“My dog whines and howls when I leave her to go shopping. She sounds so upset. What can I do to help her?”
Think about how much of the day your dog now has contact with you since lockdown started. Gus is with me for just about every waking minute. He stays with me in my study and moves with me to the sitting room in an evening.
It’s comforting to have your dog lying beside you, cuddling up during a TV or Netflix marathon. Or if you’ve been working from home, it’s been a novelty to have your dog beside you as you tap away on your computer and now it’s become a habit for her to curl up by your feet under the desk.
Perhaps your dog has started following you everywhere you go, so you can’t even have a wee in peace. She might even have persuaded you to allow her to sleep in your bedroom (or heaven forbid, even your bed).
But now she’s telling you she’s not happy if you leave her alone.
You’re not alone in having this problem. Lots of dogs are going to have separation issues as we come out of lockdown.
Separation problems are distressing for both the owner and the dog. Treatment of true separation anxiety takes a huge amount of time and effort, so it’s important to act now to prevent worse problems later on.
And the good news is that you’ve got time to work on settling your dog so she’s happy to be left as we ease out of lockdown.
Keep training and keep safe,
Carol