A Multiple Method Approach to Dealing with Separation Anxiety in Shetland Sheepdogs

Shortly after I started working from home, my then-fiance and I decided to adopt an 8 week old Shetland Sheepdog whom we named Sophie. Unfortunately, little did either of us know that my constant presence at home would eventually result in a serious case of separation anxiety for Sophie. According to the Humane Society of the United States, signs of canine separation anxiety include abnormal behavioral changes that occur after the owner leaves or returns home and following the owner from room to room.

Unfortunately, by the time Sophie was a year old, she had displayed all of these signs and more. She would squeal upon our arrival home and howl whenever we left. If she could get her paws on something, especially papers or stuffed toys, she would shred them to pieces. As residents of an apartment complex, this was frowned upon because her howling was extremely disturbing to our neighbors and we needed to correct her behavior immediately or risk loosing our dog.

I set out to find a technique online to deal with her separation anxiety. As an amateur in the world of dog training, one thing I had learned recently was that consistency and a single method was the best approach for training a dog. For the first few months, I would only try one technique at a time, not knowing this would never work.

At first, I tried crating her whenever we left home. According to the Humane Society of the United States, crating a dog with separation anxiety does no good, as she can still react to the separation while inside the crate and worse, potentially injure herself in the process. We quickly learned via complaints from our landlord that crating her only made the situation worse. Apparently, the minute she heard our car pull away she would begin screeching and howling.

After crating, I tried several different techniques one by one. I started ignoring her whenever I left or came home, which still resulted in no progress after a few weeks. Next, I tried leaving her with a toy or piece of clothing only to come home to a shredded mess and another note on the door from the landlord about our dog's howling. I also tried a plug-in calming product that claimed to produce soothing scents and needless to say, it didn't work. As individual techniques, none of these produced the results we were looking for.

By this time I was frustrated but not quite ready to give up. I went against my knowledge and combined multiple training methods. We ended up buying a baby gate in the process to keep her in the kitchen to prevent her from destroying items around the house and with the intent that if she had an accident, it would be on the tile rather than on the carpet. Whenever we left, we would call her into the kitchen, reward her with a treat, close the gate and ignore her while we finished getting ready to leave. Eventually, her whining subsided and after just a few short weeks, Sophie could be left alone without any issues.

In the end, I found that it took the simultaneous use of multiple techniques to help my dog deal with her separation anxiety. Furthermore, whenever this issue begins to rear it's ugly head, we can use these same techniques and get the same results, even as she gets older. In short, it doesn't take a professional animal behavior specialist to deal with canine separation anxiety. Any owner can rectify the problem with a little dedication and knowledge, resulting in a well behaved dog that can be trusted to be home alone without disturbing the neighbors or destroying items in the home.

Additional Information:

The Humane Society of the United States: Separation Anxiety

Pet Education: Separation Anxiety