Separation Anxiety is very common in Malshi Dogs. We are often asked if our Malshi Dog suffers from Separation Anxiety and how do you help a dog with Separation Anxiety. We currently work from home which tends to compound the problem further. When I was traveling to work each day our Malshi Dog was okay and learned to accept that I would eventually be home later in the day. But my partner stayed at home, our Malshi Dog to this day will display some level of Separation Anxiety when she leaves the house. When you think about it dogs have every reason to be anxious when we leave. We provide food and water for them to survive. If we never came back they would surely perish and I think some dogs have a strong survival drive which reminds them of this fact.

So as I’m writing this It’s been one month since we have seen our Malshi Dog and that’s because we have been away. We were away from home for one month, while we were away Wookie stayed safe at home with family. I was really anxious about being away for so long. I was worried she would be extremely upset the entire time. But I was really worried that if we were away for that long, she might try to get out to find us. Thinking back, maybe I ended up with more anxiety than our Malshi Dog. She handled us being away better than expected. She did have bad separation anxiety when we left for at least two days. She cried most of the day for two days straight. She was with our boys but still, that wasn’t enough to comfort her at the start. But after this initial period, she settled down, started waiting at the front of the house, and got on with her routine. She went for a few walks each week which was great for her, walking the same track she normally visits each day. Now that we are back she is very happy. When we arrived home she cried and asked for belly rubs for some time. She was visibly happy and still gives me a smile every now and then. In the mornings she has been extra excited, very keen to wake us up, and stays close by. She is more clingy, without a doubt she is worried when we leave the house. Hopefully, the next time we are away she might be more settled due to this experience, she might automatically expect us to be leaving for a very long time. We will see how she reacts next time.

How do you help a dog with Separation Anxiety

From our experience, I would suggest a few helpful tips to help your dog. Slowly introduce the Dog to being away from you by leaving the dog with family members that it already knows. A day or a weekend away is a short period of time, if the family members could stay at your house this can help. If not try to take a few items that can comfort the dog such as a toy or its dog bed. If you have an old piece of clothing this can left in the dogs bed to give it some comfort. The next suggestion is to try taking your dog to a small dog only daycare. Some will allow you to drop off the dog just for one day. If you do this from an early age they can tend to enjoy the experience, making new friends, and playing games with other dogs. If they start to enjoy the experience then try a weekend, scheduling a weekend away for your dog at the daycare every few months can help them when it comes time for a longer duration separation. Train the dog over time to understand comfort words. If I go to leave the house and our Malshi Dog asks to come I use a few comfort words. I’ll be back. WookiDog Stay. It’s okay. Even when I’m just going to the shops just a few minutes away I use this group of comfort words. I repeat a similar use of words when I return and I believe she understands that I will return. It’s a matter of repetition, each time I repeat this pattern it’s clearer to our dog that I will be back after a short period of time. Then when it comes to us going away for a long period of time I use the same words to comfort her and prepare her. A few days leading up to us going away for a month I was using the comfort words. She understood, by the time we ready to start packing she was asking for cuddles and followed us around the house more than she normally would. Now I’m still not sure if this a good idea but we actually called our dog while away and used the comfort words via speaker phone to try and reassure her that we would be back.