Tuesday, February 5, 2013

separation anxiety

So, if you don't know already many boxer dogs (and other breeds) can get pretty bad separation anxiety. Wait...Let me start off by saying I am NOT a professional dog trainer. I  just read a lot and do a lot of  research to help my own dog. We practiced leaving with our dog last year and got him to a good place where he didn't bark while we were gone. Recently he has gone back to his old ways so we're starting all over again. I'm also using this blog to keep track of our training sessions with him so I can see his progress.

Today I tricked him by putting on the black pants I usually wear for work and took my purse and put him in his crate with his kong with peanut butter. I stood outside and waited 5 minutes. He began barking at the 2 min 30 second mark so I waited. When I came back in I ignored him for about 4 minutes and let him out. He's quiet immediately as he sees me but I want him to know that its not just quiet we want its calm. So I don't reward him by letting him out until he is calm. A little while later I practiced stay with him and walked to another room. He used to be PERFECT with this. Now he starts to follow me after a certain point so we practiced this a little bit and he picked it up quickly.

When Brandon (my husband) gets home in a few I'm going to have him do it again with me later today to see how long it takes Dexter to start barking.

We're going to keep gradually building the time up to 10 mins..then 15...then 20 mins...then 25 t hen 30 mins. They say once you get to 30 mins you should be good. It did work the last time. I'm also going to practice starting my car but not leaving the driveway then eventually leaving the driveway. I hope to have a lot of progress by Saturday....Here goes

Maybe i'll bust out the thunder shirt again



Day 1- left house for 5 minutes....started barking at 2 mins 30 seconds
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2 comments:

  1. UnknownFebruary 5, 2013 at 3:56 PM

    My little guy is 5 months and 6 days old. He's a Labrador. His sepertation anxiety is incredibly destructive. I don't care for crate training.....bt im afraid to leave him alone.I've been taking him to a babysitter for anything more than 30 min!!!!

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    1. UnknownFebruary 5, 2013 at 4:35 PM

      I reccomend the thunder shirt! But you can't just put it on him when you leave you put it in him at random times. That way he doesn't associate it with you leaving. You could try what I'm trying except minus the crate. Do you have a room you would feel comfortable leaving him in? You start out leaving 5 mins coming back and ignoring the pup until their calm. Once you can build that time up to a half hour you're golden! I only give our dog his Kong when we leave. So its a special treat filled with peanut butter, but only when were gone

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