Article by Diana G.

Do you come home to scratches on your doors, destroyed or shredded furniture, inappropriate urination or defecation from an otherwise house-trained dog? These could be signs that your pet is suffering from separation anxiety! 

We have seen many dogs struggle with separation anxiety, especially in this post-pandemic world; imagine going from spending 100% of your time with your best human friend to all of a sudden 10 hours a day of separation with no idea why! Return to work is a difficult concept for our pandemic puppies (now 4 year old dogs) to understand…

You are not alone as a pet parent struggling with this, so if this is your experience continue reading for three veterinarian recommended tips to curtail pet separation anxiety and set your pet up for success!

1. Small Periods of Separation

The cure to separation anxiety is… separation! But in very small amounts that progress over time. We recommend starting this from the time your pet is a puppy or early on into your adoption. Starting with 15 minutes of separation, and building incrementally from there.

When you arrive home, try to be calm and keep this initial interaction feel ordinary.  You basically don’t want them to be “rewarded” for acting extremely excited the second you get home and make every time you enter the door a huge occasion.  After letting them outside and burning off some energy, then you can excitedly play with them!

Over time your pet begins to recognize that you will come back for them, and this is just a regular part of their life.

2. Treat Dispensing Toys

A treat dispensing toy does a lot to keep your pet mentally stimulated as you’re leaving. That initial separation is very stressful for pets so if you have something to keep them distracted, and using their noses, you can help keep some of that anxiety at bay. Did you know dogs burn calories by sniffing? Sniffing for just 20 minutes is equal to about an hour’s walk of enrichment!

There are many treat dispensing toys you can find online that are appropriate for your pet’s size. For a DIY version, you can wrap their favorite treats up inside of a few dishtowels, and tie those dish towels into a knot! Just watch the video below to see what I mean!

ThunderShirt and ThunderEase Products

This is not sponsored, but we do sell ThunderShirt products in our lobby because we firmly believe in the science behind their calming effects! ThunderEase is essentially a calming spray that emits a pheromone that only dogs can detect, that mimics the calming pheromones of a nursing mother dog.  We would recommend spraying their kennel, their ThunderShirt, or whatever their favorite area is about 15 minutes before your leave.

You can also outfit them in a ThunderShirt (it doesn’t just help for thunderstorms!). ThunderShirt works similarly to swaddling a baby- providing a gentle amount of pressure to their torso. This type of pressure can release a calming hormone like oxytocin or endorphins!

Hopefully those tips can help your pet with their separation anxiety journey! There are many more strategies we can take to help with separation anxiety, so if these methods are not enough for your pet, book an appointment with our team, we would love to help!

Alicia Pet Care Center is family owned, located in Mission Viejo, CA. Our office number is 949-768-1313 and we are open from 7 am to 7 pm Monday through Friday and 7 am to 3pm Saturday! 

What Makes us the Best for your Pets?

• Pet Boarding
• Grooming
• Laboratory Facilities

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