I‘m reading DON’T LEAVE ME – STEP-BY-STEP HELP FOR YOUR DOG’S SEPARATION ANXIETY, by Nicole Wilde, and learning tremendously from it.

Nicole Wilde is a highly regarded dog trainer whose books and DVDs are top notch. Separation anxiety is a common canine problem, and it can be a huge problem for owners. Wilde shares her own experiences with her dog Sierra, a shelter rescue dog. Near the end of the book, she says:

As I write this, it is exactly seven months from the day we brought Sierra home. I won’t say she’s completely “cured,” but for a dog who’s been through so much in her short life, it’s a major improvement… Sierra is finally at the point where she can remain relaxed for a few hours while we are gone. We still wouldn’t leave her alone for a full day, and we can all live with that.

How did they get to that point? The book’s title includes “step by step” and the steps take you through evaluating the situation, for example, figuring out if the dog has separation problems regarding one particular person (our LarryDog has that with me) or whether it’s “isolation distress” that anyone being there can ease. (I think our Lola has this kind, but will try one of the tests recommended to see.)

Wilde has a lot of ideas for when you have to leave your dog or dogs home alone. She suggests methods that you first try out for very brief periods and later extend. Read the rest of this entry

We’ve been back for some weeks now from the road trip that we took for over two months this summer. It just occurred to me that since I’d written about LarryDog having separation anxiety, I might as well write a bit about how he did. Of course, I wasn’t here to see but I have seen some nice evidence of how well he did!

Basically, two young women from our neighborhood here in Mexico (by Lake Chapala) lived in our house while we were gone. They have several teenage brothers who would sometimes stop by to visit. Now Larry used to be pretty nervous about teenage boys, but when the young women or the boys have come by since to visit us, Larry has eagerly greeted them all. Seems he got a lot of loving attention from the whole family, and did just fine!

We knew from past house-sitters that he bonds well with whoever lives here, and this just confirmed that. We had left some anti-anxiety herbal tablets for them to give the dog, and they used those too.

Now that we’ve added Lola, our 6 month old Rottweiler, I expect Larry will be more relaxed when we leave for short times… no trips planned soon!

My husband and I will be going on a long road trip in a week or so. We’ll be gone maybe a couple of months, visiting family and friends around the western U.S. LarryDog will stay at home, as will our two cats. We’ve got petsitters who will live in the house, and I’ve lined up a backup petsitter if anything comes up for the first ones. The animals will be well cared for, and all three are used to being home when we travel. Past pet sitters have told us that our animals did okay.

When we were planning this trip, we had the choice between taking our car, a VW Jetta that doesn’t really have room for LarryDog and all the stuff we’ll be hauling, or our small motorhome, an older Toyota Dolphin. LarryDog has traveled a good bit in the motorhome, and he does okay. But every time one or the other of us would leave, the dog couldn’t relax. It must have been worse when both of us humans left. We realized that Larry will be less stressed (though perhaps more bored) by being at home, with nice people around. He’s bonded with a lot of different petsitters, and I’m sure he’ll like these new ones.

Of course, he’s not the only one with separation anxiety… I get some myself! Luckily, I don’t act it out in destructive ways, and it’s probably worse now in anticipation than it will be once we’re out having adventures!