If your dog breaks down when the owner leaves him, your dog has separation anxiety!

What is Separation Anxiety

When a dog becomes overly dependent on its owner and cannot bear the fact that the owner is not around, it will experience stress from separation. Being separated from the owner means that they are in danger, and their behaviors include constant whimpering and barking, destructive behavior such as scratching doors or walls, urinating or defecating in the house or doghouse, and even attempting to escape.

Separation anxiety indicates that the dog has mental and psychological problems that need to be addressed by the owner.

Causes of Separation Anxiety

1.Anxious Dog + Sensitive Owner

If the dog has been scared or hurt before and is usually nervous and afraid of strangers, other dogs, and sounds, it already has a sensitive personality. If the owner is easily affected by things and has emotional fluctuations, this combination of dog and owner is most likely to cause separation anxiety problems.

2.New Problems Caused by the Owner

Owners often do things that make the dog’s emotions more unstable, such as petting the dog excessively and talking to the dog too much.

Although these behaviors can make the dog closer to the owner and the dog’s emotional sensitivity will be very considerate. When you are sad, the dog can sense it and will come to comfort you.

However, if your emotions fluctuate rapidly, the dog will be confused and unclear about the situation, causing it to gradually become anxious about its own emotions.

(1) Frequent Petting

Petting is a way of conveying emotions. Long-term and frequent petting can turn normal interactions into excessive dependence, and it can transmit emotional fluctuations to the dog, seriously affecting the dog’s personality.

Especially when you have a small dog, not only petting the dog, but also holding it tightly, the full body contact allows the dog to better feel the owner’s mood and subtle changes in body language.

The dog can very keenly catch the owner’s mood fluctuations, and over time, its personality is likely to become sensitive.

In addition, when the dog does something wrong, the owner also tends to use petting to soothe, which can easily confuse the dog’s judgment on many things.

(2) Too Much Talking to the Dog

Conversing with the dog is a kind of interactive stimulation, continuously transmitting emotions to the dog. Moderate communication can consolidate a good relationship.

However, if you talk to the dog too frequently and sometimes care for the dog and sometimes scold the dog, the dog will be confused under the long-term influence of the owner’s words, which will affect the stability of the dog’s personality.

(3) Interaction Before Going Out

The reluctance to leave before going out will make separation anxiety worse. Because the dog’s state is already unstable, expressing love at this time will only enhance the negative effect.

For the dog, too much love is telling it “anxiety is a good thing, this is right.”

(4) Dependence After Tension

Originally nervous dogs, plus nervous owners, become training to amplify emotions, and dogs will need to find a sense of security on their owners more.

When dependence and sensitivity combine, it becomes separation anxiety. When you go out alone, the dog feels insecure.

What’s worse is that when the owner and the dog go out, the changing environment interferes with the emotions of both the owner and the dog, affecting their judgment.

When the dog makes a wrong judgment, the most serious situation is that it changes from anxious barking to attack.

Overcoming Separation Anxiety

Going Out for a Walk = Consuming Energy + Shifting Attention

The first rule to solve the dog’s behavioral problems is still to take the dog for a walk or exercise to exhaust the dog’s energy.

Before the owner goes out, use a long walk or exercise to consume energy. When he returns home, he will be too tired to think wildly, and his emotions will also be relieved when he goes out.

During the walk, because of contact with many things, life is no longer just about the owner, and it can divert some of the dog’s attention. The dog is no longer sensitive to the change in the environment when the owner leaves, and the rest for the dog is to rest at ease.

Provide a Comfortable Rest Environment for the Dog

After exercise, you can help the dog prepare for rest and settle it down in its nest.

Prepare a comfortable rest space and toys for the dog. When it finds that it is good to rest alone, it will gradually get used to being independent and establish its own time to be alone and play.

Establish the Correct Way to Get Along with the Dog on a Daily Basis

Less interaction does not mean alienation from the dog, but can improve the quality of companionship.

The “quantity” and “timing” of petting and talking to the dog are very important.

Many people don’t know that for dogs, the love that the owner keeps touching becomes a burden to the dog.

For those who like to pet dogs, it will be painful not to pet the dog. My suggestion is to reduce the number of petting, and when you occasionally pet the dog, don’t have too much emotional ups and downs, try to be stable and calm, so as not to easily break the dog’s stable personality. Because if you really love dogs, you should give them a more correct lifestyle.

Choose to pet the dog and talk to him when he behaves well. For example, when he sits obediently and doesn’t bark when he sees strangers, it’s a good time to pet the dog. I believe that he can feel your love and he will live with you in the way you prefer.

In addition, do not interact when going out, do not say hello, do not let the dog feel that you will not come back when you leave, it is just a temporary disappearance.

Let the Dog Learn to Be Alone for a Short Time

When you manage to consume energy through exercise and adjust the way you get along with the dog, you can gradually let the dog get used to the situation of separation.

If there are more than two spaces in the house, separate the room where you are active from the room where the dog rests, let the dog get used to being alone in the room, reward him after the dog has been alone, and play with the dog.

Later, leave the room when the dog is resting, and gradually lengthen the time. When the dog can stay in the room by itself for 15 minutes, you can go out.

Similarly, gradually, from leaving home for 10 minutes, 30 minutes, or even longer. The problem of separation anxiety will naturally dissipate.