Your dog is escaping?

Well don't we know about this, lots of dogs escape and there are various reasons for it, the most common one that Ive had to fix is separation anxiety.  Staffies, Huskies, Malamutes seem to be the most prone breeds to suffer from anxiety and escaping.

You need to make sure your boundaries are secure first before you even begin to work on escaping and anxiety.  Even little puppies can suffer from this, so you need to get your fencing etc. really secure and then see where you are at.

When your dog escapes, there are obvious dangers when they do get out, road safety, other people stealing your dog, council taking your dog to the pound and then you not knowing where to look.

Your canine needs good, strong leadership.  This will be lacking if your dog has this type of anxiety.  Basically your dog is thinking it needs to be looking after you and wondering where the 'pack' has gone and why they are out on the 'hunt' not him/her, which in their mind they think they need to be doing this and also looking out for your safety and survival.

Some of my clients dogs cant even be 1 metre away from them without the dog going hysterical, whining, barking, attention seeking, tantruming.  We need to densitiise your dog to the pack being away from them and making them realising that in actual fact its not their role to look after you and your safety, but instead their role to just calm and relax.

Your behaviour around your dog is a big message to your dog as well as diet.  Providing lots of enrichment for your dog when you leave the house is VERY important....don't let them think about you leaving, don't make a big deal of you leaving, work on triggers that affect them and a reaction from them.  Use small triggers such as picking up the car keys, putting shoes on, picking up a bag of somekind.  Do these simple little things around your dog and slowly start to densensitise him/her to the triggers.

Fixing these issues is not easy and in some cases they cant be fixed...dont believe a trainer/behaviourist can fix every problem, because they can't.  Some issues that are severe can be managed but not always fixed. 

Only turn to medication in consultation with your vet, not just because someone in your family or friends circle has suggested something.  Medication is only a band aid fix, but used with behaviour work can produce a really good outcome.

Remember you dont wanna stress your dog out more than they already are....you wanna relax the dog and help him/her!

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