Separation Anxiety

Are you and your dog suffering with separation anxiety? Common indicators of this panic disorder include:

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Destruction of home – rugs, furniture, doors/windows, molding around exit points

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Potty accidents, when your dog is normally housebroken

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Constant howling, barking or crying, often resulting in neighbors complaining

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Self-injury, often from chewing or digging

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Refusal to eat

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Pacing, drooling and/or inability to settle

And then there’s your distress…

Do you worry about your dog every time you need to leave? Not to mention the financial stress of replacing rugs, furniture or doors frames? And most importantly, the heartbreak and despair when you return seeing the damage and your clearly distraught dog?

THERE IS A BETTER WAY.

Separation anxiety training can give you:

A happier dog who can relax during absences

Relief from guilt over leaving your dog

Peace of mind and freedom

Relief from stress and worry

No more complaining from neighbors

Convenient training on your schedule

There is hope and I can help rescue you. Separation anxiety training isn’t a quick fix but it is a simple, scientifically proven process and with proper training, this disorder can be resolved or greatly improved. I can help you and your dog’s quality of life, strengthening your relationship and bringing relief to both of you.

Don’t you both deserve that?

My effective training solutions help your dog learn to relax during absences so you can leave without worry or guilt.

Are you ready to regain your life?

Let’s get started.

There are 2 ways to work with me:

1:1 Initial Video Assessment

60-minute video session where you will do a real absence, which I will monitor to determine if your dog has separation anxiety and what your dog’s safety threshold is or to rule it out. Then we discuss those observations and what the next steps are moving forward, including management, suspending absences, whether a meds consult is appropriate and answer any questions you have. If it’s not separation anxiety then we discuss future training, like crate training, enrichment options and behaviors to help solve whatever the issue is.

$175

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DIY Online Course

If 1:1 training isn’t in your budget, my Separation Anxiety Foundations course may be the solution you’ve been looking for! In it, you will learn exactly what separation anxiety is (and what it isn’t), how to perform an assessment, how to read your dog’s body language, what each training session looks like with sample steps, how to track and measure your dog’s performance, how to handle training regressions, and much, much more! You set the pace here; there’s no deadlines! And you’ll get lifetime access to the video modules and all other course assets.

$57

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What if I need more help?

After you have completed the initial assessment or online course, my 4-week training package is the best investment you can make in your dog’s ongoing recovery from Separation Anxiety.

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The Training Process

Separation anxiety training success is achieved through a personalized, proven systematic training protocol, which means your dog learns how to be safe during absences by breaking those absences up into tiny, manageable pieces your dog can handle. And then we very slowly make those pieces bigger and bigger, always ensuring your dog is safe and never pushed too far. This means you must be able to suspend all absences while we’re working through this process. Think of it as making an unbreakable promise to your dog that you will suspend absences to help them feeling safe. And just like with any promise, very few relationships recover from a broken promise. Dogs are no different. So even if you think you can leave him just “this one time” that’s a breach of trust. And that single breach of trust can cause setbacks. During training, the only time the dog is left alone is during our practice sessions.

Keys to Success:

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Suspending Absences

During training, the most important thing you have to do is ensure your dog is never being left alone, except for our training exercises. If your dog is left alone and continues to experience panic and cortisol (stress hormone) releases, then training and recovery is not possible. While this may seem overwhelming, I assure you that clients successfully do this every day and I’m here to help you come up with creative solutions to make suspending absences possible. And remember, it’s not for forever.

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Technology

You need to have access to a webcam (laptop, tablet, smartphone or inexpensive Wifi camera is best) but I will help support you. You don’t need to be a tech wizard to be successful.

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Commitment

You should be prepared to spend about 20-30 minutes of training 4 days a week on your own and 60 minutes for our once weekly live session.

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Humane Training

The use of aversive tools (penny shake cans, shock collars, anti-bark collars, citronella collars, etc.) must not be used. Not only do these things hurt or scare your dog to work but they make your dog’s anxiety worse and can prevent progress from being made.

FAQs

What is Separation Anxiety?

Separation anxiety is a panic disorder or phobia, similar to when humans have a panic attack. It is not something that will naturally resolve on its own. To help a dog with separation anxiety, we need to do systematic training often coupled with medication from a vet to help get the dog’s anxiety to a manageable level in the dog’s brain chemistry, like someone with depression who takes medication to help them. Medication options should be discussed with your vet or I can make a referral for you to a specialist, if needed.

How long does it take to fix?

Just like a psychiatrist would be unable to predict a timeline to cure someone’s depression, there’s no way to predict a timeline for your dog’s separation anxiety. Every dog is an individual and there’s many factors that go into each individual case, including your ability to complete the training and suspend absences. The rate of progress is completely determined by your dog and can be slow, particularly at the beginning, but often accelerates as training progresses. I encourage you to think in terms of months, not weeks or days when committing to working on this with your dog.

What's the cost?

After your initial assessment and consult are done, 4-week packages are and renewed as long as needed to accomplish the duration you’re looking to achieve. I require a 4-week minimum commitment as this is minimum amount of time to allow me to learn about your dog, their body language, progress for you to learn how protocol works. Once you’ve done at least 2 months of training, you may be eligible for for one of my step-down packages, depending on how your dog is progressing.

Is my dog just angry, stubborn or being spiteful?

Absolutely not. While it can be easy to think this, the reality is, your dog is afraid of being left alone. And, dogs don’t have the same depth of emotions as humans to experience things like guilt, revenge, resentment or anger. It’s just not how they’re wired. This isn’t a choice he’s making.

Do I need any special equipment?

Separation Anxiety is most effective when done remotely, within your own home, with the use of easy to use video technology. You can use anything from your laptop, smartphone, tablet or an inexpensive, standalone Wifi camera. Don’t worry! It’s all really easy and you don’t have a to be a tech wizard to use it!

Why do it remotely?

Well, because your dog needs to be truly alone. If I were to show up to watch your dog being alone, he would know I was there and he wouldn’t be truly alone. Video allows us to monitor the dog in a real-life absence.

Should I use a crate?

Possibly, but not likely. Very often strict confinement can make separation anxiety worse and, in some cases, the dog could injure themselves if confined – biting the bars, pinching paws or digging furiously, breaking nails. For some dogs we do use a larger confinement space like a room with a baby gate during their alone-time but many dogs do much better when they’re not confined at all.

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