Separation Anxiety in Dogs

Most puppies show clear improvement inside one to two weeks of steady work. An adult dog with a long running pattern usually needs four to eight weeks. The variable that matters most is the homecoming. Every excited greeting sets the work back, which is why most owners take longer than they need to.

It is almost always the length of the absence. A dog that copes with two hours has not yet built up to eight.

Fix it with short absences before and after work, stretched a little at a time, until your dog stays calm at each new length. Jumping straight from a weekend pattern to a full working day is what breaks it.

It rarely fixes it, and it often doubles the problem. The distress comes from losing access to you rather than from being alone in general, so a second dog does not answer the question your dog is actually asking. You also risk the new dog learning the same pattern by watching.

Only as long as they can currently manage calmly, which early on may be under a minute. Arrange a walker, a sitter or family cover for the gap between what your dog can handle and what your day requires. Repeatedly pushing past their threshold reinforces the anxiety rather than building tolerance.

It can, provided the crate is already somewhere your dog chooses to go. Never introduce a crate as a response to the anxiety, and never use it as the place your dog gets sent when things go wrong. Once the crate is associated with being shut away, you have lost the safe space this work relies on.

That is common, and it points at the belief rather than at loneliness. Overnight you are present and your dog can account for you. In the morning you disappear and they cannot. Work the stage one cue drills hardest on your morning routine, since that is usually the most heavily rehearsed set of departure cues in the house.

There are four levels and the current prices are all on the puppy school booking page, along with exactly what each one includes.

The four weeks of class are identical at every level. What you are choosing between is how much one to one time you get in your own home, how long you keep the online course, and how directly you can reach us afterwards. Most families land on the second level, which is where a session at home and the full course access switch on.

Yes. On Puppy School, home sessions start at Silver. On Private Puppy Training and Adult Dog Training and Behaviourism, every session is at your address. A trainer comes to you and works on your setup, your routine and the behaviour that is actually happening where you live, which is almost never the same as what happens in a training room.

We cover Sydney within roughly a forty five minute drive of the Harbour Bridge. That takes in the eastern suburbs, inner west, lower and upper north shore, northern beaches and south Sydney. Only the group class brings you to a venue.

Yes, and we would rather you did. The meet and greet is fifteen minutes, free, and there is nothing to sign at the end of it.

Bring the questions you feel silly asking. Most of what people are worried about at eight weeks is completely normal and takes about ninety seconds to answer, and knowing that before you spend anything is worth more to us than a booking made by someone who is not sure.

Yes. The entry level is the four weeks of class with community support and Public-level Ask Luke. It does not include the online course, and plenty of people start there.

Worth knowing what you are trading off. Class is one hour a week in a room. Everything that actually goes wrong happens at your front door, in your hallway and on your street, and that is what the session at home is for. If budget is the reason, start where you can and step up later rather than not starting.