Pet Positive Training

Some dogs may seem to suddenly develop separation anxiety, reactivity, or other surprising and undesirable behaviors.When deciding what training or management to use, consider possible causes of the behavior change.Health, Recent and Past experiences, Age, and Unrecognized communication signals may all be possible causes. In this episode I dive into examples of these changes and some ideas for helping your dog on the way to recovering and changing their emotional and physical responses.

Learn from Liz Fisher, certified professional dog trainer, about how to help your dog relax in a variety of ways! This includes how to use music and sound to help any dog learn how to relax as well as improve an anxious dogs experience with fear of noises.

Hear my go-to management solutions to prevent your dog experiencing alone-time panic or problem behaviors while you work on training. Plus! Thoughts for dogs with different particular social or behavioral needs.

I go through the research I can find about CBD given to dogs and cats. If you would like to see Dr. Jen’s Blog article mentioned in this episode, here is the link: https://www.drjensdogblog.com/behavior-medication-first-line-therapy-or-last-resort/

Having multiple dogs or multiple pets can make identifying and treating separation behavior issues feel a bit overwhelming… but it can be done! While you can just throw a camera up and see what happens when you are away, you should consider a few things. Let’s start with safety, confinement training, and whodunnit?

It may be spooky or uncomfortable but RULE #1 from this trainer: Never Correct a Growl. A growl is an audible and obvious sign that your dog is uncomfortable and needs something to change.

If your dog chews on inappropriate things even when you are home then that is a safety that needs to be managed during separation training. That may look like management via putting things away or in containers. But that may also look like a type of confinement away from areas or items that could be potentially dangerous…

Most often for older dogs who have separation issues pop up, we see barking, howling, whining, soiling the house, and restlessness or inability to settle. These are the same signs of separation anxiety or separation issues as in younger dogs… but that may not be the whole story.

For dogs who may have separation anxiety, reactivity, shyness, fear, and alone time problem behaviors.

I compare when to use a sit and when to use a pattern game to help your dog focus or calm down when something exciting, scary, or frustrating is in the environment.

Separation anxiety can be stressful to see and live with. Know that it is treatable and this is where to start.