Separation Anxiety Training Process
I am going to start out by explaining what separation anxiety is and what the common stress signals are. Then, I'll go into detail about the training method I use, called desensitization. After that you'll get information about my program requirements, what you get from me, what is expected of you and what the cost is. If you have any questions after reading this, please let me know. I'll be giving you a large amount of information. If you already know some of what I'm about to tell you, bear with me. I prefer to be thorough.
Separation anxiety is essentially a phobia. The dog is afraid of being left alone and therefore goes into a panic when he experiences alone time. Most dogs do not panic as long as someone is with them but some dogs are very attached to one person and panic when separated from them. The latter isn't typically what we see in the world of separation anxiety and the approach is the same either way. When a dog has separation anxiety, you will likely see any of these behaviors:
Panting
Trembling
Yawning
Vocalizing
Attempting to escape through exit points like the crate door or
the front door
Destruction of household items or furniture (typically something
that smells like the dog's guardian)
Inappropriate elimination in the house - Pacing and more.
Pretend you have a phobia of snakes (I apologize if you do and this causes any discomfort to you!). If someone were to close you in a room with 100 snakes with no way to escape, what would you do? You would likely try to escape, scream, tremble and maybe even hurt yourself as you became paranoid about a snake touching you. Are these behaviors being practiced because you want to scream or tremble? No. They are a direct result of your fear. It is the same for dogs. When a dog has separation anxiety and experiences alone time, they tend to behave in undesirable ways as a result. If we can change the fear of alone time, those other behaviors will naturally discontinue.
The method I use for separation anxiety training is called desensitization. This means we introduce alone time incrementally at a very gradual rate only moving forward when the dog is ready. For separation anxiety training, no food is used. The use of desensitization alone has proven to be very successful. What we look for is for the dog to become bored of what you are doing which will result in your dog doing something else instead of focusing on you, like play with a toy, bone, sleep, etc.
Because we must introduce alone time gradually, management is crucial. Making sure that your dog is never left alone for longer than they can handle is necessary. This is called suspending absences. If your dog experiences the anxiety from being alone, it will prove to make the training very challenging and likely unsuccessful. This tends to be the hardest part for people to imagine and often seems like an impossible task. Notice that I said your dog cannot be left alone for longer than they can handle. This doesn't mean you have to be with your dog 24/7 but rather that someone has to be with them if you must leave. This can be accomplished by utilizing daycare, trade services (for example, I could give free training services to someone in exchange for their help watching my dog), ask a local retirement center if they would allow your dog to hang out with one of their residents who is willing to watch them for a few hours, asking the local rescue community for help (maybe a foster is a stay-at-home parent and is willing to watch your dog while you work), give a college student a free place to study using your wifi, and more. There are so many options and I would be happy to brainstorm. While not all options are suitable for every dog, I'm sure we can come up with plenty of ideas that are appropriate for your dog.
The training program typically takes many months. I can't ethically give you an estimated time of completion since there are many contributing factors. Because we are completely changing a fear/anxiety, it takes time. It is so rewarding when you hit some goals, though. As you hit some of your goals, you can start to leave your dog alone for however long they are comfortable. For example, once your dog is able to be alone for an hour you can run some errands or go for a run. Once your dog is able to be alone for two hours you can get lunch with friends. You can do these things as long as your dog is able to handle the alone time well.
Training is packaged in four-week increments. Since this is a slow process this should allow you to see some slight progress but the first couple of months tend to seem slow. Once your dog is able to be alone for about 30 minutes, we usually start seeing progress much quicker in the sense that alone time can be increased in larger increments.
Each week you will receive five training sessions from me (called "missions"). Each mission will take approximately 30 minutes to complete. The steps will be extremely detailed. For example, one step may read "put on your shoes, walk to the door, open the door, take a step out, close the door, lock the door, take 10 steps away from the door, return." You will know exactly what to do when you go through each mission. There will be a spot next to each step where you will record what your dog does. As you complete a mission, I will send an updated one based on your notes. Plan on completing one per day and taking two days off of missions per week- absences still need to be suspended on the "off" days. This will give you a couple days per week to relax and not have to worry about getting a mission done. The "off" days can be any day and don't need to be consistent or planned. I check my clients' missions daily and update as needed.
In addition to the five missions, we will complete one live re-assessment per week. In the beginning we will complete a mission together. During the re-assessment, I will take notes while you complete the mission. This way I can make sure we are on the right track and we can address concerns, celebrations, questions, etc. live versus over email.
You may be wondering how you will know how your dog responds to each step if you are not in the house. This is accomplished by utilizing technology, like a tablet, smartphone, wireless camera, etc. Most of my clients will simply use their laptop and smartphone. The laptop is set up inside and the smartphone is taken with them so they can watch. I use a program called Zoom which is much like Skype but I prefer it for the additional features it has and the ease when working with clients.
Each four-week package includes 20 missions, 4 live re-assessments, and unlimited email communication. In total, you will be getting about 10 hours of my time each month. The package is $550.
Allison Lamminen CTC, CSAT , PCBC-A
