December 16th, 2008
|
The best way to avoid separation anxiety (and to cure it) is to leave your house by simply walking out without any exchange with your dog(s). There needs to be no emotion on your return, either. The more self-contained and emotionless you can be, the less the dog will react to your comings and goings. |
What about establishing a leaving ritual? From the onset, I always gave the dogs a treat when I was leaving. My goal was to communicate that I did not forget them or leave them behind accidentally. I got the idea from a friend who used it to help separation anxiety with her dog. I find it works great. They know the difference between when I run out to get the mail vs. when I am actually leaving them.
Our dog Chase didn’t have seperation angsiety until my husband got the whole Fred Flintstone and Dino relationship thing going between them! Dose anyone know a good site for training your spouse in propper k-9 behavior!? I now have my hubby read ALL Daily dog tips e-mails, in the hopes that he can be trained to leave those unwanted habbits behind!
There is new hope on the horizon! Since I wrote the tip I have become enchanted by Spirit Essences for all emotional issues – there is one called Separation Anxiety (imagine that!!) and by giving a few drops by mouth, rubbing it on the dog’s ears and paw pads and spraying it in the air and on bedding and a favorite toy it works like magic to calm nerves and change the whole emotional dynamic (special bonus is that if you put DOGTALK in the coupon box at checkout you get a 5% discount as my “listeners.”) As for the husband who needs k-9 training, this is really a challenge. Apparently the Spirit Essences can benefit even humans, so maybe go on the website and see which ones most apply to his deficits?!? Meanwhile, I suppose I could tackle The Husband Bible but dogs and cats are a whole lot easier to master!