Separation Anxiety Boot Camp & General Tips

[Lisa]

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!

[Pokeys Mom]

Almost 10 years later, the above is helping with new puppers in the house. I found two current books that are helping as well. It's great to see more resources published!

"Do Over Dogs: Give your dog a second chance for a first class life" by Pat Miller

"How to Foster Dogs: From Homeless to Homeward Bound" by Pat Miller

It's boot-camp time! :thumb up:

[lotsadox]

Thanks so much for the references, Rene. I may pick those up just in case I have a dog with SA problems in the future.

I had a friend that adopted a poodle mix that had SA and I had her come read this thread. She said that it really helped her in working with her dog and the dog is doing great now.

[Pokeys Mom]

So great to hear that it helped someone!

"Do Over Dogs" covers basic behavior, fear, aggression, SA, and other communication issues found in dogs headed towards a shelter, or dogs being adopted from a shelter. I still have to plow through it all, and can't wait to share it with my vet. I'm loving all the new resources.

[lotsadox]

So great to hear that it helped someone!

"Do Over Dogs" covers basic behavior, fear, aggression, SA, and other communication issues found in dogs headed towards a shelter, or dogs being adopted from a shelter. I still have to plow through it all, and can't wait to share it with my vet. I'm loving all the new resources.

That definitely sounds like something I need to read! Thanks again.

[Mama S.]

Fabulous thread! Need to get those books! We have some mild SA issues that I am going to try those tips with!