Combating Separation Anxiety

There are lots of "How-to" books, training techniques, and procedures to help you and your pet alleviate separation anxiety for your pets when you leave the house. Here is a simple remedy that I use that works pretty well.

We play the "Gobble the treats" game when we leave the house. They have played this enough to know and expect it. We grab a handful of BBQ Trainer chips, call them to the door, and then toss the treats into the living room. This then becomes a mad dash to see who can gobble the most treats as fast as they can.

Why does this work? I believe most of the damage was occurring in the first 5-10 minutes of me leaving the house. That period of awkward silence, with us not in the house, when they seem to destroy anything they can find. This game does two things. It distracts them while we high-tail it out of the house, and it fills up their bellies, which induces a reaction not unlike what you feel right after thanksgiving dinner. Sleepy time. Every time I have come home after playing the "Gobble" game, I find them sleeping on the couch (which is also supposed to be off limits), but is much more acceptable than chewing all of the mail off of the kitchen counter, or eating a phone book.