I'm sure dogs are loving the fact that we are home a lot more spending time with
them,
but as things start to change in the next couple of months and we go back to
work or school and we're not home as much,
it could be a pretty big change for our dogs. In today's video,
we're going to talk about the common behaviors that you might see from your dog
if they're having a bit of separation anxiety and you're going to learn about
what to do to deal with those things and also how to prevent them from happening
in the first place. I'm Kayl McCann. Welcome back to McCann Dogs.
It's pretty common for people to think that when their dog shows anxiety,
when they leave, that it's very much about, you know,
them loving them so much and being so sad that they've left,
but you're going to find out from today's video that it's not so much about you,
it's about what you do. Let's talk about that word, separation anxiety.
And for a dog trainer,
that's actually a pretty big word and there can be a lot of different degrees of
separation anxiety from, you know, just sort of minor up into really,
really extreme cases where dogs are, you know,
have the potential of hurting themselves. And if you have a,
a very extreme issue with separation anxiety,
we definitely suggest that you find a local behaviorist and you know,
let them know your particular situation so they can give you the right advice.
There's a lot of pretty common things that dogs will do when they're anxious or
feeling uncomfortable about you not being in the picture. Things like, you know,
tearing up your things,
ripping apart the furniture barking or excessive whining,
drooling in their crate.
There's many things that dogs will do that to show stress.
And we want to talk to you today about some of the things that you can do to
deal with some of those behaviors.
If you look at things from your dog's perspective, you know,
the last couple months he may have been home a lot more.
They might not be have been crated as much. You're not leaving the house.
And their routine is probably getting very comfortable that you're used to you
being around all of the time. But you know,
in hopefully a short time that could change. You might need to go to work again,
you might be away to school,
you might be leaving the house on a more common basis.
And if your dog is not used to that,
it could actually cause your dog to show you different signs of stress.
Let's talk about leaving the house. Now.
Dogs are incredibly situational learners.
So if you happen to do the same routine before you leave the house, you know,
you grab your keys, you put your shoes on, you do things, you know,
in a specific order,
your dog will start to anticipate that and they'll start to feel, Oh my gosh,
they're doing those same three things they always do. They might be leaving. So,
you know,
think about changing up your routine a little bit so that the your exit strategy
isn't quite the same thing every single time.
Another thing that I want you to think about is trying not to make a big deal
about you leaving. And when you leave the house, try to avoid the, Oh,
I miss you so much in the high squeaky voice that we do a lot of dogs that just
sort of encourages them to get more excited and then you get them all ramped up
and then you walk out the door and you have to sort of expect that they're going
to be sort of leaving with that that you know, wanting for you to come back.
It's better off to get your talk in a more calm state before you leave.
You might give something to distract them, you know, maybe they,
you stuff a Kong or give them a chew bone and you put them in their crate and I
would suggest putting them in their crate several minutes before you leave,
even 20 minutes before you leave,
put them in there and make sure that they're settled. They've been walked,
they've been exercise.
Give them a nice Kong or stuffed bone and put them in that crate.
Let them chill out for a little bit and then you can sort of sneak out of the
house without making it a deal.
And that will really help your dog to realize that when you leave it's not that
big of a deal because you're exiting in a much more calm manner. Now, sadly,
this isn't just as easy as stuff Kong and then you can leave for the day and not
think about it. There's a lot of dogs that will start to pair.
You put me in the crate,
you give me a Kong and then you leave for eight hours and then the stress starts
to, to back chain from there.
So the absolute best way to work through this is to do it in small increments.
So you might, you know, put them in their crate,
give them a chew bone and just go outside for a couple minutes and then come
back in and just sort of hang around the house again.
Don't make a big deal out of the dog, just sort of be very neutral.
Then you might repeat the exercise and you know, go down and get the mail.
Come back,
then you might go to the store and just start to slowly increase the time that
you're away or make very random. Sometimes go out for longer. Other times,
just go out for a moment and then return back to the dog.
You need them to understand that when you leave,
it's not necessarily going to be this big dramatic thing.
It could be for short little spurts here and there all throughout the day.
Now if you have a dog that can sometimes be a little anxious when you leave.
It's also really important that you know when you come home,
you also don't make a huge deal about coming in the house.
If you've been gone all day and you come in and you're, Oh, HI PUP PUPS use you,
I'm so excited. You know,
it just ramps your puppy up and just get them more excited. You know,
it's better off to come in and just, you know, ignore them for a moment.
Let them sort of take a second to settle in their crate.
Once they're calm and relaxed,
then let them out and do all your snuggles and all those things that we love to
do. But it is important that we,
we play down the whole going out and coming back for the dog
because they're so good at reading body language.
They will start to be able to read those scenarios.
So we need to try to make those particular triggers little bit less obvious to
our dog. Now I mentioned the use of a crate and if you have a dog that is having
different anxieties when you leave introducing a crate into their routine could
be very, very helpful thing for you.
It gives them a place where they can learn to be calm and safe.
It also is going to prevent them from eating things in your house,
which could potentially be bad for your house,
but also dangerous for them or you know,
scratching at the door and just sort of, you know,
line longingly at the door while you're gone all day.
So the crate's going to be really important.
Something to keep in mind though is that if you're only using a crate when you
go to sleep or when you leave the house,
that can actually cause the crate situation to be more stressful for your dog.
So we highly recommend that when you use a crate that you use it for many times
throughout the day for short periods of time,
even when you're home so that your dog understands that that particular
process or place doesn't necessarily provoke you leaving and disappearing.
They could be created while you make dinner or help the kids with the homework.
Whatever it might be.
We need them to understand it's not necessarily going to be for a long time.
It could just be for a moment or two.
Some dogs can be a little bit anxious in their crate,
even when you're in the house.
It doesn't even need to be when you're leaving and going actually away. So,
you know,
another thing that you can practice is make sure that your dog is created,
you know, in a local area where there's lots going on.
But if you have a dog that tends to be a little bit more anxious when you leave,
try practicing having that crate in a little bit more of an isolated spot where
you could actually rehearse leaving the room and then coming back,
leaving the room and then coming back and conditioning the dog to be comfortable
being in their crate and being calm even when you're not in the same room.
There's a few little dog training tips though that I need to help you with in
order to make sure that you do that process correctly.
Some dogs will show a lot of anxiety by barking or whining in the crate,
and it's a pretty common human reaction to hear barking or whining in the crate
and then just walk back into the room and say, it's okay. It's okay.
And I'm unfortunately from your dog's perspective,
it's very much like you're praising the dog and telling them, good dog.
Way to bark, way to whine.
So if you happen to be in the other room and you're healing,
hearing a lot of whining and barking,
it's actually best just to wait until you hear a few moments of calmness and
quiet. And when I say moments, I literally mean one or two seconds.
And at that point from out of the room,
we want you to let your dog know that they're right by saying yes and then you
can move into the room and then praise your dog or even throw a few cookies in
their kennel to remind them that when they're quiet and calm,
that's when good things happen.
That's when treats are wive and that's when their favorite person walks into the
room. But we want to be careful that we're not accidentally reinforcing that
separation anxiety by praising or showing up
in the room at the time when the dog is the the most anxious that can actually
make things worse rather than better. Now,
you may have heard us talk about in other videos in terms of barking in the
crate that time, we would suggest you interrupt that behavior by going in and,
and addressing it. But for this,
we're going to do things a little bit differently because a lot of times when
dogs have separation anxiety, just the act of you walking in the room,
whether you're coming in with positive or irritated intentions,
the fact that they can see you again is just enough.
So for this particular behavior it's important to wait until you get calmness
before you actually move back into the room.
And this can be pretty tricky if you can't really see what your dog's doing.
So you can go a little James Bond if you want. You can get you know,
a mirror or something and set it up so that from around the corner you can see
what's going inside your dog going on inside. Your dog's great.
And there's a number of different ways that you can reward them as well.
You could just praise them from the other room with your voice.
You could walk in and throw a couple of cookies in your crate in their crate.
Or you also could use something like a remote treat dispenser where you know,
they,
it can pop food in your dog's crate for you while you're in the other room.
I'm always that ensure that when your dog is getting positive reinforcement,
it's in the most crucial time when the dog is not showing any anxious
type of behavior. Again, it's not about you,
it's about what you're doing to address or reinforce the good behaviors.
It's really important that you don't wait to find out whether your dog's going
to have certain anxieties when you go to leave them.
So play around with some of these things. Now, you know,
if you haven't spent a lot of time apart from your dog or creating them while
you're home or you know, leaving the house and coming back and you know,
checking whether your dog is going to be worried or not,
it's important to start that now because if you have to go back to your job or
whatever it is and you are going to be gone for a long period of time,
we don't want to be putting the dog in a situation that they're really,
they've never seen before. You might be at the point where, you know,
if you go out or if you're in the other room,
your dog might have graduated out of their crate.
Maybe they don't need to be crated anymore.
But if you find that you're sensing some anxious behaviors barking while you're
gone, things like that, sometimes when they're in a more open space,
there's more room to move around and get themselves all worked up.
It actually can provoke that anxiety feeling a little bit more.
So please don't be afraid to, to backtrack a little bit,
maybe re-introduce your crate for a little while until you can sort through
this.
And then of course you always can graduate to having them out of the crate once
again,
but sometimes I'm giving them the freedom and in the house or letting them pace
back and forth. Can actually encourage them to get more worked up.
And having them in a quiet,
safe place can sort of get them to think about relaxing and associating
that particular place with being a little bit more calm minded.
We want you to think about the mental state that your dog is in before you leave
them.
Often the dog that is tired and has been physically and mentally exercised,
they're much more likely to be more calm and relaxed when you're not
around.
It would be a good idea to figure out now whether your dog would benefit from
having a pet sitter or a dog Walker. You know,
try leaving them for a longer period of time and see what happens. You know,
you don't just want to leave them,
go out for the day and then just kind of hope that it all went well. You might,
you know,
go outside and stand outside for a while and listen or set up a camera on your
dog while you're gone and watch their behavior, see what they do.
Have your neighbor let you know whether the dog was barking or not so that
you're able to work through it.
Sometimes our dogs are giving us behaviors and we don't even know because we've
just kinda gone on with our regular day and we're not necessarily paying
attention to the signs that our dogs are giving us.
This is all about training our dogs and setting them up to be successful.
And the only way that we can do that properly is by really having a very solid
understanding of what actually is going on with our dogs when we're not in plain
sight. We have given you a lot of tips to help you deal with some, you know,
pretty common separation, anxiety issues. But remember,
if you're not seeing any of these issues that it doesn't mean that you shouldn't
practice these things.
We want you to start this stuff now so that you don't end up having issues down
the road.
I referenced the importance of exercising your dog before putting him there
crate earlier,
and we actually have a great video on four ways to exercise your dog that has
nothing to do with taking them for a walk. So if you want to check that out,
click the card right here. On that note,
I'm Cal happy training and see you in the next video.