How to help my puppy with separation anxiety when I leave for school?

Question

How do I get my puppy used to staying home alone? I'm a college student I have to leave the house but I was home for most of the summer & I think she got used to it. The last time I left her for maybe an hour or so she stressed out so bad she gave herself a uti. Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed | Female | spayed | 7 months and 18 days old | 10.6 lbs

Daniel Fonza, DVM · Accepted Answer

Hi there and thank you for using pet coach to address your concern. It sounds like snowball is dealing with separation anxiety. This can be difficult to address, but it can be done. The most important thing when addressing separation anxiety is providing plenty of environmental stimulation or enrichment. By this, I mean providing plenty of toys, interactive things such as tennis ball launchers, radios or TVs playing,etc. I find that one of the most useful things for dealing with this is a device called the petcube. This device allows you to monitor your pet through a web camera. It also allows you to talk through a microphone built-in on the device that you can speak to through your phone via an app. The petcube also has a laser pointer that you can control so that you can play with your pet away from home. When training a dog to get over separation anxiety, it is important to start with small periods of time where you are apart from snowball. By this, I mean leaving for 5 to 10 minutes, and then coming back and reassuring snowball that you are still there. Gradually increase the periods of time at which you leave her alone in the crate or in a small room or wherever she is when you leave her. I would probably do this on the weekend if you have the weekends off so that you can spend an entire weekend working with snowball. In really bad cases such as destructive separation anxiety where the animal is destroying things around the house, anti-anxiety medications may be warranted in those cases. However, with snowball I would start with the non-medicated training and see if you can get her more comfortable alone at home. I hope this helps! Please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions or concerns. I am also available by phone or text based consultation if needed

How to help my puppy with separation anxiety when I leave for school?

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