STOP: Our program is not designed to address separation anxiety. If you suspect your dog has clinical anxiety during periods of separation, we strongly recommend seeking the opinion of a veterinary behaviorist BEFORE seeking training as this is a clinical diagnosis that can impede ability to learn and retain training for the companion. Heightened anxiety during separation can cause issues with daily stress that leads to trigger stacking and increased reactivity/fear in other day-to-day scenarios. Addressing separation anxiety with a qualified professional will be to best use of your resources, as well as helping you in your overall success to training other basic life skills. Separation anxiety is a quality of life issue that we take seriously, especially when the anxiety becomes extreme and reaches clinical levels.
General separation distress looks different than clinical-level separation anxiety. Many coping mechanisms exhibited by dogs experiencing clinical-level separation anxiety are a risk to their personal safety. Signs of clinical-level separation anxiety include urinating/defecating when alone, excessive drooling, persistent howling/barking, chewing/digging/destruction, attempting to escape, pacing/inability to settle and coprophagia while alone (consuming feces). If you are unsure whether or not your dog qualifies, please complete the rest of the info sheet as honestly and thoroughly as possible and we will contact you once we have reviewed it.
When seeking out a trainer, we recommend trainers that are CSAT certified or SA Pro certified to work on it privately, in your home - since this is where your dog feels the safest. We do not recommend drop-off training programs for dogs with clinical-level separation anxiety.