posted 07-29-2003 02:21 AM         

Sometimes the relationship between owner and dog is taken to a level above and beyond what is healthy. What results is called separation anxiety, when a dog become incredibly stressed when its owner leaves it by itself. This can be a very serious issue for dogs. They’ll then soil the floor, destroy property, and pretty much go nuts in your house until you return.

They don’t soil, destroy and go nuts out of spite for you, and that’s the most difficult thing for pet owners to realize when trying to confront the issue. They do these things because they don’t know how to function without your company. They have relied on you for every move, and when you’re gone they lose all ability to be sane.

There are two main reasons dogs experience separation anxiety. They are either too passive and rely too much on you, or they are too dominant and they think they own their territory. The latter experiences a different kind of anxiety when you leave. The dominant dog thinks of you as its subordinate, so when you leave it wonders how you’ll survive without it. That stresses the animal.

A passive dog thinks it needs you there at every moment of its life or it doesn’t know what it should do and how it should act. That’s when it goes crazy. It will pee and poop on the floor and lose all control of what you taught it for the simple reason that it doesn’t know how to act when you’re not there.

The worst thing you can do when trying to remedy the problem of separation anxiety is to scold your dog after it has caused problems in your house. If you scold it, it will think your arrival is what has been bad. Instead, when you see that your dog has acted unacceptably when you return, you should talk slightly disappointedly to your dog. Act as if you know it can do better but spanking and yelling at your dog won’t help.

To cure your dog of separation anxiety you must overcompensate for its dominance or passivity. If your dog is passive, you must make it feel more independent. Give it less attention than it usually gets. When you arrive home, don’t spawn over it for a long period of time. If your dog is dominant, you need to discipline it and give it more attention and put the animal in its place.

A passive dog needs to be able to think on its own more frequently. Allow it to do things on its own that you have always done with it. Of course, the first several times you do this you need to keep a close eye on it, so you can step in if something goes awry. Overall, give it less attention than you normally do. Let it do things on its own more often.

If your dog is too dominant, you need to make sure you spend more time with it. Make sure it knows who’s in charge and you may have to yell at your dog once in awhile when it does something you don’t want it to. You need to take more of a fierce control over the life of your dominant dog.

Separation anxiety with pets is something that can be cured. But it does take time. But if you abide by these rules for several weeks and months on end without giving in to giving more attention to the passive dog and letting the dominant one do whatever it wants, then you should start to see success.

Title: Canine separation anxiety
Description: Canine separation anxiety is a common problem among dogs. Learn how to cure it.