• By A?, July 4, 2010 @ 5:27 am My dog had separation anxiety too, she wouldn’t even eat if I left the room. You have to completely ignore her for 10 minutes before you leave the house, don’t even look at her. That way she won’t see you going out of the door as an end to her fun. When you come home, don’t greet her until she’s calm. If your dog’s anything like mine, that means you’ll have to wait up to an hour. When your dog approaches you, don’t pet her. Pet her when you want to pet her, not when she attention seeks. Doing those things really really really helped my dog and now she doesn’t mind being away from me. She’s even found her own separate sleeping spot and goes there by herself at night time – when she was younger she used to sleep on my bed with me, which was bad. When I come home she’s always happy to see me, but she doesn’t wait in the window whining and yipping anymore. She still tries to sneak out of the house with me when I leave, though!

• By Christine C, July 7, 2010 @ 3:19 pm the best short term is to try some of the kong toys they work wonders. I had the same problem with my dog and i got her one of those and it works great. just give him something to do and he should be ok. lots of things to chew on are great. now they also have treat puzzles for dogs they are a lil pricey but for sure it will keep your dog busy.

• By somnambulist, July 8, 2010 @ 4:07 am My puppy used to be like this, except she’d start shredding things in the house too – we’d always give her a big rawhide bone when we left, then put it away when we came home. She’d bolt for the backyard, hunker down and chew chew chew while we were out instead of wrecking chairs and making noise. Those kong balls worked too – stuff them with kibble or treats and clog the hole with peanut butter. Depending on how smart/determined/food motivated your puppy is, they’ll take anywhere from 30 minutes to hours to get at the food. Just make sure you put the special toy away when you get home, you want the dog to associate the treat with his family going away.

• By dogtrainer7, July 10, 2010 @ 6:27 am Learn to crate train your dog. Start by doing it while you are at home for short intervals. Keep a towel over the crate so that she does not know you are their. Put her in the crate with a toy or other motivator and first find out how long she will go being quiet. Use that as a reference point and and start doing it just a little longer each time. Every time she comes out of the crate after being quiet reward and praise her for being quiet. it`s no overnight fix but eventually she will get it. Good Luck and God Bless

• By wishnuwelltoo, July 11, 2010 @ 2:05 pm When we leave we say “not this time” and leave toys, bones an radio or tv on for them. We practiced one day pretending to leave. We would pretend to leave, open the garage door. When the dogs started barking we popped back in the house and told them to settle down. When they behaved, we praised them. Then we did it again and when they barked again, we told them to “settle down” again and praise when they did, and we continued this with them until our leaving became “no big deal” to them, because we left, and always came back.

• By THE DONNIE, July 12, 2010 @ 11:33 am This may sound odd, but I noticed that my female dog got very interested in “The Animal Channel” and would sit up and watch it for hours, sometimes looking around the back of the tv to find the puppies that were crying! My male didn’t but maybe it had nothing to do with gender. He was a different character. Maybe try putting some music on while you are home and humming to it or singing with it, for awhile, then you be quiet and let just the music be heard. You have to set the mode in the home. I found that out. Get him something that is his favorite that he will play with or lay on while you do housework – being busy around the house, not paying attention to him so he can get a comfortable feeling without your attention. Then try leaving, just going outside sitting somewhere and give him time alone, with the music and his ‘woobie’. When you come in, don’t greet him. Don’t make him the center of attention. Go about your business like he wasn’t there. That’ll let him feel that it’s okay to be there, as long as he knows you will be back, but more so, whether you are there or not, the mood you set will be there. Don’t hug and kiss and pet when you’re leaving (now I figure that out!) because they’ll want more of that. Go outside for different time amounts, ignore him before you go out and when you come in. When you are sitting down, relaxing, then you can pet and love him. My dog would bark like mad when I was leaving, shaking the ground practically, and I just now, in talking to you, realized what I was doing wrong!

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