Well, hi there,
I'm Julie Naismith and you're listening to another episode of the
Fixing Separation Anxiety podcast.
Now I know you have tons and tons of options for
listening to a huge variety of different podcasts.
So I can't tell you how grateful I am for you
tuning into this episode.
And today I'm going to be talking about how you can
make your separation anxiety training go that much better.
And I saw a post in my Facebook group,
which prompted me to raise this topic with you.
It was by someone who said they tried everything to fix
separation anxiety,
and that's not uncommon.
I hear that phrase all the time.
I tried everything and nothing worked and I've been there too
by the way.
I was there with my dog 10 years ago trying everything
and finding nothing was working.
But alongside the usual stuff that this poster had tried just
like the rest of us.
From anxiety raps to calming treats,
to calming music,
you name it,
we've all tried it,
right? So alongside all of that,
this poster had tried leaving the dog for a few minutes
and returning.
And she said that just hadn't worked.
Now, if you follow what I teach,
you'll know that the way we fix separation anxiety is actually
to leave your dog,
to leave your dog for small increasing increments.
So what's going on when people think they've tried to do
this, the departures,
this more departures,
and it hasn't worked,
what's going on?
Well today,
I'm going to explain what separation anxiety training really is.
And I'm going to give you three tips on how to
make it work.
Welcome to the fixing separation anxiety podcast,
where it's all about healing your dog,
regaining your freedom and getting your life back on track.
And now,
here's your host,
Julie Naismith.
Okay, so back to the,
I tried going out to the door and it didn't work
statement. Let's unpack it and see what could be going on.
Well, separation anxiety training is all about showing your dog that
being on its own is okay.
And it's a process that we call desensitization.
Fancy term,
but it just means we take a really small amount of
what the dog is frightened of because we use desensitization,
not just for separation anxiety,
we use it for lots of other fears.
We take a really tiny amount of the thing that the
dog is frightened of.
And we expose the dog to it at a level and
intensity that the dog can handle.
So if your dog is frightened of strangers,
that might be seeing a stranger at a hundred meters,
that might be what your dog can currently handle without getting
upset. And with separation anxiety,
we're talking in terms of duration.
How long can you be on the other side of the
door before your dog gets upset?
So it isn't going in and out of the door,
cause we need to work out what intensity,
what level of this scary thing I eat you being on
the other side of the door.
What amount of that can your dog currently handle without getting
upset? So can you see how,
if you go online and you find a training plan that
says go out for three minutes,
go out for five minute,
that's not going to work for your dog because your dog
might not be able to handle two seconds.
I work with some dogs who can't even cope with you
going out to the door without getting upset.
And we have to take a whole different approach to start
off with.
So the key is precision.
The key is customized to your dog and the key is
not taking a generic plan from the internet and trying to
make it work.
So what my top three tips,
well, first off I mentioned customized.
So my first tip is your training has to be customized
to what your dog can handle.
So you first need to work out what that is.
Is it three seconds?
Is it three minutes?
You need to make an assessment of how long your dog
can be on his own without any training.
So right now,
without getting upset,
going over threshold,
and then you are going to craft your training around that,
around what your dog can handle.
And you're going to make decisions about progression through training based
on how your dog is dealing with the departures.
So maybe what was going on with the poster,
the three minutes was too much for the dog to start
off with.
And maybe the three minutes,
even if the dog could handle it,
the dog,
then couldn't handle five minutes or 10 minutes.
So we really need to be careful about what can the
dog currently do and how much progression can the dog handle.
Now, that I know probably sounds a bit complex.
And I developed custom plans for my clients because that gets
dogs through the training in the most efficient and effective way.
And that's why people work with me.
And I know it's hard and I know it can be
difficult to do.
Now when Jackie started working with me,
she too had tried the depart to exercise the three minutes.
It wasn't three minutes for Jackie,
but she'd tried the kind of standard I'll go out and
I'll come back.
And she wasn't getting anywhere.
Her dog wasn't improving,
she felt really stuck.
And then when she started working with me,
she saw my plans and how my plans differed from what
she'd been previously using.
She said to me,
I get it.
I get it now.
And now a few months on,
Boots can be left for over two hours.
Yay. So Jackie and Boots went from no progress trying to
do this training to amazing progress by sticking to a plan.
Yeah, I know.
You're thinking,
how the heck do I do that?
And I know that writing a training plan like a pro
is going to be a big ass.
You don't spend your entire week immersed in separation anxiety training.
like I do.
You haven't spent a ton of time learning how to do
this stuff.
You haven't worked with hundreds of dogs,
getting them through separation anxiety.
So how do you know what a good plan looks like?
Well, here's the thing,
I've made it easier for people by developing an app.
So I have an app which creates the custom plans for
you. It takes out all of the hard work out and
it's kind of like having me on your phone while you
train. And I was kind of a bit spooky,
isn't it?
But yeah,
I'm there with you cause you've got your custom plans.
How can you get hold of the app?
Well, from July 1st,
you can get the app free when you joined my separation
anxiety hero's club,
my monthly membership,
more to come on that later.
So let's get back to those top tips,
though. Number two,
you need to be prepared to make exercises easiest sometimes.
It's not always a case of pushing the dog.
What my mentor,
Jean Donaldson calls,
pushities. We want to push and push our dogs.
And sometimes that means we push them when they're not capable
of progressing,
when they're not ready.
A really good analogy is to think about a track and
field athlete,
maybe a sprinter or high jumper.
If you think about how they train and how they compete,
they will have a progression in terms of that performance,
which will sometimes mean they get a personal best.
So they get their best over time,
they get their best over height,
but they don't expect to get a personal best every time
they train or every time they compete.
They know that progress is about getting personal best or pushing
their personal best up over time.
But accepting that not every single jump,
not every single sprint is going to be a personal best.
So think about that with your dog.
If your dog is progressing and you can leave them for
increasing amounts,
don't think that every single time they're going to be able
to increase the time that they can be left,
they just won't.
Dogs will sometimes get personal best and then you'll go out
and train the next day and then nowhere near.
But just remember that progress isn't about smashing a personal best
every single time.
It's about slow,
steady progress that trends upwards.
And how you'll know that progress is trending up with is
you're going to keep records.
So make sure you keep a record of your training and
then over time,
keep looking back.
And even if your dog's having dips,
even if the duration goes up and down,
you should see a steady increase of just like the high
jumper who doesn't set a personal best every single time,
but who might be pushing that personal best on occasion.
You're going to see that with your dog.
So don't expect a personal best every single time.
Just look for progression over time.
All right.
So three,
you have to become an expert in your dog's anxiety threshold,
and the more you train the better you're going to get
at this.
What I encourage my owner clients to do though,
is not so much know when your dog is over threshold
cause remember,
we're always trying to keep our dogs under threshold.
So it's not so much about that,
what it is?
And this is when you become a real expert on your
dog. Spotting the things that your dog does when they are
just starting to feel a teeny bit uncomfortable.
So then not ever threshold,
but you know,
when they do that thing,
it's time to end that exercise.
And that could be a pull race,
it might be an ear Twitch.
It might be a bit more movement around the house.
Julie who's working with Reba and Julie is an absolute rock
star and a real expert in Reba's body language.
Julie is in one of my online programs too.
Julie and I spotted that Reba does a head flick before
she gets upset.
And she does this thing Reba cause she's a bouncy,
energetic Brittany spaniel.
She does this thing where she does jump up at the
door a lot,
but Julie was able to decipher the difference between a normal
Reba just checking things out jump at the door,
and an anxious jump at the door.
So Julie became a complete expert in Reba's anxiety behavior and
Reba's threshold,
and it makes all the difference.
Okay. So those are my three top tips.
Just to recap,
number one,
the training has to be customized to your dog.
Number two,
you need to be prepared to make training exercises easier sometimes.
It's not always about push,
push, push.
Number three,
you have to become an expert in your dog's threshold and
their anxiety behavior.
Now I know because I know that separation anxiety training can
seem overwhelming when you're new to it,
and let's face it,
it can be hard even if you're not new to it.
And so for those of you who are ready to start
training, or if you've already trained and you feel like you're
not getting anywhere,
I've got my brand new five day challenge coming up.
Now, thousands of people,
thousands of dogs have been through my five-day challenge.
And if you haven't been through it,
you got to sign up.
The next one starts on June 17th,
and you can register by going to this link subthresholdtraining.com/freechallenge
at subthreshold training.com/freechallenge.
So you have to sign up before it starts.
It starts on June 17th.
So what you're waiting for?
Anyway, thank you so so much for joining me again today.
And I hope to see you again next week when we're
going to be talking about habits and how habits can help
you ACE your separation anxiety training.
Now, before you go,
I just like to ask a huge,
huge favor.
If you liked the show,
if you found this episode useful,
please, please,
please go to iTunes and rate and review it.
I'd be so grateful if you could do that.
All right,
thanks again for listening and bye for now.
Thanks for listening to the fixing separation anxiety podcast with Julie.
For more information,
visit the website at www.subthresholdtraining.com.
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rate and review this podcast.
Thank you for joining us.
We'll see you again soon..