Separation Anxiety or Destructive Behavior

Does your dog have trouble when left alone?  Many dogs have a variety of stress issues when left alone.  Problems arise such as destruction of your property and in many cases, a stressed pet may injure themselves.

Here are 3 common issues within this category:

DEPENDENCY ON ONE HUMAN:  Sometimes, a pet becomes so attached to an owner (or other human) that when they are not present the dog will show significant signs of stress.  This issue can be easily recognized, because the stress levels rise even when other humans are present, but the primary human is not. 

STRESS RELATED TO ACTIVITY NEARBY, LOUD NOICES, ETC:  When left alone, some dogs will become particularly fearful when contruction, for example, is occuring in other areas of the house.  Thunder phobias can fall into this category.

GENERALIZED STRESS WHEN LEFT ALONE: When a pet becomes highly stressed when left alone, but any human being present significantly alleviates the stress, the isolation itself is may be at the root of the problem.

-some of these dogs demonstrate pushy behaviors when people are present and they do not get their way.  Destructive behavior is often linked to frustration over their lack of control.

While resolving (or improving) such issues, we follow a combination of confidence building basic training, reduced durations alone for the dog, increased stimulating toys or props, and sometimes, unfortunately (because it can run counter to the behavior issues, while improving safety issues) crating is needed to avoid injuries to the dog and or the household.

Building confidence through basic training remains a great starting point for this and most other behavior problems.