Dog Behavior Separation Anxiety

As you can see he is a very handsome male Silky Terrier, who believe it or not is 15 years old. He is filled with energy and despite his diminutive size (11 Pounds), he eats like a German Shepard. He has a great disposition with our family and friends and he has become an ideal companion for all of us.

Max is primarily an indoor dog but he does like to be outside and enjoys our backyard. No matter what family member or friend comes into the house, Max greets them with uncontrolled happiness. He will go all the way upstairs and get a toy to show them when they come into the house. This is his way of showing us how much he appreciates us and how happy he is to have us home.

Unfortunately, for years Max had separation anxiety. He became stressed each and every time we would leave the house and he was left alone. Right before we would leave, Max would sense that we were leaving him. So he would do anything to please us like retrieving his toy or sitting at attention right in front of us.

This was not only a stressful situation for him but it was a heartbreak for any of us in the family. After we would leave, Max will do several things like frantically pace, bark constantly, cried and on occasion he would chew the door where we exited the house.

I could be outside mowing the lawn or taking out the garbage, Max would still suffer most of these symptoms. It did not matter how long I would be gone, he would just get so upset. If we were gone any length of time he would also "make" in the house which he never did when we were home with him.

So what did we do to help Max get over the separation anxiety disorder? The first thing we learned was in order for Max to get better we had to make some changes in how we dealt with him. For example, we would make a big deal over him prior to leaving the house. We disciplined ourselves to stop that behavior, as we learned this to be one of his anxiety triggers.

What we did not realize was by creating a long drawn out emotional goodbye, it was just adding fuel to the fire. So we found out that we needed to act the way we wanted Max to act prior to our departure, which of course was cool and calm.

Another thing we learned to do was to stop yelling at him. We found out that this was more of a detriment than any thing else. By showing him how upset we were only made his anxiety intensify. Of course this would occur before we would leave and when we returned home.

See more of what we learned for Max at his training program below!