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This episode is inspired by Patti, Skippy's mum, shout out to Patti and Skippy.

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In the back and forth that Patti and I have had about various factors that could affect

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Skippy's training, I just said to Patti at one point, look here's a really simple rule

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for you to follow, does the thing that you're talking about, the question or the factor

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that you're wondering about, does this make Skippy's separation anxiety training outcomes

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better or worse? Is she more or less likely to do well if the factor that you're considering

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is involved? So thank you to Patti for making me think that way. And it sounds really simple

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doesn't it? Just ask the question, does this make it more or less likely that my dog will

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be successful with training? Will my dog be more successful with the training exercise

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I've given them if this thing happens or if this thing has occurred? So very simple.

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But there's quite a lot going on underpinning this really simple rule, of course there is.

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But however, I think this just might be the most important thing you can ask when you're

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about to start a very specific separation anxiety training session. So tune into this

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episode to find out why I say that.

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Hello and welcome to the Be Right Back separation anxiety podcast. Hi, I'm Julie Naismith, dog

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trainer, author and full on separation anxiety geek. I've helped thousands of dogs overcome

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separation anxiety with my books, my online programs, my trainer certification and my

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separation anxiety training app. And this podcast is all about sharing my tips and tricks

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to help you teach your dog how to be happy at home alone too.

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Alright, no episode would be complete or very few episodes would be complete without a really

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quick refresher of how separation anxiety training works. In its simplest form, we're

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just exposing a dog to the thing it's frightened of, alone time. But we don't do it at a scary

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level. We're not exposing the dog to alone time that's going to frighten the dog. We

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take the alone time and we just reduce it to a level that the dog can handle. And it's

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a technique that's called gradual exposure. And then we gradually, and there's the term

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gradually gradual, we gradually increase the amount of time the dog can handle. And we

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make sure that the dog is never anxious, that however much time we leave the dog for in

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training, so however long the duration, the dog is fine with it. So it's not hard. It's

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not easy. Every single time we do a training session with the dog, it should be achievable.

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And then we go at your dog's pace. So we only increase duration if we think a dog is going

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to be okay with it. Again, we don't increase the duration and make it hard. We always are

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cognizant of whether our dog is going to be okay. We should always be thinking, I'm going

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to set a target duration that a dog's going to ace. And then we don't go too far, too

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fast. So we just follow what our dogs can handle. We're guided by their tolerance of

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the training and of the alone time. So really, there's just one rule, like keep a dog under

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threshold, expose it gradually to increasing intensity of alone time and don't go too far

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too fast. Boom, there you go. So that's separation anxiety training. We're done here, right?

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Well, obviously not so fast. Because, you know, you wouldn't be listening to this podcast

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if you thought it was that simple. Because underneath that quite tight, quite straightforward

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rule, of course, there's lots of different things going on. As I say, otherwise, you

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wouldn't be tuning in and you wouldn't be thinking about getting a trainer or diving

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into my free Facebook group or grabbing my book because you'd have the answer. Just go

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at your dog's pace. Keep your dog under threshold. Increase the amount of alone time. Don't go

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too far, too fast. And the reason why I'm sure you want to know more and you're always,

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not always, hopefully not always thinking about separation anxiety training, but often

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thinking about separation anxiety training is that there are nuances and there are very

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many things that are dog dependent. And I've worked with so many dogs now that I can see

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they depend. I can work out categories of it depends because I've seen dog after dog

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after dog after dog, hundreds of dogs. And I see patterns and I see patterns that lead

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me to conclude that, OK, so there are certain things that do affect training, certain categories

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that affect training for the vast majority of dogs. So very dog dependent. That rule,

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we take that rule and we apply it to each dog and we answer that question. Are the things

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we do, are certain factors more or less likely to make a training session successful for

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your dog? We're talking about things that when you start the training session, when

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you start doing the gradual exposure training session, things that have happened before

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that training session that might mean your dog will absolutely smash the training or

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it might mean that your dog will have a really bad time in training. Now, fancy terms for

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this, if we want to get all dog trainery speak, we're talking about things you might have

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heard of these terms called antecedents and setting events. You can think about these

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as broadly as things that happen before you start to train. Now, obviously, there's stuff

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that happens while you're training that can throw everything up in the air, like the delivery

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person coming, like the doorbell going, like the dog barking next door. But let's think

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about the things that affect your training up to that point where you say, right, I've

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got my training plan and I'm going out of the door. Antecedents, think about antecedents

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as things that happen just before. So things that happen just before you start the training.

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Maybe it's putting on a coat because you put on your coat, it's cold. You did that just

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before the training. Then there are things that happen further back. So not the things

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you do right that moment when you're training, but things that go further back, maybe further

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back in the day or maybe further back in the week. And these two increase the likelihood

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or decrease the likelihood that your dog will do OK. They increase or decrease the likelihood

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that your dog will respond to your trigger of leaving. And those things that go further

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back, we can call them setting events. I know I said I wasn't going to get fancy, but I

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did. But let's forget the fancy stuff for now, because we could go down a complete rabbit

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hole. I could do a whole podcast episode just on those concepts. All you need to think

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about, let's keep it simple. Just think about stuff that has bearing, that has an impact

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on your dog's likelihood to succeed in any given training session. That's all you need

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to think about. Just think about that question that I started this podcast off with. What

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affects your dog's chances of success? Does this make it easier or harder for your dog?

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Does this make it more or less likely that your dog will succeed? And every dog really

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is very different. But the good news is that most of these things, I don't like calling

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it saying things because that's so broad, but these setting events and antecedents,

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the things that are happening beforehand, the good news is that although every dog is

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different, there's about a 90-10 or maybe even a 95-5 rule here in that most dogs are

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affected by a smaller number of categories. In other words, I can now tell you the sorts

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of things that you might want to look out for because we see the pattern across dogs

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over and over and over again. Certain things seem to affect all dogs. Now, there's always

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outliers. You'll always get some dog who is affected by a very unique event that we've

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never seen any dog affected by before. Although often when we drill down, we can sort of put

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that event into the categories that I'm about to go through with you. But that's the beauty

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of watching so many dogs and training so many dogs and working with so many dog parents.

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I've seen over and over again the patterns of what affects the likelihood that a dog

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will be okay. So let's have a think about those. I'm not overcomplicating it. Let's

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keep it as simple as we can. I'm just going to talk about categories. Instead of talking

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about things, let me change my terminology and I'll talk about categories. Categories

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that will affect your training outcomes. As I say, let me give you the common ones

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so that you've got a starting point and you've got a basis to ask questions about,

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well, does this apply to my dog? Is this making training more difficult or easier for my dog?

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The biggest thing that affects dog's likelihood to be okay when you leave are departure cues.

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And I'm sure you've heard of departure cues. Departure cues are items or processes. Processes

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is probably not the right word. Items or activities or actions that happen that we do or that we

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involve just before we leave. The classic ones might be picking up keys or putting on the coat

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or putting on our shoes or opening a door where keys are or maybe picking up our coffee mug. So

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things that we do before we leave that we know immediately trigger our dogs into,

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uh-oh, this is going to be bad. I've done another podcast episode just about these cues, so I won't

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repeat all that here, but I will link to that in the show notes.

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But just to say that these cues, these pre-departure cues, they are biggies. They do

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have a really big impact on the dog's response to being left, the dog's response to your training

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of him to be left. And that's why, and I explained it in the other podcast episode, but that's why

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it's really important to remove as many of them as you can from your leaving routine.

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Now, you might say, oh, Julie, that's ridiculous. You know, I can't go out without my coat. Okay,

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yeah, if it's minus 30 outside, I get it. If it's five degrees, yeah, maybe I get that too. But

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because cues have such a big impact on a dog and because they often, not often, if it's triggering

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for your dog, then your dog is getting upset before you even think about leaving. So if picking

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up car keys gets your dog into a state of anxiety, you can't start absence training because

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your dog is already anxious. And yes, there are processes we can use if we need to, to make things

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like car keys or picking up a gym bag less scary. But the main thing we need to work on is your dog

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not being frightened of being alone. So we can remove these antecedents from our training.

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And if we need to, we'll add them back in. Now, that all sounds very, I don't know,

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almost like I'm talking about something that's happening in a science lab. Oh, yes, we can,

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you know, we've got antecedents and we'll take them out and it's just training. Well,

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actually, you can do this for real. I remember that we developed a way of leaving the house that

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did remove some of these things. If we had to put our shoes on outside, that we'd put our shoes on

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outside, because when you have a dog with separation anxiety, if I were to say to you,

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if you put your shoes on outside, your dog might be okay for two hours. Would you do that? Would

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you go through the inconvenience of putting your shoes on outside so that your dog could do two

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hours? Yeah, of course you would. You'd be like, Julie, where do I sign? Now, I'm not saying that,

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by the way. I'm not saying that if you put your shoes outside, your dog will get to two hours.

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Just making a point. I know you know that. But let's not make work for ourselves and let's not

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create anxiety for our dogs. If we can drop things from our leaving routine, even if we have to drop

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them forever, let's do it. Because all we're doing is increasing the likelihood of our dog succeeding

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at being left, succeeding at the training and then ultimately succeeding at being left longer term.

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So I call these, the cues, I put them into what I call my what category. So they're things or

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actions or stuff we do. And the classic ones, there are many, but the obvious ones are things

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like keys and bags and purses and shoes and car keys. They can be opening and closing a cupboard

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where you put your coat. They can be things like I mentioned before, grabbing your water

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bottle or your coffee cup. They can be slamming your laptop because you always do that just before

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you leave. They're at that level. They're at that level of detail. They usually involve some kind of

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implement coupled with some kind of action. So that's why I call them the what. So for you,

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a little exercise for you is to think through, what does my dog respond to when I'm about to

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leave? Whether it's leaving for training or whether it's leaving for, you know, real life.

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And by the way, dogs don't know the difference between training and real life. They just know

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different. Those are words that we use. But let's say training versus when you used to leave your

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dog. Do you know what things affect your dog? We're not worried about things that don't cause

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an anxious reaction because they're not having an impact on your dog's likelihood to be okay.

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So we can forget them. If you slamming your laptop closed, your dog doesn't even notice,

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your dog doesn't go, oh no, they're going out now. Then slamming a laptop is not something

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that we are worried about. So you only want to worry about the things that your dog worries about.

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And as much as you can, try dropping them from your leaving routine. And then listen to the

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podcast that explains what else you can do. So we've got the what. My next category,

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because this one is very, very common in the way it affects dogs, is the when and who category.

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I don't have a specific statistic for you here, but the percentage of dogs that are affected by

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who does the training and when the training happens is sky high, really high. Let's look at

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when. So dogs are affected by the time of day. It can be the day of week. I've even seen dogs

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who are affected by the season. So when is a very, very big factor on the dog's likelihood

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to succeed. So think about it for your dog. Now, what I find fascinating here is there isn't a

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consistent pattern. If you have a dog that does badly in the evenings, you just know when you're

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training in the evenings, you can't get the same duration as when you're training in the mornings.

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You might be led to think that all dogs struggle with training in the evenings,

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but the reality of it is it's all over the map. I've seen dogs who are fine in the evenings,

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bad in the mornings, fine in the mornings, bad in the evenings, afternoons are better,

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Saturdays are better than Wednesdays, are better than weekdays in the summer and so on and so on.

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But the broad category there is when. Start thinking about that for your dog because

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it's really a massive light bulb moment and it often helps you answer the question,

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I just don't get it. I don't get why my dog struggled on Tuesday, but then I went to do

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the training today and he was fine. Is one of the things that changed the time of day you did the

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training. So I'd recommend as well as thinking about the classic departure cue triggers,

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I would definitely start getting together a list, looking back at your training exercises,

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comparing the time you did the training with how well your dog did and see if you can see a pattern.

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Once you've got that pattern, boom, then you can start training for different target durations

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at different times of day and you can use what we call scenarios. So members of my

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Separation Anxiety Heroes membership club use an app that's called Be Right Back,

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like Be Right Back the books, but it's called Be Right Back and one of the things they can do in

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there is they can set up different scenarios and that allows them to do just what I explained to

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you there, that they can set up at say an evening scenario and if their dog does better in the

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evenings what they'll be doing is they'll have a different target duration, a different trajectory,

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a different graph for the evenings and then when they train in the mornings they'll switch to the

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morning scenario. So when is a really big factor. Let's talk about who. I would say also as I

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mentioned it's a really high percentage of dogs struggle with when, a really high percentage of

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dogs also struggle with who does the training and differences in who does the training.

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Classic differences are often two people doing the training can be harder. So if you're a family unit

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and two of you do the training, many dogs find that harder than just one person doing the training,

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but not all dogs. Some dogs find it harder when one person does the training and easier when two

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people do the training. So think that one through and when you work it out, work under the easiest

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conditions and I should have mentioned that with the context of when also. Even though I encourage

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people to use scenarios, I also don't want you to overuse scenarios. What I mean by that is if

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you've got a dog who does well in the morning but struggles in the evening, does well when two of

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you leave but struggles when one of you leave, I don't want you to create a million permutations.

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I don't know how many permutations there are for that, there's probably eight, probably not a

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million, but I don't want you to have a scenario that says both of us in the morning, both of us

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in the evening, one of us in the morning, one of us in the evening, the other person in the morning,

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that's about six isn't it, the other person in the evening, whoa, whoa, all over the place for the dog.

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Focus on the easiest context. So if one of you training in the evening is the easiest context,

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start there and get some really, really solid alone time under your belt, under your dog's belt,

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before you think about mixing up scenarios and a good rule of thumb could be 15 minutes,

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ideally something like 30. Having said that, sometimes practicality plays a part too. So if

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you find that, well, your dog does do better in the evenings when only one of you trains but that

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situation almost never happens, then you don't have to stick as tightly to that rule of don't

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bounce around all over the place with your scenarios. All right, so another little bit

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of homework for you then, start thinking about combinations of who affects your dog. So who

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does the training, think about that, think about who does the training and how that affects your

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dog's likelihood to succeed or not. All the who's there, too many who's. Okay, my final category and

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this is the why and the why is often the one that gets us scratching our head. What's interesting

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about the why is that why can make any of the other factors we just talked about more or less

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problematic. The reason why the why category can be confusing and confounding is that it's not always

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obvious why a dog does differently well. Let me give you some examples of what I put in the why

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category and you'll see what I mean. So things that can affect a dog that are farther back in time

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include things like sleepiness, what else was going on for your dog that day, that week even,

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maybe other stresses that your dog has been responding to. It could be things like a trip

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to the groomer, a day in daycare, it could be routine changes, it could be breaks in training,

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it could be more play, less play, more tired, less tired. I'm going to say again every dog is

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different here. Some dogs train better when they're sleepy, some dogs train better when they're alert,

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some dogs train better after a day at daycare, some dogs train worse. But think about those

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things that if you go back through a dog's day, through the day before, through the day before,

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seem to have a pattern in affecting your dog's likelihood to do well or not.

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Because that will help you answer the question why. Why did my dog do differently well today?

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We trained at the time that I know is right for him, his best time. I dropped all the cues and

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I did the training because he does better when I do the training but he still did badly.

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If you go back through your why category you might find an answer. You might start to see that

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your dog does badly when they go to daycare on a Tuesday and you train on a Thursday.

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That might be it or it might be the other way. When your dog's had a day at daycare that week

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maybe your dog does better. The thing about the why category as well is that sometimes we can

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work out why but sometimes, and this is the maddening thing, sometimes we don't work out why.

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We can scratch our heads and look for these factors but sometimes those factors can be

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internal to the dog and they aren't things that are affecting the dog externally so we don't

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always see. They can be things like dogs being saturated with learning. Their brains are just

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going whoa I am just no I can't take any more learning and their brains just regress to old

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ways of thinking, old associations. So as much as it's great to try and find out why, don't drive

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yourself crazy doing that. Sometimes we have to accept that there isn't always a why no matter

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how hard we look for it. Okay so a really quick summary. I've thrown a lot of stuff at you today.

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We're trying to answer the question does this make training more or less likely to succeed for

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my dog and if so you want to work with those factors. You want to think about how you're

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going to accommodate or omit those factors from your training. Every dog is very different but

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I've given you some broad categories so that at least you can then start to think about

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any patterns that fall into those categories and once you start to work out what makes your dog

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more likely to succeed and what makes your dog less likely to succeed you absolutely want to

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play to strengths. So always try to think about training at times when your dog's likely to do

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well. Train with the parameters, the combination of people or who does the training that's likely

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to make your dog do well. Dropping those cues because we know that makes it harder for dogs.

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Always thinking how do I make this better or worse for my dog. How do I make my dog succeed

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and if you do that you've just answered yeah like I said probably the most important question when

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it comes to approaching a training session for separation anxiety. I hope you found this episode

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useful. Thank you again for tuning in. I know you've got many choices when it comes to podcast

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listening but I appreciate you listening to mine. So that's it from me for now. I'll catch you on

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the next one. Bye for now. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Be Right Back

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Separation Anxiety Podcast. If you want to find out more about how I can help you further

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head over to julienaysmith.com. Meanwhile if you enjoyed listening today I would love it if

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you would head over to wherever you listen to your podcasts and consider rating my show.

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Thanks so much. Good luck with that training and bye for now.