If your dog has separation anxiety, you may think being home with them and working with them at home is the way to resolve the issue. In reality, it is best to board and train your dog to help with separation anxiety because it gives out trainers a unique opportunity that we wouldn’t have in your home.
Why Should I Remove My Dog From the Home?
By signing your dog up for a board and train program and removing them from their day-to-day environment, you halt their emotional reactions and patterns. This stop in behavior can be used to teach your dog a new way to behave. This is a complex behavioral issue that requires expert board and train services to resolve successfully.
At the end of your dog’s training, we will add you and the home environment back into their routine, along with training protocols that we will teach you to help make the transition more successful.
What is Spitze K9’s Approach to Separation Anxiety?
At Spitze K9, we know separation anxiety is a complex issue that is different for every dog, meaning our board and train process will vary from dog to dog. Still, the foundation of the training remains the same. Our training for separation anxiety includes:
Confidence Building Exercises
To help resolve separation anxiety, your dog needs to understand that they are okay on their own. When your dog is at our board and train facility, we help them build their confidence gradually. As it grows, that confidence helps the dog in other situations. Even when they are alone in their crate.
Crate Training
We will work with your dog to help them be comfortable and relaxed in their crate when they are alone or when someone is with them. We utilize durable crates that the dog cannot break out of. We also monitor your dog and will not leave them to panic and make matters worse.
Boundaries and Accountability
To help your dog overcome separation anxiety, we will work to teach your dog that certain behaviors are off-limits. We will teach your dog their expected behaviors and take the time to build and practice healthy behavior patterns with them.
For example, we will teach them how to be calm and say no to them for barking or howling. We will apply boundaries around unacceptable behaviors through training in different situations, not just when they are in their crate.
Communication with an E-Collar
We use the e-collar sparingly as a way of communicating with your dog in a way they can understand. It also provides a means of communication when verbal commands are not getting through to the dog. The e-collar allows us to communicate with the dog and also is a means of correcting the dog in situations where we tell them “no” and they do not respond as trained.
Introducing Separation in Their Life
When you are home with your dog, it is crucial to create moments of separation. To do this, we use the place command. This is where you will put your dog in place. This can be somewhere such as their dog bed. So rather than them following you around or clinging to you, they will learn to cope with the separation on a minor scale.
These minor “practice” instances of separation will add up and help your dog handle the longer separation moments, like when you leave home.
Transitioning Back to Home
The skills we teach your dog at our board and train facility will transfer to their life at home, but it is a process that should be done carefully. To do this, we will train you and anyone else living in the home to ensure you know how to assist them in the transition home, how to communicate with them properly, etc.
Continuing this training segment after your dog’s board and train is of utmost importance. Otherwise, they may slip backward. Continued reinforcement of proper behavior keeps the foundation strong and will help with your dog’s separation anxiety.
You will also need to mimic their lifestyle when training to help them retain the skills and patterns they learned with Spitze K9 in your home environment. Our team will work with you to teach you all the different things about our time together with your dog and provide you with a detailed plan to help you when your dog returns home.
What Other Skills Can My Dog Learn During Board and Train?
In addition to working on separation anxiety, we can also teach your dog on and off-leash obedience, leash skills, manners, and how to navigate public situations calmly, which are all skills that are part of the process of reducing their anxiety and building their confidence.
Board and Train in Pittsburgh
At Spitze K9, we offer expert training while using our board and train services to help your dog reduce their anxiety and boost their confidence. Contact us today to learn more!
Antonio has taken care of dogs since his youth and has worked with law enforcement agencies to train dogs in the US and Internationally as well as countless other pet dogs since he started Spitze K9.
He has been an established dog expert for years.