The things I learned while training horses helps a lot with training dogs. Here are some of the similarities between training horses and dogs:

Pressure On – Pressure Off & Opposition Reflex

Both dogs and horses respond similarly to tension or pressure that is maintained. Here’s an example. Let’s say you’re standing on the ground with a horse on a lead line (which is basically a big leash). If a horse is standing on your foot and you want to get it off, definitely don’t just push their shoulder and maintain the pressure. If you do that, the horse will lean in against the pressure, (pushing back toward you) which will only intensify the weight on your foot. The horse is resistant because of the WAY you are sharing pressure. The horse has no ill-will toward you, or any desire to hurt your foot. They respond instinctually to resist that kind of pushing – and the same goes for pulling. Resistance inevitably happens if you pull firmly and maintain pressure or tension on a lead line. The horse will lean back against the consistent tension, causing a tug of war that a human will lose. This kind of firm steady tension can cause a horse to truly flip out and even to fall over backward in a panicky attempt to get away from the sensation. Instead, the key is to push and release to get a horse off of your foot, or to pull and release (or a firm jerk and release, depending on the situation) rather than keep pulling steadily, to get a horse to follow along while walking on a lead line.

With a dog on a leash the same rules apply. It all boils down to the WAY you share pressure through the leash to communicate without causing the dog to instinctively resist, but instead to follow you. Pressure on – pressure off.

Here’s another example. To build the drive (controlled momentum) needed to leap fences you hold the reins with tension (basically it’s gently putting on the ‘brakes’) while simultaneously putting on the ‘gas’ with leg pressure and pushing in the saddle – then release this tension in a burst of energy to soar over a jump.

The average dog owner is doing the same thing – unwittingly – by maintaining leash tension with their dog in a state of high excitement and the result is that their dog is understandably amped up and chomping on the bit to GO! Meanwhile, dog owners generally want their dog to calm down and walk peacefully. Once the person understands about leash pressure and how to communicate through the leash with their dog, the entire conversation changes, resulting in a dog who is more relaxed and ready to follow.

Seeing INTENTIONS to change the course of events

Once you get to really understand horses, or dogs, you begin to know ahead of time what will likely happen in certain situations. When you know what to expect, you can plan ahead and look for cues (or ‘tells’, if you’re into poker) about what their intentions are ahead of time. The cues vary somewhat depending on the specific dog or horse you’re working with, but there are basic similarities. Getting a jump start to prevent unwanted behaviours or situations from ever occurring is super helpful in behaviour modification. This is how we begin to develop healthier habits, rather than continuously responding to a crisis after it’s already happened.

Here’s an example. A horse shifts it’s ears toward a plastic bag blowing in the wind. Since we know horses are prey animals and easily startled into flight by novel things – especially things that move in an unexpected way, we can prevent the horse from escalating from concerned interest into lunging away or panicking, by noticing the horse’s intention. The first sign may be their ears swivelling to the direction of the new sound. If we’re paying attention, we can give the horse firm guidance and direct their attention away from that distraction and back onto the job at hand. This prevention of escalation and firm support leads the horse to trust in the person’s guidance.

The same goes for dogs who are leash-reactive (over-reacting in fear/aggression to dogs, people, wildlife, or moving objects). The key is to catch the intention and de-escalate arousal (over excitement) at or before the first sign. Dogs similarly perk up their ears, causing their forehead to wrinkle in an expression of intense concentration or concern. If the dog has a habit of lunging or attacking, you certainly don’t want to wait until the dog’s body stiffens, or until it starts vocalizing or lashing out. If you miss the intention phase, then you’ve missed your opportunity to help the dog shift it’s state of mind. Once the dog is freaking out, they really can’t think straight in order to learn anything new, so it’s best to leave and be better prepared next time to help the dog to remain calm and make better choices about how to behave in that situation.

Time and patience

Say we have a 1000 pound horse who is frightened about getting into a horse trailer and it’s throwing a massive tantrum to avoid getting in. Just like in dog training, that’s not the best time to teach anyone anything. When an animal has already escalated into panic mode, it can be dangerous to push at such a time. First we take an animal in a calm state of mind and simply hang out around the new, potentially scary thing (the horse trailer) while doing absolutely nothing. Everyone is relaxed, there’s no rush – no pressure. We could then get begin to gradually get closer to look at and smell the trailer while associating it with something pleasant – like eating delicious food. This is systematic desensitization and counter-conditioning in action – which is a fancy way to say, getting used to something gradually (using baby steps) and making it feel less scary by associating it with something pleasant. The goal here is to face a fear and to realize that nothing bad happened – then repeatedly experience this success over and over. This is exactly how any animal (including humans) gets over any fear.

A lot of problem behaviours can be completely eliminated by simply being patient and showing an animal that their fears are unwarranted. Time and patience are priceless components of dog training and horse training. So then we progress to taking one step up the ramp – often this can be very scary for horses. Many horses take this first step, then quickly amp up into panicky thrashing or leaping sideways which can be extremely dangerous for the handler.

Following Through & Being Consistent

The fact of the matter, with dogs or horses, is that we can be super patient and kind while introducing a new concept, but there comes a point where we need to make something happen and it is critical that we follow through and not allow the dog or horse to resist and escape the situation. By allowing them to throw a fit to avoid getting into the trailer, for example, the horse would then get a rush of relief – which is a huge reward for doing something we don’t want.

It is crucial that we follow through with what we’ve asked the animal to do, and to make it as pleasant as possible, but also as firm as necessary to get the job done. Once the horse is successfully in the trailer we can reward with a carrot or apple and let them see that their fears were again unwarranted.

Over time, in many situations we build trust with the animal we’re working with which results in increased cooperation in new situations. As with any successful training we’d repeat this exercise many times until it’s completely easy and natural, but we need to be prepared to be extremely determined leaders in the “messy middle” when the animal is unsure and needs our guidance the most. This is where many horse and dog owners go wrong. They see that their pet is upset and unsure, and rather than standing firm and making absolutely sure that the action they’ve asked for is fulfilled, they give in and give up and the animal is rewarded for disobeying and loses trust in them as their leader. The animal also would learn that they can get out of cooperating by throwing a fit, making irrational and scary outbursts much more likely in the future even when the situation doesn’t call for it. Animals are very smart and make these associations quickly.

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

Silence is golden. While training, it is very helpful to keep quiet, except for saying command words. Noise increases stress, while silence relieves tension and improves focus.

Both dogs and horses are generally quiet creatures. Both species will vocalize on occasion, but usually they only do so when in distress, when over-excited, or to emphasize something they’ve already communicated non-verbally. Both dogs and horses use body language, gesture and motion to communicate clearly with each other – and with us – if we’re paying attention. They both also learn best while humans are being quiet. Avoid baby talk, asking questions, and constant yammering. For the most part, vocal chit-chat is distracting, over-exciting and confusing to them. It is also a main reason dogs develop ‘selective hearing’ or ignore what you say and ‘don’t listen’. Their hearing is very good. It’s just that humans tend to blather. (This is something I work on remembering daily – so if you can relate, you’re not alone!)

We found that adding gestural cues to our command words helps dogs clearly understand what we’re asking. As with human infants, dogs understand gestures (or specific sign language) much more quickly – before learning the meaning of verbal language. They clearly respond to tone of voice, but we generally want to avoid speaking too much, as it helps dogs and horses to keep calm when we’re quiet. Patience and calmness are our best friends when training.

Refusing to Budge

With both dogs and horses, if they make themselves dead weight and refuse to move on a lead, the answer is to turn them. Guide them in a completely different direction, rather than straight ahead the way they are facing. This shifts their weight and once that happens you can steer back to the direction you wanted to go. It works every time.

Strong Leadership is Required

Fear is not overcome by spoiling or nurturing. Coddling, cooing baby-talk and stroking a frightened dog or horse only rewards the fearful behaviour they are demonstrating. Petting a nervous, fearful animal tells them that there indeed must be something scary happening – and yes, good job – keep shaking, cowering, stressing or worrying. Instead they should be able to depend on us to be strong and control ourselves while showing them through leadership and example that whatever they’re worrying about is no big deal. The human’s job is to step up and become a source of confidence that can be trusted to take care of whatever comes their way, while expecting and demanding that their companion animal demonstrate their best behaviour too.

Dogs and horses can both clearly tell when an unsure person is ‘in charge’ (or not, but should be). Like kids with a substitute teacher, if they sense hesitation they’re much more likely to misbehave. Perhaps you’ve heard some of the classic stories from tourists visiting a pay-by-the-hour ranch to go on a trail ride. They’re all excited to ride a horse, but instead of following the herd along the trail, the horse repeatedly yanks the reins out of the rider’s hands in order to eat grass, or rubs the rider off on a handy fence or tree, or insists upon taking them back to the barn early (at a walk or a gallop!). Leadership & confidence are essential for horses and dogs to take you seriously & to perform or behave at their best.

Stopping Dangerous or Unacceptable Behaviour

With both dogs and horses it is necessary to use rare but firm punishment to correct blatant disobedience. Once the animal has been fairly taught and thoroughly understands but refuses to cooperate, there must be a meaningful consequence to convey that their choice is unacceptable, in order to change the unwanted behaviour. This is critical when the behaviour is dangerous to the animal, other animals, other people or the owner. The correction should be brief and intense, rather than gradual or continuous. It is much more effective to suddenly snap them out of it, rather than to nag, pester or underwhelm them. Since you don’t want to do a lot of corrections, make the punishment count the first time so you don’t need to do it twice.

I was recently reading some studies about punishment from teams of scientists who have been researching this topic for decades. One thing stuck out for me. They said that using gradually increasing low-level punishers is how to create a masochist. From the book “Behavior Analysis and Learning: Fourth Edition” by W. David Pierce, Carl D. Cheney (2008), referencing the work of Azrin, Holz, and Hake, “punishers that are introduced at a low intensity and gradually increased… is a formula for creating a masochist.” p. 125

Think about that! This is relevant to every dog owner, as most (including myself) naturally share the most gentle interactions possible and only increase intensity gradually as needed in the situation. An example is the ‘boiling frog’ analogy – that if you put a frog in a pot of cool water and gradually heat it up, the frog will continue to sit there until it boils and dies. However, if the frog was suddenly tossed into that boiling pot, it would leap right back out again and survive. That’s not a very nice story, but it does fit the idea. A sudden startling correction will stop your dog (or horse) from continuing to behave badly and endangering itself or you – whereas if you only share ‘soft’, gentle corrections that aren’t truly effective and gradually increase the intensity, you’re actually making your animal more insensitive and less likely to listen to you in the future. In effect, it’s teaching them to ignore you. Since we all want to do as little punishing as possible, when it’s necessary, make it sufficiently aversive that you won’t need to repeat yourself. An effective punisher is not emotional, it is done calmly, it does no damage to the animal and it immediately changes the behaviour – to stop them from repeating the mistake again.

Because we love our companion animals, we ideally would only share gentle, kind interactions with them, but in order to keep them and ourselves safe, it is necessary on rare occasions to make it clear that some behaviour is completely intolerable or dangerous and must be stopped immediately. (eg. possessiveness /resource guarding, leash reactivity, aggressive behaviour, etc.) This is not to advocate violence, abuse or injustice. It is to prevent injury, save lives and to prevent ongoing stress in dogs & frustration in owners that can lead to unfavourable, irrational or emotional over-reactions that can truly be dangerous, and cause mistrust, or resentment. When corrections are done rarely, unemotionally and safely, your relationship will not be damaged in any way. Instead you will create a stronger bond with an animal who respects what you say when a serious situation arises, who will trust you to handle the situation, with increased reliability and safety for both of you.

No doubt there are many more similarities between training dogs and training horses, but this article is plenty long so we’ll wrap it up here.

Harmonious Relationships

What I valued most about working with horses was the intuitive bond that was created between rider and horse. By spending a vast amount of quality time together, we could predict one another’s intentions and synchronize our movements like a flock of birds. That is harmony. That is a synthesis of energy. It’s a beautiful thing – like dancing.

The key to successful training is to spend quality time building a great relationship with your companion animal so that your experiences cease being a struggle and instead become an easy, harmonious synergy – where you completely understand, respect and trust one another.

What is dog separation anxiety & how do you stop it?

Separation Anxiety is Togetherness Addiction.

Separation anxiety is one of the most common problems people experience with their dogs. We have simple and straightforward methods to fix it! First we’ll clearly define what the symptoms are, then briefly describe why it happens, and then show you the steps to the solution. At the end there’s a summary to stick on your fridge.

How do you know if your dog has Togetherness Addiction?

Does your dog seem stressed, anxious, insecure, unsure, or nervous when you leave home – or even when you leave the room? Symptoms of separation anxiety include: quivering, whining, panting, drooling, barking, destroying your home or your stuff, constantly following you around when you’re home, intense pacing, urinating/defecating indoors. In extreme cases, dogs who are left alone can cause serious injury to themselves by scratching through walls, clawing doors, or by breaking windows during attempts to reunite with their owners. This can result in cut paws, or damaged nails or broken teeth!

Why is your dog stressed out when left alone?

Some people focus on imagined abuse that may have happened to a rescued dog, or the stress of life changes, but the main reason is that it isn’t natural for a dog to be alone. Dogs are pack animals who normally would not be spending most of the day by themselves. However, since we are responsible for bringing dogs into our human world, it’s up to us to show our dogs how to deal with spending some time alone and learning to enjoy it, or at least how to calmly cope with the situation.

And before you ask, getting another untrained dog to keep your dog company will definitely NOT solve the problem! Dogs can quickly teach each other bad habits, and then you’ll have two problem dogs. Instead, teach the dog you already have how to be perfectly calm and well behaved.

Owners unwittingly make the situation far worse by encouraging clinginess. Are you rewarding and reinforcing your dog for remaining close to you by being overly affectionate, constant patting or touching, or talking too much to your dog? Are you allowing your dog to follow you around and to be constantly near you? People can feel guilty for leaving their dog home alone all day, and then overcompensate by lavishing their dog with unearned attention, praise and affection.

What to do if your dog has separation anxiety?

The main thing is to teach your dog to relax and adjust some of your everyday routines so your dog learns to remain calm rather than freaking out when they need to be left alone for a while. We will show you how to teach your dog that calmness is a super power! Rather than letting your dog remain in a state of fear or anxiety, show them how good it feels to be calm and balanced.

5 Steps to Stop Separation Anxiety

Here is a series of proven methods to eliminate and/or prevent separation anxiety. Don’t just pick the steps you like. Do all of them. The methods work together in an integrated approach that not only gets to the root of the problem (to stop the cause) it also addresses how to stop the bad habits (the effects) that resulted from your dog feeling so unbalanced and distressed.

So, here are the components of a household management system to teach your dog how to remain calm and relaxed, even in your absence. These are also the core elements of our Board & Train programs because they provide HUGE benefits to a dog’s overall state of mind, as well as building trust, respect and calmness.

Control the space in your home

Your new job is to create distance between you and your dog while you’re at home. Allowing your dog to follow you around at home is a common way separation anxiety gets started. Teach your dog to relax in one place, such as on a mat, cot, or dog bed. Work on increasing the time your dog stays in that place. Use the Place command to teach your dog to be quiet and settle down for increasing periods of time. Ask him/her to lie down and remain there while you go out of sight when you’re home. Use the “place” command, down-stays, and a crate to manage your dog’s movements.

It’s an essential skill for your dog to learn how to be alone and exist on their own. If your dog can’t exist calmly while you are in the same room, how can you expect them to know how to be calm when you leave them alone at home while you go to work? So, never allow your dog to be your shadow, or follow you as you move around your home.

Crate train your dog. Practice putting your dog in a crate for a couple of hours, even when you’re home. You don’t want the dog’s time in the crate to only be associated with your leaving. With practice, the kennel will feel like a restful place to hang out. Teach your dog to relax in a down-stay in the crate, even with the door open. Your dog will learn to chill out on their own, rather than stressing out about what you’re doing, begging, or pestering you for constant attention.

Calm is a Superpower

What is your dog’s energy like while indoors? Make the inside of your home a *calm zone*. Teach your dog that indoors is not the place for jumping around or frantic play. It’s not okay to race over to bark at the window, zoom around from the sofa to the chair, to chase the cat, or to herd or nip at your kids. If you don’t create calmness within your home, how can you expect your dog to be calm when facing the exciting distractions outside of your home?

Remember that intense excitement does not mean that your dog is happy. Over-excitement is unbalanced energy. In a group setting, other dogs will instinctively and harshly correct a dog who is over-excited and behaving anxiously. Humans have been taught that a wildly excited dog is happy. The truth is that a calm dog is happiest, in a peaceful, contented way. It’s not exciting to look at, but it’s true.

Silence is golden

If your dog is struggling with separation anxiety, one of the most important things you can do is to make your arrivals and departures a huge NON-event. When you leave to go to work, or return home from an errand, don’t make a big deal about it. Leave the house with as little commotion as you’d make when you leave the room to go to the washroom. Simply kennel the dog and leave. You certainly don’t want to use a sad cooing tone or an excited, high-pitched voice; “Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon! It’s okay!” “Oh, Buster, I missed you so much! Hoozagooddog? You are! Yes you are!” Of course you love your dog, and your dog knows it, but saying all of these things in a language your dog doesn’t understand only tells your dog to start stressing out. Don’t ask your dog questions, such as, “Do you want to go in the car, do you want to eat, or do you want to go for a walk?” Of course they do! So don’t ask, because it gets your dog over-excited and more likely to make bad choices. Dogs don’t know much English, but they do understand energy. So when you come home, completely ignore your dog and greet your family members, or go to the washroom, or get a glass of water first. Then, calmly say hello to your dog ONLY when s/he’s *calm*. This reinforces the good behaviour you want them to learn.

One of the best things about dogs is their responsiveness to our emotions. Dogs have an exquisite perception of our emotions and they are very expressive themselves. They read our body language, hear our tone of voice, sense our energy and respond in kind. In this way a dog’s behaviour can mirror our behaviour and energy. So it’s our responsibility to control ourselves in order to keep their energy balanced, and to provide calm assured guidance, rather than making them anxious, or allowing them to remain anxious. Teaching a dog is a great opportunity to work on improving ourselves as well. Sometimes we don’t get the dog we want, but we get the dog we need.

Reduce attention & affection

Put your dog’s needs ahead of your preferences. Your job is to do what’s right for your dog, rather than doing what feels good for you in the moment. Excessive verbal praise, physical touch, and treats exacerbate separation issues. Lower the excitement levels and create calmness by dramatically reducing food rewards, verbal praise and physical touch. Too much attention and affection increases excitement and stress and inspires more unwanted behaviours with your already anxious dog. We want our dogs to exhibit self-control, so we need to work on our own self-control. Lavishing a dog with unearned rewards is really rewarding to the human. It’s selfish and psychologically harmful to an already anxious dog. When a dog is feeling insecure and unbalanced, the owner needs to reduce unearned affection and adjust the amount of structure the dog is getting. Structure and predictable rules make dogs feel safe.

The Structured Walk

Boredom and lack of exercise can result in stress and destruction. Ensure your dog is getting the proper amount, and right type of exercise. You don’t want to amp your dog up with wild, crazy wrestling or racing and romping just before your leave. Structured dog walking is essential, not only for separation anxiety, but for all dogs. Structured walks not only help to resolve disobedience issues and behaviour problems, but also are used to teach overall good manners. This is not a casual meandering walk. Expect excellence and create the perfect, precision heel! Dogs need and love having a job to do. Your dog’s job is to walk at your side or slightly behind you, and at your pace, without pulling, sniffing, marking, pooping, lunging, staring/loading, greeting, or barking. When you stop, teach your dog to stop and automatically sit calmly at your side.

If you have one, a treadmill is also a great mental and physical workout for your dog, and is especially helpful during bad weather. Anxious dogs benefit the most from structured exercise, but it’s great for the wellbeing of every dog. If you’re going to be gone for long hours during workdays, you can hire a dog walker who knows how to lead your dog on a structured walk.

Crate Training

Kennelling not only keeps your dog and your personal possessions safe, but also helps significantly with eliminating separation anxiety. If your dog is stressing out, soiling in your home, or destroying your stuff, the solution is to use a kennel. This prevents tragedies such as your dog chewing on an electrical cord, or swallowing a chunk of your furniture and dying!

Putting your dog in a kennel is not being mean to the dog. Using a crate is actually good for your dog. It keeps them safe. It keeps your home and guests safe. It’s a quiet place to rest if there is too much going on for your dog to handle – such as if you’re having a party, or if you have a bunch of kids visiting your home for a play date. Crates are great for quiet times too, like when you’re sleeping or when you are very busy and can’t supervise your dog. They are also extremely helpful during house training / potty training.

As soon as you bring your dog home, begin training your dog to go in and out of the crate on command: “Kennel up!” Make the process short, fun and rewarding. Then, as with all training, consistency is key, so repeat often. The goal is for your dog to enjoy being in the kennel and to feel safe and snug in there. The crate is not a punishment, so never use it as such. It’s their bedroom, den or living room. Feed your dog in the crate to associate these two pleasurable experiences together. Feeding your dog in the crate also ensures your other pets or kids don’t steal your dog’s food – so your dog won’t feel the need to guard their food from them. You can also let your dog have their favourite bone to be used as a stress or boredom reliever while in the crate.

If your dog has escaped from a crate, use zip ties to strengthen the corners and leash clips to secure the door more firmly, or get a stronger crate. Once your dog learns that it can’t get out, it will relax.

You can also play music, or leave a TV or fan on for your dog to provide a constant background sound for a feeling of security. This can also block out or mask other sounds that may disturb your dog’s rest.

Correct Undesirable Behaviour

This section discusses 2 tools to snap a dog out of their destructive and anxious mindset. These tools are a bark collar and a remote collar. If you are new to these training tools, don’t let your fear of the unknown stop you from keeping an open mind, learning and growing. These tools are safe, humane, and extremely effective. Our mission is to help dogs, not to hurt them. On the other hand, dogs die every day from being dumped at shelters due to destructive and disturbing separation anxiety behaviours that get people evicted from their homes. Dogs with separation anxiety can seriously injure themselves while in a panic at being left alone. These tools do give the dog a split second of discomfort, to snap them out of panic-mode, rather than the hours of escalating distress that the dog was already experiencing. The goal is to change the dog’s state of mind in an instant to stop the anxiety in it’s tracks.

Bark collars save dog’s lives. Many people have abandoned their dogs or their dog ends up dying in a shelter due to neighbours complaining about their barking dog and the landlord threatening to evict. Instead, a bark collar gives a split-second stim to a localized spot on the dog’s neck that startles them and stops their barking. It is not painful, but yes, it’s uncomfortable. That’s why it works. After a few instances of experiencing immediate consequences, the dog realizes that barking isn’t such a great idea and they begin to relax instead. Bark collars work. They are humane and effective. They give the dog instant information to stop doing something that isn’t good for anyone – including themselves. Note: Do NOT use citronella spray collars. Dogs have exquisitely sensitive scent detection. The smell remains long after the barking has stopped – which is cruel and unfair to the dog.

Allowing a dog to remain in an anxious state is abusive. Instead, correct the whining. Rather than letting your dog to continue to stress out, get your dog to calm down by using one of the following methods:

Good quality remote collars (with at least 100 nuanced increments of stimulation) are incredibly effective tools to communicate with your dog even at great distances. The sensation is not shocking or electrocution. At the very highest level, it is very startling, but causes absolutely no physical harm. I know, because I’ve tested them on myself. The stimulation can only be felt at the spot the contact points are touching. It’s a very localized sensation that stimulates the muscles like a TENS units used by chiropractors and in sports or physical therapy. We have experienced amazing results with this tool. When introduced properly and used in a consistent way, it is an incomparable part of a dog’s overall training. This tool is used at very low levels to motivate and communicate, (in the same way you first show a dog on leash any basic command by applying leash pressure or by releasing that pressure) and it can also be used to give a dog a brief correction. A split second stimulation can instantly interrupt and correct a frantically stressed out dog. Using a remote collar is one of the most effective ways to help dogs get over their undue anxiety.

Used properly, it’s a fantastic wireless guidance system. Like any tool, or any object really, it can be used improperly, but we don’t ban water because a maniac used it to drown someone. We don’t blame knives if some lunatic used a knife to stab someone rather than to chop veggies.

These are effective and humane ways to quickly calm your dog down, to make it’s life better, and make your life better. This momentary startling interruption is much better than allowing the dog to remain in a tortured state of mind or perpetuating this state in a negative feedback loop. Dogs feel relieved to not be held hostage to the unnecessary stress, and begin to practice peaceful, calm behaviour instead.

Confidence Building

Gradually expose your dog to new environmental elements & reward their accomplishments with your calm attention and affection. You don’t need to have agility training equipment. Find interesting spots in your environment that you can use to build your dog’s trust and confidence by calmly and firmly guiding them to go under, over, and through a variety of spaces. For example, get your dog to try new things, such as climbing up on a stump or small boulder. Guide your dog under and over a park bench or picnic table. Visit new places, new situations & build trust through successful accomplishments while demonstrating and expecting calmness.

Keep a Consistent Routine

Dogs love a predictable home routine with consistent expectations. It makes them feel safe. Dog training isn’t something you do only at puppy school for an hour on Saturdays, or when your dog is misbehaving. Just as your parents didn’t schedule teaching you good manners and life lessons only for ten minutes on Tuesdays. Kids learn by observing and interacting with people in real life – every minute of the day. In the same way, dog training is a lifestyle. Integrate these new good habits and expectations of your dog into your everyday routine. Dog training for the real world isn’t a series of tricks. It’s holistic. It’s all connected. It’s about building a bond of trust, respect, calmness and good communication.

Okay, let’s summarize:

Follow ALL of the steps to eliminate &/or prevent dog separation anxiety.

1. CONTROL YOUR SPACE by giving your dog jobs to do:
   1. don’t let your dog follow you everywhere or behave excitedly indoors
   2. teach your dog to rest in *Place* for increasing lengths of time
   3. use the crate even while you’re home & long down-stays with crate open
2. CONTROL YOUR SELF to lower excitement levels & create calmness:
   1. no high pitch talking, excited questions, or indoor play
   2. leave the house with zero fuss (it’s no big deal, so just kennel up & leave)
   3. come home with zero fuss (*ONLY pat a dog who’s completely calm & relaxed*)
   4. strictly limit attention, affection & food rewards to reduce excitement, stress & anxiety (these are powerful rewards to be used meaningfully)
3. STRUCTURED EXERCISE – This means formal on leash walks with rules, rather than off leash free-for-all runs. The goal is to engage both the body and the mind to release pent up energy, rather than creating a marathon athlete with more over-excited energy:
   1. structured walks (at a heel on a loose leash, with auto-sit when you stop)
   2. treadmill exercise for up to an hour per day (with constant supervision)
4. CORRECT ANXIOUS BEHAVIOUR to help your dog calm down. Teach your dog that *calm* is expected & behaving anxiously (barking, whining, pawing the crate) isn’t allowed. Being firm & consistent with the other rules will result in needing fewer corrections here.
   1. use a bark collar to stop the barking when you’re not home
   2. use a quality ecollar with at least 100 incremental levels
   3. use a bonker (towel) or Pet Convincer (air) – see Solid K9 Training‘s video (great inspiration for this post)
5. CONSISTENT RULES & LEADERSHIP make your dog feel safe:
   1. make as few rules as possible & ensure they are non-negotiable
   2. demonstrate fairness, calmness, patience (you are your dog’s role model)
   3. integrate dog training into your everyday routine as a normal part of life

Even if your dog doesn’t have separation anxiety, you can use these methods to prevent separation anxiety from starting in the first place! Avoid togetherness addiction and keep your dog in a healthy, calm, balanced state of mind.

We want to help you to build a bond of trust, respect, confident calmness & good communication with your dog so you can both enjoy a happy, balanced life together. Calm, well mannered dogs get to experience more freedom and are included in more aspects of our lives. Here’s to your success!

Note: Many dogs are now being medicated for behavioural issues such as separation anxiety. Medications are not a cure, do not address the cause, but only temporarily mask the underlying problem (if that) and can have seriously adverse side effects. It is much more humane to *teach* your dog the behaviours that are welcome and helpful, and to correct them when they make mistakes to be crystal clear. Instead of meds, treat the root cause of dog separation anxiety (stress & overindulgence) and create the solution (calmness & structure). A good dog trainer will be happy to work with you and your vet to reduce and eliminate meds in order to clearly assess and address behaviour problems. It’s not like you can’t change it later. After the training is complete it would be easy to put your dog back on meds if that is what you and your vet feel is in the best interest of your dog’s mental and physical health. After thorough training and behaviour modification, most dog owners discover that their dog no longer needs meds to behave well.

Congratulations for putting your dog’s needs ahead of your preferences and for taking the time to teach your dog to have calm, self-reliance!

Wishing you and your dog happiness, health and peace.