Dog training – Separation anxiety in dogs, fact and fiction

It is true that there are basic steps to helping to reduce a dogs separation anxiety.  But you need to know a definition first.

Separation anxiety in dogs can be breed related and how much you baby your dog.

It is natural for a dog to want to be with its pack, but if you never leave your dog alone as a puppy and cuddle it constantly, you are going to give it abandonment issues when it grows up.

If it is a small dog, it will get sad and ‘bitey and barky’.  If it is big it can cause self damage and lots of damage to your property trying to escape.

While it is a fairly natural part of all dogs to want to be with owners, they are really more at home with their own kind.  YOU will never substitute for them meeting a dog in the dog park.

Some people mix up dogs missing them with separation anxiety.  It is true that you could call any dog missing you s small version of separation anxiety, but the truth is that its really supposed to be a clinically diagnosed term to describe something that is causing major distress to a dog and if allowed to go on with result in long term mental or physical harm.

I will go on with the regular dog training techniques to reduce the issues associated with the often debilitating issue for dogs, but here is another through before we get onto that.

walk your dog

walk your dog

walk your dog

This isn’t like granting three wishes and its done.  This is a daily pattern that you need to learn to make your dog happy, fit and stop separation anxiety  A dog that isn’t walked has too much energy for its own health and it results in stress hormones and separation anxiety because it has nothing to think about besides the walk it didn’t have and the owner it will miss.

Run a dog hard in the park, drain its energy and it can’t be bothered missing you so much.

It is a really simple answer that works, but most people who don’t really care about their dog won’t do it because it takes a time commitment.

Those are the people who should not own dogs.

I wish that everyone walked their dog every day.  I wish all dogs were healthy and happy.  I wish that people read this blog and got that from it and just did the stuff they know in their heart they should do.