Feb 4, How to Treat Separation Anxiety in Dogs - Dog Separation Seperation Anxiety Solutions by Cesar Millan

Separation anxiety in dogs happens because they do not like the feeling to be left alone in the house.

Dog separation anxiety is actually the main contribution to other dog behavior problems like biting, chewing, digging, barking and etc.

If you are giving a lot of affection to your dog day in and day out, the chance is that your dog will experience separation anxiety when you are not arround. It is because he is very attached to you and no body else in the house can replace you.

Dogs are social animals, they always need accompaniment. They also develop the preference of like and dislike certain people. Dogs are really fond of people who give them a lot of attentions and affections. Some dog breeds, such as Cocker Spaniels and Weimaraners, can develop seperation anxiety easier compare with other big dog breeds because they need constant companionship.

As mentioned earlier, the main contributed cause is when the dog is separated from the person he is closely attached. Some other factors can be as below:-

Sudden change of your house environment. (eg: move to a new house)
You just bought or adopted the dog from pet store or shelter.
Separation from his mother or littermates.

To solve the dog separation anxiety problem, you need to teach your dog to be independent no matter if you are in the house or you are away. So, sometimes you are in the house, restrict yourself from giving him too much affections. This is expecially true if he is begging for your affection which you SHOULD ignore him. If you are living with family members, some of the family members should give almost the same amount of affection like you do. This is to prevent your dog from being too attached to you only.

If your dog has developed Separation Anxiety, you can try the step-by-step techniques below:-

Every time before you are out, command your dog in the sitting position near the door.
Pretend that you are going away by closing the door and you should hear his whining (if he has developed separation anxiety).
Then, you open the door and ask him to quiet; this will reduce his anxiety for seeing you away.
You may continue the step 2 but this time, you increase the duration before opening the door again. This should help to increase the time before your dog becomes worry of your absence.
Each time, you repeat the closing, hear his whine and open the door to ask him to quiet him up steps for a longer duration of time until you do not hear his whine.

If you do it right from the above steps, separation anxiety issue in your dogs should be fixed. Please not that you SHOULD NOT give him a kiss or saying good bye everytime you leave the house, because this will intensify him to miss you more - separation anxiety.

Picture shows a Labrador that is in separation anxiety.

Some other techniques that you may apply to fix the Dog Separation Anxiety:- Tire your dog out before you leave your house by giving him a lot of exercise.
Give him his favorite toys that he will play with it for hours.
Ask your family members/neighbors to play with him when you are not at home
Give him something that has your smell on it.

Dec 13, Cesar Millan The Dog Whisperer Season 1 Episode 11-15, Dog Dominance, Stop Dog Fighting

This page is about Cesar Millan - The Dog Whisperer Season 1 Episode 11-15.

Dog Breed Info: Pit Bull
Name: Emily
Owners: Jessika Palmer and her father, David Palmer

Dog Behavior Problems: Emily shows dangerous dog to dog aggression problems.

Dog Behavior Modification: Cesar Millan explains that Emily controls their household and they have been given Emily too much power. So, Emily becomes dominant around them and it needs to be disciplined. Cesar's wife is walking another pit bull on opposite direction and Cesar wants to see what is her reaction. Emily's degree of aggression is very high and it is in Red Zone area. Cesar has to push her down on the ground like a ritual of a normal dominance dog. Then, Cesar helps Emily to release most of her bad energy by stopping her dog fighting behavior using "Alpha Roll". Finally Emily is able to walk side by side with another dog without aggression. Cesar Millan recommends Emily to spend 6 weeks in his dog psychology centre as she needs to spend time with more dogs to re-socialize with other dogs. After 6 weeks, she has become a balanced dog.

Dog Breed Info: Chihuahua
Name: Paris
Owners: Nelson Chang and Jhett Brown

Dog Behavior Problems: Paris is an adorable Chihuahua but she does not like stranger. She barks and tries to bite strangers who near her. She also will not listen to her owners and run around when she is off leash outside. Nelson wants to stop his dog biting and barking problem.

Dog Behavior Modification: Cesar Millan says that this dog is controlling the house. He further mentions that animal suppose to enjoy their live by walking and not hide inside a house or beg. All these problems occur because of the frustration from lack of exercise. Paris uses her energy to express in other ways. Cesar teaches them the proper way to walk Paris so that Paris will respect and listen to them.

Dog Breed Info: Mastiff
Name: Hank
Owner: Marsha Alexander

Dog Behavior Problems: Marsha has been rescued dogs for 20 years. Hanks is 150 pounds Mastiff that will charge to gate whenever there is someone passes the house. He will growl when a stranger near him as well. Hanks also has serious dog separation anxiety issue. When Marsha is not around, he has eaten window cells and frame, chew side part of the wall and door.

Dog Behavior Modification: After Cesar Millan meets Hanks, he realizes that Hank's problem is not as bad as described. He is just lack of trust because he was abused before Marsha adopted him. Cesar explains that separation anxiety in dogs comes from lack of exercise and Hanks needs to walk everyday. Cesar just gives some tips on how to walk properly as Marsha herself already knows what she is doing. With enough exercise, it will stop the dog chewing problem.

Dog Breed Info: Lhasa Apso
Name: Sasha
Owners: Lois Rubino and Barry Heck

Dog Behavior Problems: Sasha is an aggressive dog that will bark and bite anyone who near her food bowl or her toy. She also refuses to walk on leash.

Dog Behavior Modification: Cesar Millan explains that Sasha is like any other little dogs that control the house. The reason is little dogs gain a lot of affections because they are cute. This makes the dog to be dominating in the house and do whatever it wants. The family members become Sasha's followers. Cesar blocks Sasha with toy in her mouth until a corner and then tries to get the toy from her mouth. Cesar makes her understands that the toy is his and makes her give up the toy. Next, Cesar stands near her food bowl and on the top of her food. Cesar claims the food and make Sasha back away from the food bowl. This is how Cesar Millan fixs the dog food aggression problem. Cesar further teaches them how to properly leash training the puppy.

Dog Breed Info: German Shepherd
Name: Shep
Owners: Cynthia Holvenstot and her sons Ricky and Jojo Lopez

Dog Behavior Problems: Shep is friendly to family members but barks and attacks at strangers.

Dog Behavior Modification: Cesar Millan goes to meet Shep and Shep barks hard on Cesar. Cesar corners Shep until he is relax and submissive to Cesar and he put him on leash. Then, Shep follows and walks with Cesar which amaze Cynthia. Shep can act as a service dog for Cynthia which is handicap. So, Cesar further puts a backpack on Shep which make Shep feels useful. Cynthia is finally able to walk Shep on street.

Dog Breed Info: Shepherd/Lab mix
Name: Jake
Owners: Linda and Bob Weide

Dog Behavior Problems: Jake is obsessed with other dogs when he is on leash. He is acting like want to kill another dog. But when off leash in dog park, he is ok.

Dog Behavior Modification: Cesar explains that the leash makes Jake frustrated. After getting more information from them, Cesar realizes that when Jake is walking on leash with Bob, Jake will listen to Him. But, when Jake is walking with Linda, Jake will turn more dominant and aggressive. The reason is Linda's way of leash walking is not consistent enough. Cesar further teaches them how to properly walk Jake and use stern correction to put Jake's attention on them in stead of other obstacles on the walk. Cesar also uses his dog to see how Jake reacts when walking together with dog.

Dog Breed Info: Rottweiler
Name: King
Owner: Chantel Valdivieso

Dog Behavior Problems: King is a Rottweiler breed which weight 150 pounds while Chantel who is his owner only weight 70 pounds. King likes to pull on leash which makes Chantel is not able to walk him on leash as he is too strong.

Dog Behavior Modification: Cesar Millan teaches them how to properly walk King in calm submissive way. He finds out that King is really bad on leash. When walking near other dogs, King wants to charge to other them and Cesar corrects him right away. He further helps to drain energy out from King so that Chantel can practice leadership on King. Chantel has better control on King but it will take time for King to submissive to Chantel totally.

Dog Breed Info: Yorkshire Terriers
Name: Scrawny
Owners: Tanya Vener and Allen Medven

Dog Behavior Problems: Tanya and Allen have 9 Yorkshire Terries. But, there is one which always causes trouble, Scrawny. Scrawny is the thinnest and skinniest of all which Allen always makes sure that she is able to get food. Scrawny is very attached to Allen and she will bark or growl at anyone who comes near him.

Dog Behavior Modification: Allen brings Cesar to his dogs. When Cesar goes near Allen, Scrawny barks at Cesar. Cesar corrects her at that moment. When Scrawny scratches on Allen's legs, normally Allen will pick her up. But, Cesar asks him not to pick her up and corrects her because that behavior is not allowed. Pick up Scrawny will only intensify the undesired behavior.

Dog Breed Info: Dalmatian
Name: Lola
Owners: Liz Dietz and Ed Lopez

Dog Behavior Problems: Lola is spoilt by Liz and Ed and owns the house. She is also bad at walking on leash and always pull on leash. She also likes to chase at other dogs. They are not the authority figures to Lola.

Dog Behavior Modification: Cesar Millan asks Liz to show him how normally she walks Lola. He finds out that Liz needs to improve a lot on her walking. Cesar teaches them how to properly walk Lola from the moment to put Lola on leash. Cesar also asks them to put Lola on treadmill which can help high energy dog like Lola to drain out some energy.

Dec 13, The Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan - Dog Behavior Specialist and Dog Training

The Dog Whisperer is a reality television series in the United States of America which features Cesar Millan as the dog behavior specialist.

In this page, I would like to share Cesar Millan's techniques of "training people and rehabilitating dogs" that I have learned from his television series.

I am a fan of Cesar Millan. I have watched 3 seasons of the Dog Whisperer and I learned a lot from him. His dog training techniques are simple and efficient.

If you know how to use techniques, you will become the dog whisperer in your house. If you are able to master some of his dog training skills, you could train the dogs yourself and save up the money to hire expensive professional dog trainer.

Overall, Cesar Millan has categorized the dog behavior problems from level 1 to level 10. Any behavior problem that is above level 10 is called as "Red Zone". Any dog which has behavior problem that is in the "Red Zone" will be very hard to fix.

Cesar emphasis that each of the family members has to be the pack leader of the dog. The pack leader needs to be calm and assertive in any situation. The energy from calm and assertive will make the person an effective pack leader.

When you are introducing to a new dog, you will need to give the dog to sniff on you without looking at him (Sense). In the same time, you have to be calm and assertive for him to feel your energy. Then only, you can look at him (Sight). Lastly, you can use your voice to communicate with the dog or use the dog training commands to train the dog (Sound).

This is an important sequence of actions that a person need to take to gain trust from the dog early on.

The reason behind this is that when a dog is a fetus, he will develop nose first, follows by eyes then ears. We all know also know that, in nature world, dogs have better sense and sight than human.

So, we should use the dog's way of communication to communicate with them.

The way a dog thinks is different from human. Human are able to logically think what is right and what is wrong. But, dog is not able to think logically. The only way the dog can understand us is through his state of mind.

So, we communicate with a dog by understanding a dog's state of mind and reward or correct his behavior at the right time.

A few examples are below: If you dog is excited mood and you are feeding him, he will show you more excitement in order for you to give him more food. This excitement is not healthy for long run, as it will develop into other bad behaviors. If you dog is barking at strangers and you pet him on the head to calm him down. This will not stop the dog barking behavior. In fact, this will encourage him to bark more everytime he sees a stranger. You should give him a warning when he is barking, when he has calm dowm and quiet, then, only you give him affection by petting on his head or body.When your dog or puppy constantly chews on your furniture, shoes or carpet. You will not able to stop the dog or puppy chewing problem unless you understand his state of mind. Most of the time, a dog developed chewing problem is because he feel bored. So, you need to give him more exercise

So when we want to feed a dog, we must make sure that he is calm state of mind them we start to feed. The dog then will understand that he needs to be calm to get feed.

To sum up, by understanding a dog's state of mind and rewarding the behavior at the right timing are 2 basic steps to train a dog.

To correct a bad behavior, you use your hand as a "torch". You hand becomes a mouth and the fingers become teeth.

The "torch" has to become assertive. It is like in the animal kingdom, the pack leader bites the neck of the follower without killing the dog. Just to show that you are the dominant one and he needs to listen to you as you are in charge of how he should behave.

During walking, you can use your leg as "torch". During walking, your dog should be walking next to you (either right or left side). The dog should not be in front of you or too far behind you. If the dog is in front of you, he acts as pack leader. It is because in animal Kingdom, pack leader is the first one to initiate any action which includes walking or eating.

Other than the "torch", you will have to maintain your emotion and energy. You should have calm energy when you correct the dog behavior problem. This is because the dog is able to feel your energy. If you are fearful or scared of your dog, your dog will feel it and will not listen to you.

Assertive "torch" with calm energy are the key of dog behavior problems modification.

Cesar Millan also likes to use choke collar and prong collar as the main training collars. When a dog shows undesired behavior, he will snap and release the leash. It is to snap the dog out from that state of mind, the dog will understand that behavior is not allowed.

When a dog is NOT balance, it has any or combination of the following characteristics:-

To make the dog balance, you need to do the following 3 things in order:-
ExerciseEvery dog needs to exercise and it is especially important for high energy every dogs. Cesar Millan always emphasis that the walk is one of the primer activities with animal and it can create bond and trust with human.

At least 45 minutes of walking is needed daily and some high energy of dogs need 1 hour of exercise. Exercise can be a simple walk, walking with dog backpack or dog pulls owner on roller blade. DisciplineDiscipline is not punishment. Discipline is setting rules, boundaries and limitations on what your dog can and cannot do in your house.
AffectionThe common mistake that most people do is giving affection to their pet dogs before exercise and discipline. Cesar Millan stresses that affection is only given when the dog is well behave and only give during the dog is calm and submissive state of mind.

I am sharing what I have learned from Cesar Millan in The Season 1 of The Dog Whisperer listed by episodes below. I hope that you get some benefits out of it.

Move to the top of this page - The Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan - Dog Behavior Specialist

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