How can I ease my puppy's separation anxiety when I leave him?

It sounds like your dog has a degree of separation anxiety. I would recommend first getting him crate trained. If you keep him in a crate while you are gone this will keep him safe from hurting himself or damaging other things in the house. I would also recommend taking him on a fast-paced walk for 20 to 30 minutes before you leave the house. This will help drain some of his nervous energy. It would also help to give him a toy or a treat to play with and keep him busy while he's in the crate. If these tips aren't working for you, you may consider talking to your veterinarian about getting Bruno started on an anti-anxiety medication. I hope this helps. Best of luck

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.

Great question! When a dog has separation anxiety, typically you will see destructive behaviors from them when you leave the house, such as tearing up objects. They can also excessively salivate, whine, howl, bark, chew on things, defecate and/or urinate in the home, dig, or try to escape the house. If you are concerned that Fox may have separation anxiety, there are a few things you can do for it. I recommend crating him when you are gone. The crate will provide him a small space where he can feel safe in it when you are gone. You will have to slowly train him to get used to a crate. Start putting him in it when you are home and sitting nearby so he doesn't think you are abandoning him, and slowly increase the time he is in it. He can have toys in the crate, and puzzle toys with treats in it that he has to figure out how to get the treats out. You can put a tablespoon of peanut butter in a Kong toy and freeze it in the freezer overnight, then give it to him in the crate. That will keep him occupied for a while. Finally, you can get a pheromone diffuser called DAP that helps dogs with anxiety and pair that will a DAP pheromone collar that releases pheromones when in contact with his skin. If these methods do not help him, then I recommend having him seen by a vet to discuss the use of anti-anxiety medications. Good luck, I hope this helps!

Hi there and thank you for using Pet Coach to address your concern! Unfortunately, separation anxiety can be quite difficult to address for most dogs. I usually recommend a multi modal approach. I recommend the following non-prescription approach prior to anything prescription: 1. NaturVet Quiet Moments calm chews plus Melatonin (can be found online quite easily. 2. Adaptil pheromone collar 3. Adaptil diffuser 4. Thundershirt In combination with this, I typically recommend providing plenty of toys such as a kong toy filled with peanut butter and some other noise making toys. I have recently recommended a product called the Pet Cube. This allows you to watch him via an app on your phone remotely and you can even control a laser pointer and interact with him while you are away. If this does not work or the behavior worsens, I typically recommend adding in anti-anxiety medications such as Trazodone, Amitriptyline, Clomipramine (clomicalm), etc. in combination with the above recommendations. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

This does sound like Rexxy has some separation anxiety. Some things that you can do to help him are to make sure he gets plenty of exercise, especially before you have to leave for an extended period of time; put him in a crate/kennel before you leave to prevent him from being destructive while you are away; and you may want to consider talking to your vet about medication for anxiety. This may help his transition and make him be more calm in your absence. I hope this helps. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Best of luck!

Hi and thanks for posting on Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Don't worry- you are not alone in this separation anxiety issue Oren seems to be having. This is very common but can be very frustrating for everyone involved- including Oren! Anxiety can be very energy draining, so I am not surprised to hear about the exhaustion experienced when you get home. A few tips, though, can help with this. Keep the crate area very comfortable and inviting with lots of soft blankets. Spray a bit of Adaptil Spray (pheromone spray) you can purchase at your local pet supplies store around the crate area and blankets 15 mins before you leave. Take a kong toy and stuff it with low fat peanut butter or low fat plain yogurt and freeze it overnight. Take it out 10 mins before you leave and offer it to Oren to keep him entertained and busy while you are in the process of leaving and while you are away. Playing music or the radio can help as well. Claiming chewables with L-theanine in them daily can help lower anxiety levels naturally. SSRIs prescribed to Oren by his veterinarian can help with cases that do not improve even with behavioral modifications if Oren continues to have trouble with separation anxiety. I hope this helps and best of luck!

Sounds like some separation anxiety is starting. You should try and keep her distracted while your mother prepares to leave. Dogs will pick up cues like putting on shoes or picking up keys and start to feel anxious. Sometimes just doing these things and then not leaving will help, as the dog will start to disassociate that with her absence. Also practice getting your mom to leave for very short periods of time and keeping the dog busy in the house with a food dispensing toy, play time etc. Or just chilling quietly and rewarding her like crazy when she isn't looking to the door, acting anxious, whining etc. Have your mom come back. Any time she leaves or returns she needs to not make a big deal about it for the dog. That means no more "Ohh Fluffy, I'm so sorry I''m leaving" or "Hiiiiii Fluffy, I'm home, oh, aren't you just the best dog ever?!". It needs to be really neutral so they dogs behavior isn't being reinforced. Any attention (good or bad) is attention to the dog and you can actually be rewarding them for doing things you don't want reinforced by accident. Keep working on building up the length of time that she is gone and the dog is comfortable. You are absolutely correct that the sooner you get started on this the better off you will be! I also recommend upping your dogs exercise. A tired dog, is a good dog. Dogs with extra pent up energy are more likely to find ways to keep themselves busy and this usually means by doing something we won't approve of. Most "bad behavior" is stemmed from pent up energy and frustrations, and is just a way of expelling that. Make sure walks are just not a leisurely stroll. They need to include running, jumping, sniffing around, try some commands-anything to get their mind and body working together, and tired. If you aren't able to work through this yourself you will need professional help and guidance to work through this issue and give you the tools to be effective in helping her through this. This is imperative that be it addressed now. Over time, the behavior re-enforces itself and it gets worse and harder to treat.