Lisa
07-29-2006, 06:42 AM
:thankyou: to Pokey's Mom, Renee for providing this thread!
"Separation Anxiety Boot Camp & General Tips"
(Sincere thanks to DLC for keeping me sane and guiding me!)
Both of these booklets were extremely helpful:
"I'll be Home Soon by Patricia B McConnell" (Paperback - Jun 1, 2000)
"How to be the Leader of the Pack...And have Your Dog Love You For It." by Patricia B. McConnell (Paperback - Jan 1, 1996)
(I purchased them on amazon.com or bn.com for roughly $5-$10 each.)
What really helped my situation was implementing a one-week (longer if need be) SA Boot Camp:
- Pick up keys, wallet and other "leaving" triggers
- Don't leave, go about things as usual
- Repeat
- Go through leaving Triggers
- Leave for 1 minute
- Return calmly, ignoring all dogs for 5-10 minutes
- Repeat several times
- Repeat leaves: 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, very very gradually.
- I video taped the longer leaves (60 minutes) to see what was triggering odd behavior. (Noise outside, toys getting stuck, baby gated area too big, miserable in crate, etc.)
- Also, Ignoring the puppers for 5-10 minutes upon returning was not enough. I started ignoring them upon returning for 20-30 minutes and that seemed to work wonders.
- Since I tried all of the above (including booklets), my vet prescribed Clomicalm for the dogs just for a few months to supplement their training. In hindsight I really think both puppers needed the Clomicalm to get the benefits of all of the training. They were too freaked out beforehand.
Take time for yourself as well!
"Separation Anxiety Boot Camp & General Tips"
(Sincere thanks to DLC for keeping me sane and guiding me!)
Both of these booklets were extremely helpful:
"I'll be Home Soon by Patricia B McConnell" (Paperback - Jun 1, 2000)
"How to be the Leader of the Pack...And have Your Dog Love You For It." by Patricia B. McConnell (Paperback - Jan 1, 1996)
(I purchased them on amazon.com or bn.com for roughly $5-$10 each.)
What really helped my situation was implementing a one-week (longer if need be) SA Boot Camp:
- Pick up keys, wallet and other "leaving" triggers
- Don't leave, go about things as usual
- Repeat
- Go through leaving Triggers
- Leave for 1 minute
- Return calmly, ignoring all dogs for 5-10 minutes
- Repeat several times
- Repeat leaves: 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, very very gradually.
- I video taped the longer leaves (60 minutes) to see what was triggering odd behavior. (Noise outside, toys getting stuck, baby gated area too big, miserable in crate, etc.)
- Also, Ignoring the puppers for 5-10 minutes upon returning was not enough. I started ignoring them upon returning for 20-30 minutes and that seemed to work wonders.
- Since I tried all of the above (including booklets), my vet prescribed Clomicalm for the dogs just for a few months to supplement their training. In hindsight I really think both puppers needed the Clomicalm to get the benefits of all of the training. They were too freaked out beforehand.
Take time for yourself as well!