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I'll Be Home Soon!
How to Prevent and Treat Separation Anxiety
By Patricia B. McConnell, Ph.D.
If you worry about leaving your dog home alone,
both because you love your dog and your house,
- this little book is for you.
There he is, sitting at the window, looking for all the world like his heart will break if you drive away without him. And there you are, outside, on the other side of the window, feeling guilty about leaving, and praying that your house will be in one piece when you get home.
If you worry about leaving your dog home alone, both because you love your dog and your house, this little book is for you. Most dogs can be left home alone during the day and lead happy, fulfilled doggy lives without destroying your house. Some dogs get into trouble at home when you're gone because there's so much fun stuff to do without you to stop them. These dogs don't have a serious behavioral problem. Heck, they're not serious at all. They are too busy gleefully chewing on the couch to be serious, and after all, you're not there to stop them. Or they leave a deposit on the carpet because they're not house-trained yet, or they bark all day because it's just something to do. (Sort of like watching the soaps, where nothing really happens but it's hard to stop anyway).
But a small number of dogs suffer from a serious problem, called Separation Anxiety, in which they panic at your departure and stay panicked until you return, They may soil the house, eat the window molding, howl in misery all day and/or pant, shake and drool entire lakes of scared doggy saliva. An actual case of full-blown Separation Anxiety is truly heart-rending, because the dog is in a panic when you leave, This book is designed to help those of you whose dog really suffers from Separation Anxiety, to help any dog owner to prevent it from developing and to help you raise a dog with good "house manners". It can be tricky to determine if your dog has Separation Anxiety or just bad house manners, so read carefully to be sure which category describes your dog. What follows will help you to determine why your dog gets in trouble when you're gone and how to prevent trouble from happening again. Included is a discussion of how to handle both bad house manners and how to treat serious Separation Anxiety when it occurs.
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Patricia B. McConnell, Ph.D., is an adjunct assistant professor of zoology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a certified Applied Animal Behaviorist. Her company, Dog's Best Friend Ltd., specializes in family dog training and treating aggression in dogs, and she is immensely popular as a speaker around the country. She is the co-host of Calling All Pets, an animal behavior advice show syndicated to one hundred public radio stations, and was the animal behaviorist on Animal Planet's Petline. She works daily with four dogs (three Border collies and a Great Pyrenees) on her sheep farm outside of Madison.
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