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Separation anxiety is the dread or fear that your dog experiences when someone that they are attached to leaves them. So a typical instance of this might be when you go to work in the morning, the dog might get tense or anxious. Typically this anxiety produces negative behavior in the animal. It may howl or bark, urinate or defecate in the house, start to chew things or bite itself. Obviously this is not good for the dogs state of mind or your home. So what can be done about separation anxiety in dogs ?

Separation anxiety is something that a dog learns early in life. A puppy that isn't weaned off it's mother properly can have this problem later on in life. The puppy should spend around eight weeks with it's mother before being separated.

Training for separation anxiety in dogs can start as soon as you bring the puppy home. To begin with, don't make a bid deal of the separation when you leave it at night or on odd occasions. Put it in it's basket and walk away. It will get used to the fact that you are not always there.

Try to communicate the fact that you will not always be there and your dog should not suffer form separation anxiety when it gets older.

Training a puppy is relatively straightforward, however it may not be as easy with a grown dog that is suffering from this problem. The dog may have been given to you by a previous owner or you found him at the dog shelter.

If it has spent anytime in a shelter or pound it may have been neglected before this. This may lead to insecurities and anxiety. It may have also been deprived of affection whilst in the shelter too which may add to it's insecurity.

If it has been given to you by the previous owner there is generally a good reason why they have done this. It may be that there were family problems, a divorce, money problems or that the person had to leave the country. As a dog is a social animal and needs the support that a family gives to it, it is also aware when there are problems in the family. This can trigger emotional problems that could result in displaying separation anxiety at some point.

So for an older dog the first step is to heal old emotional wounds. In terms of separation anxiety, you will have to leve at some point so start off slowly. Practice leaving. Leave for a few minutes and then return. Don't make a gbig deal of the leaving and returning, so as to imply that this is a normal process.

Continue doing this but increase the length of time that you a separated from your pet. If the dog starts to howl or get anxious then go back to a time period that is comfortable. Although this might be tedious, you should continue it until the dog does not get anxious when you leave.

Other strategies that may work are to keep you pet bust while you are out. So you could hide some tasty treats in the garden to take his mind off the fact that he is alone.

Author's Resource:

Visit www.doghealthncare.com for more ideas on training your pet and understanding canine health issues. The site includes a detailed review of a popular behavior dog training course.

Visit Animal Pets & Friends for more pet and animal articles.

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