Your dog panics when left alone

Separation anxiety

Anxiety is your dog's inability to cope with the stress of separation — panic in the place of confidence.

At first it seemed like love. They slept in your bed as a puppy, followed you room to room, waited by the door, pressed against your leg while you worked. Then came the whining when you picked up your keys. Then the destruction started, then the accidents in the house, then the neighbor mentioning the barking that went on the whole time you were gone.

Now you plan your day around your dog. You leave the TV on, you come home at lunch, you turn down the invitation. And somewhere in there you started feeling anxious yourself every time you reach for the door.

Why does your dog panic when you leave?

Dogs are pack animals. Being separated from the pack is unnatural to them, and some dogs feel that harder than others. An independent dog shrugs it off. A dog heavy in social drive, bonded tight to its handler, does not.

So part of this is the disposition your dog was born with — its temperament and the balance of its drives. A working breed with a big engine and no job is a common version of this. The drive has nowhere to go, so it comes out as stress.

And part of it is us. This is the uncomfortable part of the chapter, and it's the part that matters most. Time together builds a bond, which is good. But too much of it, with no practice being alone, builds a dog that can't stand alone. Then the panic starts, and every instinct you have says to comfort it — the soft voice, the hand on the head, the sitting back down for a minute before you go. To your dog, that reads as confirmation. The fear was right, and the fear got paid.

Avoidance does the same thing from the other direction. Never leaving, never crating, never putting the dog in the situation at all keeps the panic exactly where it is. Your dog never gets the chance to find out it can handle it.

How we work separation anxiety

We build confidence in your dog, we take the reinforcement out of the panic, and we work the triggers instead of avoiding them.

First your dog's temperament is evaluated — drives, disposition, engagement. A dog that's over-bonded and a dog that's fearful look similar at the door but need much different handling. The evaluation tells us which way to work your dog.

Then your dog gets a map: the foundation first, then the commands that anxiety work depends on — focus, down, stay, and place — because a dog that can hold a calm position is a dog that's practicing being okay. Chapter 35 comes after that, and it's where we work the triggers themselves, at a distance your dog can handle, with the crate used as a safe place rather than a punishment.

We'll also look at what your dog's day actually contains. A dog with work to do carries far less stress than a dog with nothing to do.

Anxiety improves with consistency, and there will be setbacks along the way — that's normal, not failure. The finished picture is a dog that can settle when you leave, and a handler who knows how to help without feeding the panic.

20+ years · author of Building A Solid Canine · every dog is evaluated first

Two ways to start.

Bring your dog to a Saturday.

Garrett reads your dog live at the Saturday workshop in Placerville, CA — that's a Working Evaluation, $200. You get the full day, the printed workbook and the full book, and your dog's written route through it. Every dog is evaluated first. Bite histories welcome with honest disclosure.

Or we come to you.

An In-Home Session at your house, up to two hours, with the same workbook, book, and written route.