Dog Name: Snoopy
Dog Age: 9 Yrs.
Dog Breed: Poodle Mix Breed
Behaviour issues:
Separation anxiety, excessive barking, disliked crate
Claudia originally called us in to help in 2007 with her dog’s separation anxiety but after the lesson Claudia moved, life got busy and she had little time to do her homework – when she finally decided she couldn’t take Snoopy’s behaviour anymore she called us back for a revisit to start her training over in 2009.
Snoopy had severe separation anxiety. He would howl when left alone, which was a major issue given his owners lived in a condo and the neighbours were complaining. He was also very fearful and would bark at any noise from the hall – what made matters worse they lived across the hall from the elevator! So Snoopy barked ALL the time. His separation anxiety was so severe his owner couldn’t remember the last time she’d showered without him standing by the tub whining!
Outcome Descriptions:
After the first three hour session, Snoopy’s owners could see what submission signs looked like – they’d never seen his tail go down or ears back. We got him to stop barking at the door at the end of session one. His demeanor was more relaxed and definitely more submissive but he was not going to be changed overnight. For separation anxiety I put Claudia and Jason on a strict program of Passive Dominance for a minimum of 2 weeks. This was harder on them than on Snoopy – they had to get it through to him that he could no longer dictate the actions of the pack and lower his importance – part of that is obtained by ignoring your dog’s requests for attention. It was tough to get it through to them but once they committed to the training program I prescribed – they started to see the changes and the results speak for themselves!
Client Comment / Review:
Lisa provided great approaches on dealing with Snoopy's separation anxiety. While we're still working on his anxiety his improvement has been dramatic. From not being able to take a shower without him yelping frantically we are now able to leave him alone while we go to work with only the occasional slip up. While some of the techniques seemed drastic Lisa was able to clearly communicate the purpose of each. Her ability to explain what Snoopy was thinking based on our actions made it much easier to understand and accept the training techniques that we were assigned.