Dog Training Nation

In Dogs We Trust

You are here: Home / Archives for no bark collar

Separation Anxiety in Dogs

by

Preventing & Treating Separation Anxiety in Dogs

Separation Anxiety in Dogs
Is dog barking a symptom of separation anxiety?

Is your dog barking due to separation anxiety (SA)? Learn how to identify and prevent dog separation anxiety, and how to seek professional help if needed.

What is Separation Anxiety?

Separation anxiety occurs when a dog has a panic attack when left home alone. It’s like your dog freaks out and can’t control his terror or panic. He’s terrified to be left alone.

Dogs with mild separation anxiety usually pant heavily, vocalize, spin in their crates or at the back door when they’re left alone. Moderate to severe SA dogs will self-mutilate themselves trying to escape, such as ripping out their teeth or crashing through glass windows in an effort to escape.

Identifying Separation Anxiety

As a professional dog trainer, I can usually spot dogs predisposed to separation anxiety. It’s almost like they’re super sensitive and feel things at a deeper level than most dogs. Lovingly, I refer to them as “velcro dogs,” as dogs with separation anxiety are always by your side and looking into your soul. 🙂

Most dogs with anxiety follow you from room to room, watch over you while taking a shower or bath (I think they’re making sure you don’t drown), scream in excitement when you come home and crawl in your lap when you’re sad.

While most dogs will bark and whine when they’re alone, especially when left in a crate, it’s important to differentiate between a dog that isn’t crate trained and a dog with separation anxiety.

When in doubt, revisit “Crate Training Tips” to brush up on your crate training skills. If after putting those dog training tips in practice and your dog still stresses out, then you need to seek professional help from animal behaviorists.

 Still not sure if your dog has separation anxiety? Record your dog when left alone.

If you don’t have a dog monitor camera, use Skype or FaceTime.

How to Prevent Separation Anxiety in Dogs

Our behavior is critical to preventing and managing separation anxiety in dogs. Many times, pet parents reward separation anxiety behaviors because it’s really reinforcing us to be unconditionally loving and we don’t want to upset our velcro dog.

Trust me, I totally understand the feeling and emotion when coming home to your dog. He celebrates with unbridled enthusiasm and vocalizes as if his heart is full again. He’s thinking, “You’re home!” Be careful though. It’s not fair to your dog when you reinforce his excitement for your arrival. He needs to learn coping skills when left alone.

  • Make leaving uneventful
    • Give your dog a yummy food stuffed toy about 5 minutes before leaving.
    • Get your car keys, say nothing to your dog and leave.
  • Make your return uneventful
    • The moment you step into the door, ignore your dog. Trust me, I know it’s hard! Not only are you preventing SA, you’re teaching your dog not to jump on you.
    • Set your keys down and then take your dog out to potty.
    • Once he potties, then reward your dog, but keep celebrations to a minimum. No more happy dances. 🙂
  • Teach your dog that alone time is good
    • When taking a shower:
      • Give your dog a food stuffed toy.
      • Close the bathroom door to separate you and your dog.
      • When opening the door, don’t celebrate.
    • When leaving for 5-10 minutes:
      • Get the mail alone every other day.
      • Work in the yard alone for 10 minutes, then bring your dog out to enjoy yard work.
    • Close a door between you and your dog for a few minutes every day to teach your dog how to be alone.

Additional Valuable Tips

  • Exercise your dog or puppy daily. Most tired dogs will sleep when left alone.
  • Pair yummy food stuffed toys with leaving. This redirects his attention rather than worry about being left alone.
  • Turn on calming music for dogs. Personally, I use and recommend Through A Dog’s Ear CDs or downloads. They’re very relaxing—even for me. 🙂
  • Invest in pheromone plugins or sprays. These emit pheromones mimicking a nursing mother dog and have proven very effective with dog separation anxiety cases.

Yes, in the past and currently, I share my home with SA dogs with variable degrees of anxiety. It’s a tough road, but with professional help, this can be successfully managed and your dog can learn to be alone. 

When Separation Anxiety is Serious

If your dog displays moderate-to-severe separation anxiety symptoms, you need professional help.

Your dog’s behavior will only worsen. It won’t resolve itself, and your dog won’t get over it. I’ve witnessed dogs de-gloving their ears trying to escape from their crates. One client’s dog amputated his own tail, trying to escape his home when left alone. It can get that serious.

What are your questions about separation anxiety? I’m listening!

Stop Dog Barking Next Door

by

Stop Your Neighbor’s Dog From Barking

How to Stop Dog BarkingDoes your dog bark at night? How about your neighbor’s dog? Learn how to stop dog barking even at night plus how to effectively communicate to your neighbor that his dog is keeping you up at night.

Why Dogs Bark Outside

Dogs bark outside because they’re bored, or lonely, especially at night. Take this journey with me. I’m honestly and openly explaining from my dog trainer’s point of view why your “outside dog” barks and how to fix his behavior permanently. This article is not meant to point fingers or blame anyone. We do better when we know better.

Seeing things differently:

For the most part, the idea of living on multiple acres of land with no neighbors in sight is long gone. With the increase of new homes being built to accommodate rapid human population growth, most folks live pretty close to their neighbors. We need to rethink and evolve. Dogs should not be kept outdoors. It’s not fair to your neighbor and certainly not fair to your dog.

Dogs are domesticated, which means they must have constant social interactions with people. Getting your dog a friend, or bringing another dog into your household, and putting him outside with your current dog will only result in two dogs barking at night. I do not recommend this.

How to Stop Dog Barking at Night

Bring your dogs inside. Many readers will shake their heads and say, “I don’t allow dogs in my house.”

First, understand your dog’s point of view. Dogs left in the yard are bored because there is nothing to do. Pet owners leave their homes several times a week, but your dog does not. He is bored seeing the same thing day in and day out. It’s like living as a “shut in,” which is not fair.

I’m not a fan of bark control collars because using them would be punishing your dog for being bored and lonely, which isn’t fair to him. Plus, they are very expensive and don’t always work, and can lead to aggression.

 Instead, bring your dog indoors at night to keep barking to a minimum or stop it completely.

How to Bring Your Barking Dog Indoors

  • Place a crate inside your home, but close to the backdoor.
  • Bring your dog inside. This will stop excessive barking and noise complaints from your neighbors.
  • Learn Crate Training Tips for your dog. This is much easier to teach than trying to stop your dog from barking in the backyard.
  • During the day, when you’re not home, bring your dog indoors. Invest $10-$20 a day for a pet sitter to walk your dog for 30 minutes.

I’m not saying your dog should live in his crate. A crate is a tool to teach polite indoor manners so your dog will eventually be allowed indoors at all times.

What this means for you:

Bringing your dog indoors, using the above steps, takes less time and money than trying to teach your dog not to bark. Plus, bringing your dog indoors will stop him from:

  1. Escaping out of the yard
  2. Excessive barking
  3. Digging holes
  4. Chewing outdoor items
  5. Experiencing hyperactivity (Yes, just because a dog is outside does not mean he is getting exercise.)
  6. Being exposed to hot or cold temperatures

Your Neighbor’s Dog is Barking

I live by the motto, “Doing nothing is the worst mistake.” First, understand that judgement, anger and accusations will do nothing to help this issue. Instead, if you know someone with an excessively barking dog or an outside dog, print this article and place in his mailbox or forward as an email.

If forwarding as an email, write, “I’ve noticed your dog barks at night. This article contains real solutions and will really help you both.” By providing solutions, your message will be successfully delivered, as you want to help both the pet parent and his dog. Plus, if they have any questions, I’m here to answer them, I promise. 🙂

This is not a gimmick to popularize this blog. This is to help dogs live a better life. Period. You can remove our tagline. The goal of this blog is to share because we care, and I promise you we live by these words everyday.

This was a tough article to write, probably the toughest in many years. I feel many ignore this increasing problem so I’m hoping this article can help at least one dog enjoy living inside with his family.

More:
Request Dog Barking 
Attention Seeking Barking 
Dog Barking at Sounds 
How to Stop a Barking Dog

What questions do you have? I’m here to help.

How to Stop Excited Dogs from Barking

by

Barking Dog

Stop Dog Barking
Learn tips to stop your excited dog from barking.

Dogs will bark when excited or nervous. This is very common. Many times, if your dog is really excited or frustrated, his barking gets much worse. He’s usually dealing with his frustration or excitement by vocalizing it, as people do. 🙂 Exciting places can be your vet’s office, dog training classes, your home and the park as well as when they can see dogs or people walking by.

Dog Barking at Other Dogs

Many dogs become excited and start barking when they see other dogs approaching. Remember, not all dogs want to meet other dogs. Do you shake hands with everyone at the park? I think not so your dog does not need to meet every dog at the park. (This is socialization gone wrong.)

Instead, if your dog becomes too excited as a dog is approaching, turn and walk the other way. I like to teach dogs: when you’re on leash, you focus on me and not other dogs. Bring treats and reward your dog when he looks at you instead of the other dogs. Learn more about socialization and greeting dogs at Dog Behavior: Learn to Speak Dog.

     Just because a dog is approaching does not mean your dog must meet that dog. Stop, turn and walk the other way. 🙂

Barking When Excited

Next time your excited dog starts barking, teach your dog to do something else instead of barking. You’ll need pea-sized yummy treats, a clicker, leash and your dog’s collar or harness:

  1. Attach a leash to your dog’s collar.
  2. Tether your dog to you or a piece of heavy furniture when at home.
  3. Click/treat your dog when he’s:
    • Not barking (even for a nano-second)
    • Looking at you instead of your guests
    • Standing still instead of pulling on the leash

Continue to practice at home so your dog learns barking does not work. Standing still, looking at my pet parent and keeping quiet pays with lots of treats. 🙂  If your dog does not improve within 2-3 minutes, your timing is off a bit. If your dog is confused, learn to prevent this by reading this article.

Video Demo

Bark back. I’m listening! What questions do you have about dog barking?

More: 
Dog Barking
Dog Barking at Sounds 
How to Stop a Barking Dog
Attention Seeking Barking

Excessive Dog Barking: How to Stop It

by

How to Stop Excessive Dog Barking

Excessive Barking
daviles/Adobe Stock

Each dog is an individual. While dog breed and age play a small role, dogs have their own personalities. Within a litter of 10 puppies, personalities range from shy to outgoing to bossy. There’s always a noisy one, or the puppy that whines and barks more than the other puppies. This also applies to people. I talk a lot, but my sister is super quiet—same genes, but different personalities. 🙂

Dogs bark to communicate and, at times, we can inadvertently reward this behavior. Barking, whining and howling are normal canine behaviors. However, excessive barking can be frustrating and, if loud enough, can become a problem for your neighbors.

What is Excessive Dog Barking?

Excessive barking is when a dog barks more than necessary in a specific situation. There’s a reason your dog is barking, and it’s our job to find the trigger, so we can dial down the barking and reduce his frustration as well as ours. 🙂

If you ask your dog to stop barking, and your dog continues to bark, this means your dog didn’t understand what “stop barking” meant, so you need to teach him. Ready to learn more? Let’s get busy!

Training Your Dog to Stop Barking

Before we fix the issue, we need to dive deeper to find out what is causing your dog to bark. When, where and what causes your dog to bark?

Once you’ve identified the trigger, it’s so important to catch your dog not barking around the trigger instead of waiting for him to bark. In the South, we have a saying: “Once the horse is out of the barn, not much you can do.”

Applying this to excessive barking, grab a clicker and a handful of training treats your dog loves. When your dog is around the trigger and is quiet, immediately click and give your dog a treat.

It’s very important you catch this good behavior (not barking around trigger). The more your dog is rewarded for being quiet around the trigger, the less he’ll practice bad behavior (excessive barking).

If your dog constantly barks all day long, even at night, and has other issues, such as not eating or sleeping, consult your veterinarian to rule out any health issues.

True Story About a Dog That Wouldn’t Stop Barking

Daisy, a recently rescued Beagle Mix, attended my group dog training class. Her pet parents were at their wit’s end. Daisy barked at the cat, door, people, during class, at night and when left alone. This went on for weeks. Even I was shocked at how much she barked.

[perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Daisy was in pain, and trying to tell us the best she could.[/perfectpullquote]

Nothing would prevent her from barking—not even meat loaf. While Daisy wasn’t a big eater, she would take treats in class and barked and barked even more! I was puzzled, what was going on?

Daisy’s owners took her to the vet and after a complete workup, they discovered Daisy had a bone shard lodged in her throat and it had been there awhile! Once removed, Daisy became quiet as a mouse.

Most owners would’ve punished Daisy, and thank goodness they didn’t. It wasn’t her fault. Daisy was in pain and trying to tell us the best she could.

Ready, set and let’s train!

More:
Request Dog Barking
Attention Seeking Barking
Stop Dog Barking Next Door
Dog Barking at Sounds

Dog Training Nation is a dog training blog for pet owners and dog lovers. We cover a range of topics from puppy socialization tips to dog aggression to dog health. It is our hope you share our content to make the world a better place for dogs.

Dog Training Nation

Quick Links

Dog Training
Dog Behavior
Dog Training Videos
Become a Dog Trainer
About
Contact Us