Separation Anxiety
Monty
Monty originally came to me for puppy classes and was fabulous throughout his course – picking things up very quickly!
As he got older, it became clear that Monty was struggling with separations from his owners – and from his mum in particular. This was causing problems at work, as Monty goes to work with mum and would cry and work himself up whenever she had to leave him to go to a meeting.
We worked together over the course of two 1:1 sessions at home to help Monty with his anxieties. We established that rather than having true isolation distress, Monty was actually suffering from frustration/FOMO when he wasn’t with his owners, which is very common in young dogs.
We looked at how to make sure Monty’s needs were being met day to day through enrichment and scent work; how to get him having fun on independent tasks and how to show Monty that he wasn’t missing out on anything fun when mum & dad were out the room.
Now, Monty is happy to be left without his mum and is able to happily settle with other people when he’s in the office. A great result for Monty!
Potch
Separation anxiety was an issue for Potch and his worries around being left alone were coming out in barking behaviours, which was not ideal for Potch or his neighbours!
Potch’s owner had recently moved home and this is when the behaviour presented itself; Potch had always been happy to be left at home before the move. We identified that it wasn’t being away from his owner that was making him anxious, but being left alone in general.
We spoke about enrichment to offer Potch to de-stress him and make sure he was as chilled out as possible and had more capacity to cope when he was left alone. We then looked at how to desensitise Potch to the exit cues of his owner so that these no longer made him worried before he was left alone. Finally, we looked at how start small on separations and work towards extended periods of time on his own.
Separation anxiety is never a quick fix and Potch still has a way to go before he will be happy to be left alone for 4 hours again. However, I am delighted to say that Potch has done amazingly well adjusting to his new enrichment-filled routine and is he now comfortable being left alone for short periods. With continued training, Potch’s owner will have their freedom back and Potch will have nothing to be worried about when he’s home alone.
