Tips to Help a Pair of Santa Monica Puggles Calm Down

By: David Codr

Published Date: July 20, 2019

Violet and Rosie - Tips to Help a Pair of Santa Monica Puggles Calm Down

For this Santa Monica dog training session, we share tips to stop separation anxiety in dogs to help Violet and Rosie, a pair pf Puggles who have started to get bark and get anxious when left home alone.

Building in and finding ways for dogs to develop self control is a key part of helping dogs who suffer from separation anxiety. The guardian had installed a baby gate to keep the dogs to a section of the house due to their knocking things down and some unwanted chewing. This gave me a wonderful opportunity to show the guardian how to teach the dogs to sit calmly before the guardian lets them out of the enclosure.

Helping excited dogs learn to calm themselves down can go a long ways towards stopping separation anxiety. Like many other LA dog behavior experts, I set up a scenario where the dogs can learn this new desired behavior on their own through a little operant conditioning. This is far better than micromanaging your dog as it allows the dog to discover, then master the behavior on their own.

Because Violet had connected being placed in the hallway with her guardian’s eminent departure, she had started to refuse to go into the hallway. To counter this, I showed the guardian a positive dog training exercise that motivated Violet to go to this area on her own. We only had to invest a few minutes of practice, but seeing the guardian’s mouth agape as the dog went to the hallway multiple times on her own was priceless.

Id like to see the guardian practice having the dogs spend time in this hallway with human home sitting a few feet away, and also at the table which is just out of their eye sight. Helping the dogs practice being calm in the area when they cant see their human will be a big part of their rehabilitation process.

I also showed the guardian how to desensitize the dogs of the triggers associated with her leaving as well as how to teach the dogs to stay. I have used this positive approach to help hundreds of dogs get over separation anxiety.

It will take practice, but its easy practice. Anyone can do this as long as they are consistent and take their time. This tip to stopping a dog from barking when left alone due to separation anxiety is not limited to professional Puggle dog trainers.

To help the guardian remember all the dog behavior tips I shared in this 3 hour in home Santa Monica dog training session, we shot a roadmap to success summary video.

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This post was written by: David Codr