Separation Anxiety And Your Dog

Is your dog suffering from separation anxiety or could it simply be just some poor behavior from lack of proper training? Separation anxiety is a truly debilitating mental illness for dogs. In this article let's talk about some of the do's and don'ts when it comes to separation anxiety.

True separation anxiety is where your dog just can't be without you, sometimes not even for just a few minutes. Some of the signs for this illness can include:

· Trying to get out of its crate

· Soiling in the house or in the crate when you're gone

· Crying or barking endlessly for longer than 15 minutes

· Destroying things in the house such as furniture, carpet and woodwork

I actually had a client with a dog that had it so badly that somebody has to be at home with the dog 24/7. Yes you heard me correctly; these people have never been out to dinner or to the store together for almost 2 years. Somebody always has to be home.

Quite often dogs with separation anxiety cannot handle being crated. However there are other dogs with separation anxiety that find a crate to be a great place to relax. As you can see the symptoms can be different for different dogs.

A lot of people think their dogs are suffering from separation anxiety when in all actuality it is simply a poorly behaved dog. For example a nine-month old Labrador that's left unattended in the house without being crated can destroy a living room in no time. In this case it's the owners fault for not crating their dog.

So how do you help the dog that is suffering from separation anxiety? If you would ask your vet that same question he will probably suggest to you that you start off with some obedience training. Yes for some dogs obedience training will do the trick because it gives the dog a job to do. With other dogs obedience training doesn't help at all.

You also need to do some modifications to the way you do things at home by trying to desensitize the dog to you grabbing the car keys and walking out the door. Actually there are a whole list of things that a good dog behavior specialist or trainer will be able to advise you to do in an effort to help your dog.

After training and behavior modification have not solved the problem another visit to the vet may be able to help your dog by prescribing some medications that will help relieve your dog of some of its anxiety.

Separation anxiety it's hard to live with but hopefully one of these ideas will help you solve the problem.

Source:http://ezinearticles.com/?Separation-Anxiety-And-Your-Dog&id=8490315