signs anxiety dogs
how do i prevent separation anxiety from my dog?
i have a female 7 mon old chihuahua and she stays in her kennel for 6 hours because i have school and i get out at 2:00,and im with her for the rest of the day,then i let her out of her kennel and walk her but eveytime she sees a family memeber of mine she jumps up is that a sign and she is also chewing on things and scratching my carpet.what do i need to do there is no one to take care of her for six hours.and how do i make my chihuahua stop taking my potted plants outside she started to pull the plants out
This doesn’t sound like separation anxiety, it just sounds like regular old puppy behavior.
For the chewing and scratching, I highly recommend using a crate or baby gates to keep her restricted to “safe” areas when you can not be present to watch her. We don’t let small children have the run of the house with access to the fireplace and knife drawer in the kitchen; similarly, young dogs should be given access only to that which they are mature enough to handle. This is the same answer for the potted plants — if your pup is doing things inappropriately with the plants, take some newspaper, roll it up, and bop yourself on the head with it for letting her have access to the plants (sorry, old training joke). If she scratches and chews things right in front of you, have a toy, or several toys, ready and handy to redirect all of that puppy energy into something more appropriate. If this means keeping her on a leash while she’s out of the kennel, then so be it. Practice makes perfect, and the more she gets to practice chewing and scratching and plant-dragging, the better she’ll get at it!
To stop the jumping on family members, practice Sit. It’s hard for a dog (or even for us) to learn to Not do something, so make sure you give her something very specific to do *instead of* jumping. Make sure that you always reward her when she does the right thing. Don’t allow anyone to talk to her or pet her until she is sitting… this requires a lot of cooperation from your family members and friends. You may need to keep her on leash at the beginning while you practice this.
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