Training a German Shepherd to Stay to Help with Separation Anxiety

By: Sam Kanouse

Published Date: January 10, 2018

- Training a German Shepherd to Stay to Help with Separation Anxiety

In this Omaha dog training session we worked with Roxie a three-year-old German Shepherd who was experiencing issues with separation anxiety and the stay command.

After I arrived I sat down to chat with the guardians about their main dog behavior concerns and I learned that Roxie had recently developed separation anxiety and was being destructive in the house while they were away. I also learned that this was a recent behavior that she developed and that she had been living with them for months before showing this type of behavior. Sometimes dogs that start this type of behavior all of a sudden have a change in their environment. I asked the guardians to check with their neighbors to see if they had changed their routine making any loud noises that could help them understand this new behavior.

To help fix separation anxiety I taught the guardians how to train stay. The stay command can help Roxie learn how to build self control and emotional regulation. To see how I did this watch the video below.

As I mentioned in the video the stay command is useful to help Roxie feel comfortable while slowly increasing distance between her and her guardian. However, when the guardian goes to leave the house she doesn’t want to tell Roxie to “Stay.” The reason behind this is because Roxie will eventually get out of the stay command once her guardian leaves the house and it teaches Roxie to not stay and wait for a release command.

By the end of the session Roxie was doing better and better with increased distance between herself and her guardian. To keep up with this good behavior the guardian will want to keep Petting with a Purpose and keep working on leaving the house for longer periods of time to help Roxie be nice and calm while they are away. We wrapped up this dog behavior session with Roxie’s Roadmap to Success video, which you can watch below.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Categorized in:

This post was written by: Sam Kanouse