A woman claims to have successfully trained her dog out of separation anxiety after making one major change to their daily routine.
While acknowledging she’s not a dog trainer, she urged people to carry out their own research before implementing her techniques.
On TikTok, Isabel Klee, who is known as @simonsits on the platform, said: « Simon (her dog) went from having terrible separation anxiety to none at all. »
She added: « When I first got Simon as a puppy, I had a few instances where I would leave him alone, and he would just go absolutely ballistic.
« I think I made the mistake when I first got him that I would only leave him alone when I was actually going out for a few hours. »
But after seeing his reaction every time she left the house, she knew something needed to change to ease her puppy’s mind.
She added: « For a month straight, I had no social obligations, and my full attention was on training this dog not to have separation anxiety.
« I would leave my apartment 100 times a day. Every five minutes, I would go, walk out the door, close the door, stand outside for 15 seconds, and come back in. »
She said she would slowly increase the time she spent outside the house to get him used to her being away for longer periods.
When she’d come back in, she would not greet him straight away. Instead, she would calmly walk past him and interact with him a short time after.
She added: « I trained him to believe me coming home isn’t a big deal. I also trained him to believe that I was always going to come back.
« The more that I came and left, the more desensitised he became to it, and now when I leave the apartment, he barely lifts up his head. »
Commenting on her post, one user said: « Do you put your dog in the crate though? I have to, or my dog destroys my house. »
Another user added: « I’ve started crawling out the window so he wouldn’t see me leave out the front door. »
A third user said: « Thank you so much. My dad wants to get rid of my dog because she has separation anxiety, and when my mom leaves, she destroys a lot of things. »
