How to convince my father getting a 2nd female dog will help prevent my current male from separation anxiety?

Question

I have grown so attached to my dog and vise versa. He is the most important thing in my family's life. One thing that worries me is his constant separation anxiety with me only. Whenever I go for a short 3 day vacation or just to the mall with some friends he freaks out. He barks, cries and occasionally will soil our carpet. I'm very worried about when I go to college next year. I have a friend whose dog did the same and once she got a second dog he completely stopped because he was not alone. Please help me think of reasons to why this would work for us.

Answer 1

The seperation anxiety has to be corrected before you can add another dog. My dog used to whine whenever I left the house, but my wife corrects the dog when it started to whine and after about a week the dog stopped. The dog has to know that whining or whatever is not an acceptable behavior, once it learns that you should be fine, and then if you want another dog that would be fine because your other dog would be well behaved. Hope this helps, and good luck with everything.

Answer 2

You won't want to hear this, but your dog is probably better off being crate trained and working through the seperation anxiety than buying another dog who might also learn the behavior.

Placing him as "the most important thing in my families' life" is not fair to the dog-get him off that pedastal and let him go about the business of being a dog. That is true love.

Answer 3

I think you have to think again about this. You're going away to college and you want to get another dog for your parents to take care of? I don't think so. And I'm speaking from the stand point of a parent.

Perhaps it would be a better use of your time to help your dog get used to you being away. Maybe giving him something of your's which has your perfume on it and when you leave for the day or a few days, let him have it. It will remind him of you..........

Answer 4

i hate to burst your bubble but this will not likely help...your dog needs help getting over this now, you are his pack leader and getting another dog will only likely pass the trouble on to the new one... You need to take your dog for a long walk and then have someone else that has an authoritative bearing there with you to help you....make sure the dog is calm, then walk outside and shut the door..the person inside needs to watch him and when he starts getting nervous he needs to shush him and get his attention back on the other person....everytime the dog starts making sounds like he is distressed he needs to be brought back to the person in front of him, in sort of a "waiting for instructions" mode...then you come back inside and do it again...you will need to train your dog to learn that leaving is not a bad thing...to do this you need to just keep snapping him out of the anxious behavior every time he starts to do it...he will look to see what behavior it is you want from him so that when you leave and he stays calm you can reward him for correct behavior...staying calm when you leave is what you want....it will take a little work but he needs to get over this anxiety....likely he started doing it and everyone coddled him and tried to cheer him up, but this only reinforces the bad behavior as he thinks it is something you want from him....give him affection only for correct behavior, not for unwanted behavior...you must walk him regularly as this reduces anxiety....good luck!