Apollo: Separation Anxiety Case Study

Separation anxiety in dogs can feel impossible to deal with. It’s not a behavior problem, per se, but it can cause behavior problems—and it tugs on our heart strings more than any other issue.

How can we leave our dogs in their crates when they whine at us with those sad eyes? How can we leave them out of their crate when they bark us to the door, begging us not to go? How can we leave them when we know there is a possibility they’ll get so stressed out they’ll destroy the house?

You can’t stay home 24/7, but you also made a commitment to this dog. It’s a tough situation, and one I recently ran into with a dog named Apollo.

Apollo’s owners called me because he’d been urinating and defecating in the home, couldn’t handle being crated, destroyed some of his owners’ belongings, and was beginning to show aggressive tendencies. Aggression can stem from separation anxiety. In Apollo’s case, he was becoming too possessive of his owners and began growling and lunging at visitors. Luckily, his owners gave me a call before major damage was done.

The key to handling a dog with separation anxiety is building their confidence. Dogs need a structured lifestyle. Because humans don’t want to be stuck in a cage all day, they have a hard time understanding that dogs may actually prefer it. Dogs will come to see a crate as their safe space, a space to relax and unwind. But there is a big difference between sticking a dog in a crate and crate training. B-More Dog Training can help you figure out the difference, just as we helped Apollo’s owners.

Now, Apollo relaxes calmly in his crate when his owners have to leave the home. He knows his role in the home and understands it’s not his responsibility to be in charge of his owners’ whereabouts. By keeping him on a reliable schedule, he learned to trust that his owners would always come back to feed him and let him out of the house. He grew secure in his relationship with them. We also included basic obedience training, which adds additional structure, trust, and bonding to the human/canine relationship.

I would never claim that Apollo’s results occurred overnight, but after just a few days, his owners began seeing improvement. It’s been four months now, and I’m happy to report that he has reached all of the training goals we set during his in-home consultation.

To learn how our Baltimore Dog Training can help you and your dog, call 800-649-7297 today.