FAQs

Puppy Separation Anxiety

How to control my puppy's separation anxiety?

The moment the puppy has the slightest idea that it is going to be kept in isolation, it becomes very anxious. This is what is called as puppy separation anxiety. Most puppies dislike isolation or separation. The separation in most cases results in unwanted behavior.

Dog is a social animal, no one can dispute this fact. As the dogs are very passionate animals, they develop intimate relationship with their mother and mates. Once separated, the dogs develop affection towards their owner. Hence the dogs, if they are separated either from their mother or from the owner, they are certain to develop canine separation anxiety.

There are many contributing factors for separation anxiety. Abnormal predisposition to dependency is one such factor. Some painful events that happened in puppy’s life could also be a contributing factor. That event can be change in place of birth all of a sudden or very early weaning from the loved mother or sudden change in attention given by the owner.

Separation anxiety differs from dog to dog. Some dogs will have single abnormal behavior and some may show many abnormal behaviors. Many dogs could somehow guess that his beloved caretaker is planning to leave the place. In such circumstances the dogs may cry or may follow the caretaker wherever he goes in the house.

The dog may get aggressive when the owner actually leaves the place. The aggression will reach its peak in a matter of 30 to 40 minutes. During the period of aggression the dog may run aimlessly, hit the door or window or may bite the objects that come in its way.

Treatment for separation anxiety
Well, this puppy separation anxiety can be treated. There are methods like obedience training, punishment and crate training available for the treatment of separation anxiety. All the methods that are mentioned here only control the abnormal behavior and don’t care about the inducing factors.

Planned departure is yet another method of treating the puppy separation anxiety. As per this method, the puppy will be exposed to short time departures of the owner. The short time can be few minutes or few seconds. Before the anxiety and the induced behavior peaks the owner returns to the puppy. In some cases anti anxiety drugs can be used. Anti anxiety drugs, if used along with the other behavioral treatment methods, the results will be exemplary.

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