Make sure before starting to phase in these elements, that you have already fully phased in your keys to your home alone training with your dog remaining fully relaxed. Check out my video on desensitisation if your dog is still reacting to keys and you arent sure what to do. Secondly, make sure you have already built up enough time in your home alone training to be able to reach the car and back. For some that might be 10 seconds for others it might be slightly longer. Make sure to gradually add in each step and only as your dog is fully comfortable with the step you are at. Use a logical process that works for your car and setup. #seperationanxiety #separationanxietytraining #separationanxietydog #separationanxietytips #separationanxietyisreal #separationanxietydogtraining #dogtrainersoftiktok #dogbehaviourist #anxiousdogs #dogbehaviourawareness #anxiousdog #puppyseparationanxiety #dogtrainingtips #anxiousdogsoftiktok #dogseparationanxiety

Enrichment Vs Stimulation Enrichment, in my eyes, is anything that enriches the dog’s life but doesn’t require much thought or problem-solving for them. A lot of dog guardians these days have got really good at providing a variety of enrichment based activities for their dogs such as snuffle mats, licki mats etc. As well as sniff walks where our dogs can decompress. All fantastic things! Stimulation on the other hand, is the area I see most people forgetting the importance of. It’s often something we are great at doing when they are puppies but life gets in the way and we get out of the habit of it. For me, mental stimulation, is where we are getting the dog to problem solve or something that involves active thinking. Such as, teaching something new or increasing the difficulty of something they already know well. Easy examples could just be daily training and teaching new things. It could be a simple as perfecting that ‘leave it’ so you could throw a whole chicken on the floor. Or improving that stay up to the point where you can go out the room and shut the door, make a noise and return. Of course we can do more advanced things like an agility classes etc, however, do not underestimate the power of basic training to teach something new at home. Trick training can also be a fun thing for you both to do! The way I like to look at providing for our dogs in these areas when it comes to separation training, is that it acts as an outlet for the dog which in turn can reduce stress as their needs have been met in more areas. We talk about threshold a lot, look at threshold as a cup. Anything that goes on in your dog’s day that causes stress, we’re going to be adding water to the cup. The more we provide for dogs in other areas, such as enrichment and stimulation, we’re going to be tipping some (not all) of that water back out. Therefore meaning our dogs are in a better position to cope with training. #seperationanxiety #separationanxietytraining #separationanxietydog #separationanxietytips #separationanxietyisreal #separationanxietydogtraining #dogtrainersoftiktok #dogbehaviourist #anxiousdogs #dogbehaviourawareness #anxiousdog #puppyseparationanxiety #dogtrainingtips #anxiousdogsoftiktok #dogseparationanxiety

It is important that we strip out triggers for our dog when trying to establish a baseline with our training. Work on the items that are triggers for your dog (such as keys, coat, shoes, handbag etc) separately. If you would like more support with your training, book a free discovery zoom to discuss my 121 programs and how they might be able to help you with your home alone training. When they are no longer a trigger, add back in to your home alone training! You can do this as many times in a day as you like but make sure it’s not too close to your home alone training. Follow along for more tips to help with your dog separation anxiety training! #seperationanxiety #separationanxietytraining #separationanxietydog #separationanxietytips #separationanxietyisreal #separationanxietydogtraining #dogtrainersoftiktok #dogbehaviourist #anxiousdogs #dogbehaviourawareness #dogbehaviourist #anxiousdog #puppyseparationanxiety #dogtrainingtips

Replying to @charlottecorrigan8 any sudden change in behaviour we should always rule out medical issues first 💖💖 #seperationanxiety #separationanxietytraining #separationanxietydog #separationanxietytips #separationanxietyisreal #separationanxietydogtraining #dogtrainersoftiktok #dogbehaviourist #anxiousdogs #dogbehaviourawareness #anxiousdogsoftiktok #dogseparationanxiety #anxiousdog #puppyseparationanxiety #dogtrainingtips

An area where Dog guardians often struggle when trying to start their separation training is having too many things in to the training scenario too soon. This includes trying to leave the house when the dog is already stressed at the sight of things such as keys, coat going on and all these other cue’s that say to the dog you’re going to leave. Often due to previously associated with being left to go over threshold. For any pre-departure cue’s, we want strip them out of training when we first start (when not essential). This will help the dog cope with establishing a baseline without getting too stressed. There are scenarios where we absolutely need to have some of these pre-cues in for us to be able to complete even base level training such as doors that automatically lock and therefore require key or if you live in cold climates where it is central wear a coat. However anything non essential, strip out of training and work on separately! I will do it part two on how to desensitise your dog to these individual items. #seperationanxiety #separationanxietytraining #separationanxietydog #separationanxietytips #separationanxietyisreal #separationanxietydogtraining #dogtrainersoftiktok #dogbehaviourist #anxiousdogs #dogbehaviourawareness #anxiousdogsoftiktok #dogseparationanxiety #anxiousdog #puppyseparationanxiety #dogtrainingtips