Dealing with Separation Anxiety
Hi I need to ask a question
the question is : How do I get my dog not to rip my house a park when I step out for anywhere from 2mins to 2hours?
I would go out to the store and come back and the house look like something hit. I don’t want to put my dog in the cage when i am just going out and be
back in a few min. I came to your webside and I thought I would ask you …..
Thank you for your time : David
Hey there David:
Sounds to me like your dog has separation anxiety. Dogs will do this when they are left by themselves. They will look for something to do, and when you leave a dog to his or her own device, your basically asking for trouble.
Your dog is not being bad in its opinion. Your gone, it is all alone, it does not like being alone, it gets bored, and wam!
To fix the problem you have a number of options:
- Give the dog something to keep him busy when your gone. A good way to do this is to offer a stuffed kong to your dog. This will keep him/her busy for ever and they wont care that your not there.
- Put your dog on a tie-down. This basically involves attaching your dog to its leash, (dead ring of collar) then attaching the other end to something that is immoveable, thus limitting the ranging ability of your dog.
- Put your dog in a dog proofed room. By putting the dog in a room where nothing is wreckable, then you are putting him/her in a situation where messing up is not an option.
- If your dog is used to the crate, (cage) there is nothing cruel about putting him/her in there while you are out of the house.
Good luck.