4 Mistakes To Avoid When Your Dog Has Separation Anxiety

When you leave your separation anxiety-ridden dog at home, you might feel a sense of dread thinking of what they might do without your absence. Look out for the following mistakes to avoid when your dog has separation anxiety.

Relying on Punishment

When your dog is in a state of panic, it can feel tempting to incorporate tools such as a bark or shock collar to divert problematic behavior. It may work for the short term, but this type of training can worsen your canine’s anxiety. Instead, teaching positive reinforcement and proving that being alone is safe instead of traumatic can do wonders for their independence and confidence.

Not Training at the Proper Threshold

Training at the right threshold can be crucial to a session’s success. When training your dog on separation anxiety, you want to practice periods of absence at a reasonable threshold where your dog feels comfortable and relaxed.

However, many trainers mistakenly train at a higher emotional threshold when their canine pants, yawns, paces, lip-licks, and expresses hyper-alertness. These signs signal that the dog is nearing its emotional limits. While your dog may appear to try to remain composed, training can make slow progress and potentially increase anxiety if you push on from this point.

Permitting Endless Distress

The phrase “crying it out” is incredibly common, especially for dogs. Many dog owners believe that responding to their dog’s crying rewards the behavior. However, in separation anxiety training, the goal is to change their emotions rather than their behavior. Removing your dog’s feeling of panic can lead to a positive change in behavior.

However, making the mistake of letting your dog cry it out during separation anxiety can worsen their panic. When you don’t attend to your dog’s emotions and requests for help, their anxiety can worsen over time, and the moment they see you prepare to leave, they’ll immediately react. Separation anxiety training aims to avoid worsening your dog’s stress and reinforce calm emotions with positive reactions.

Assuming Your Dog Wants To Spite You

Separation anxiety can bring out your dog’s worst habits, such as chewing on the rug, relieving themselves on the furniture, and other destructive behaviors. Meanwhile, they seem perfectly fine when you stay home with them. So, it’s easy to assume that your dog does these things out of spite and malice when you leave—but that isn’t the case.

Dogs living with separation anxiety enter a state of engulfing panic, doing everything they can to escape their isolation. So, it’s crucial to remember that dogs aren’t reacting to get back at you; they’re doing it because their anxiety pushes them to their limit, resulting in destruction.

Benchmark Dog Training helps to correct aggressive behavior, separation anxiety, and command response reluctance. Our boarding and training for dogs allow you to transform from a naughty, disobedient pooch into an attentive, loyal companion. For more information, contact our Benchmark Dog Training professional trainers today.