exercise dogs for hours every day, it's often suggested as an answer to dog anxiety. And while exercise is good for us all, and may help us to feel calm after it, it doesn't necessarily follow that a knackered dog will stop worrying when left on their own.
Follow this bit of advice and you might put many hours into walking your dog simply to find that you have got a really fit and healthy dog that is still worried and has still got behaviour problems.
If Your Dog Has Separation Anxiety Learn More
To cope with your dogs anxiety problems, do not rely on toys and exercise, because while your dog will enjoy them, they won't be a cure. Instead find out more about the reason behind your dog's separation anxiety and look for a training regime that will provide a long-term answer.
Give Your Dog More To Do
Some websites suggest that separation anxiety in dogs can be managed or perhaps cured by giving a dog more to do and that boredom lurks behind a nervous dogs behaviour.
Nonetheless there isn't any evidence that dogs experience boredom in the way that humans do. Watch a dog in natural settings and you will not see them spending all day entertaining themselves, you are more certain to find them sleeping.
Naturally, they're pack animals so they do need to interact and play, but typically they save their energy for the vital task of survival. Domestic dogs are little different from their wild cousins they just get fed more frequently.
Nonetheless you can see where this view comes from, because if each time you go out, you come back to find something chewed up, you could think that your dog did it because they were bored. But it won't be the lack of entertainment that drives them to chew, rather the anxiety they experience at being separated from you and the fact that the method of chewing helps release a natural enzyme in the body that helps decrease stress.
Suggesting that leaving your dog with the latest wonder toy isn't truly the solution..
Stricter Training Programme For Your Badly Behaved Dog
If your neighbours complain about your dog barking nonstop while you're out, or you come home to find your dog's pooped or urinated on your carpet or scratched up the paintwork, its easy to suspect that you've a badly behaved dog, and the solution is more training.
But getting cross with your dog, roaring at them, rubbing their nose in it or disciplining them more won't stop them from feeling anxious while you're out, and all of the behaviours mentioned are a result of fretting about where you are.
Now training is maybe the best solution to dog separation anxiety, but it must be focussed on the root problem of anxiety rather than concentrating on the symptoms they show and it has got to be done in the best way.
Walk Your Dog More
Since the Dog Whisperer started talking about the need to exercise dogs for hours every day, it's often suggested as an answer to dog anxiety. And while exercise is good for us all, and may help us to feel calm after it, it doesn't necessarily follow that a knackered dog will stop worrying when left on their own.
Follow this bit of advice and you might put many hours into walking your dog simply to find that you have got a really fit and healthy dog that is still worried and has still got behaviour problems.
If Your Dog Has Separation Anxiety Learn More
To cope with your dogs anxiety problems, do not rely on toys and exercise, because while your dog will enjoy them, they won't be a cure. Instead find out more about the reason behind your dog's separation anxiety and look for a training regime that will provide a long-term answer.
About the Author:
Author Venice Marriott learnt how to deal with dog anxiety with her own rescue dog and has been researching the best dog separation anxiety solutions for the last 2 years. She's built a web site to help other dog owners coping with dog anxiety problems, visit it to find out more.