Dog won't eat without me & barks when left alone. What can I do?

Unfortunately, there are no quick fixes for separation anxiety. It is a very complex problem and takes many months of working with a professional in-home dog trainer (plus or minus behavior modification medications from your vet) to correct this behavior. I strongly recommend you get a professional trainer to your home to check out her behavior and then they can help you make changes to help her get over the anxiety. It will not be easy and it won't be quick. I recommend Bark Busters and they have a trainer in your area. I believe they do a free initial consult. Trying to correct this on your own is not recommended as you could give her incorrect signals and actually make her worse. ( https://www.barkbusters.com/dog-training-winston-salem-greensboro ) Depending on the severity of the anxiety, most dogs will benefit from the short-term use of pheromones until the problem can be controlled. You can start Adaptil pheromones to see if it helps. ( https://www.adaptil.com/us/Products/ADAPTIL-Calm-Home-Diffuser )

I would recommend first getting a crate to keep Darby in while you are gone. This will help prevent her from destroying the house and keep her safe so she doesn't get into anything that could harm her. Crate training can take a few weeks but once she is used to the crate she will begin to feel safe there. I would also recommend taking her on a fast paced walk before you have to crate her to help drain some of her nervous energy. You can also try giving her a chew toy like a kong in the crate to keep her distracted. If these tactics do not work I would recommend talking to your vet about starting her on an anti anxiety medication. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Best of luck.

Thank you for your question. There are some dogs that are very picky eaters, including mine. You can approach this a couple of different ways. You can decide to stick to one food and take the approach that Kimi will eat it when he is hungry. If you choose to do this, you need to avoid adding anything to the food, or he will simply wait until you add something to eat it. At his age, I would be comfortable letting him go 48 hours without eating before giving in and adding something to encourage him to eat. The second approach would be to recognize that he gets bored with his food and rotate through foods. You can find a brand with multiple flavors. Or you can change between brands. If you change between brands, I recommend adding some of the new food to the old food for a few days. Lastly, there are some dogs that only eat once a day, and if that is all he is interested in, that is okay too. He will eat when he is hungry, and as long as his weight is stable, and there are no other symptoms (such as vomiting or diarrhea), I wouldn't be concerned. For the barking, I recommend ignoring her when she barks. If she receives attention for this behavior it will continue. Here is a link to an article on barking. https://www.petcoach.co/article/5-tips-to-stop-excessive-barking-in-dogs/ I hope this helps. Thanks for using PetCoach.

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I understand your frustration. Soska will not choose starvation. I would put her meal down and give her a set amount of time to eat it then pick it up. Do that for several days to a week and see if she starts to finish her meals. Keep treats to a minimum. If after a week she still isn't finishing her meals then try adding water to the food to make it more tempting. You can try a different type of food after 2 weeks in case she doesn't like the food. If she continues for several weeks Soska should be evaluated by your Vet for any medical reason for her poor appetite. I hope this helps. For my dog it simply took adding water to his dry food and now he eats it without us having to sit with him.

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to address your concern. Separation anxiety can be difficult to address but with patience and persistence training can help. Rather than starting on anti-anxiety medications right away, I typically recommend trying products such as NaturVet Quiet Moments Calm Chews with Melatonin and an Adaptil collar, which can both be found online or at your local pet store quite easily. I would also recommend using a Thundershirt, which can be found online or at the pet store. It would also help if you began feeding Sienna breakfast and dinner in the kennel so that she becomes used to being inside the cage for positive things. I would move all of her toys to the inside of the kennel and whenever she goes inside the kennel, reward her with her favorite treat. If this does not help, I would recommend speaking with her veterinarian and discuss anti-anxiety medications as these may be beneficial in deterring this separation anxiety she suffers from. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further!

Poor Diesel! This sounds like fairly severe separation anxiety, especially if he's too distressed to eat food or treats while you're gone. I would strongly recommend talking with your veterinarian about the problem, as most dogs with this degree of anxiety will need prescription medication (at least for a while) in order to make any headway. If your veterinarian isn't comfortable dealing with behavior cases, you can ask for referral to a veterinary behaviorist who can discuss a training plan to work on this issue as well as medication options to help your puppy. In the meantime, you can try a DAP pheromone diffuser as well as a natural calming supplement like Zylkene or Composure to help a bit with his anxiety. It's not likely that these measures will be enough to resolve the problem on their own, but they may help to make him a little more comfortable until you are able to see your vet for a more comprehensive plan.

It sounds like Tommy may have some anxiety surrounding being fed. I'd highly recommend talking to a trainer or behaviorist in person that can observe the behavior so that they can make a tailored plan to help Tommy feel more comfortable when eating on his own. This may include you gradually stepping farther and farther away as he eats, or adding in some calming pheromones or other techniques to help him relax in the room he eats in. As for the picky eating, adding in a small treat or piece of veggie to his meals should be just fine if he won't eat otherwise. http://www.dacvb.org/about/member-directory/ This site may help you find a veterinary behaviorist in your area if you are interested in talking to one.