Do you find your favorite shoes or pillows torn by your dog when you return home after a long day? Do you get complaints from your neighbors that your Fido keeps barking terribly for the entire day? These are clear signs of dog separation anxiety. This takes place because dogs are highly social animals and cannot live alone, and therefore behave strangely when they are forced to. In their natural condition, they never live away from their packs. It’s only us who can help to make things less stressful for them. What can you do to overcome this disorder of your beloved pet? Here are some tips.
Make Them Habituated by Starting with a Short Time
You can make your dog habituated of staying alone by leaving them alone for only 5 minutes to start with. After some days you can increase the time to 10 minutes, then 20 minutes, then an hour and so on. Slowly you can come to make them habituated for staying alone for as long as a full day of 8 to 10 hours.
Cuddle Your Dog before Leaving
You can cuddle your dog and spend as much time as you can with her/him before you leave for the day. You can take them for a walk, feed them, bathe them and reward them for their calm behavior. If the dog understands that you are going to return after some time, s/he will become calm and wait for you patiently.
No Big Deal
In this you have to act quite the opposite. Don’t make a fuss about you are going to part from your dog. So, this includes no special treatment to the dog and behaving normally. Don’t make your dog feel that it is a big deal that you are leaving the house or have returned. This is the way to communicate to her/him that your not being in the home too is not a big deal. Based on the severity of the anxiety behavior, you will have to practice the method of five minutes to an hour of before you leave and when you return.
Say “Bye” Long Before You Leave
You find it difficult to behave indifferently with your most beloved friend, right? While s/he tries to get intimate with you, you have to behave uncaringly which you don’t like at all and feel guilty. There is another way out. Have a moment to share love and make your dog realize that you will miss her/him, long before you actually leave. Remember that this is only for your mental satisfaction. Actually there is no difference to the dog even if you don’t say goodbye to her/him.
Stay Calm
Remove those guilty, upset or worried feelings from mind while going out. Instead, make your dog know that soon you are to return and everything will be alright when you are absent. If you have no doubt about that, your dog too will rest assured. So, cultivate the positive feeling in yourself and your dog too. A calm and positive energy can relieve that feeling of separation anxiety in dogs.
Get full information about Dog separation anxiety on CanineSeparationAnxiety.info. Here you will also get other useful information on saving your dogs from common disorders, like fear of fireworks, and also success stories of other dog owners.