Obedience training tips for September 2007.      SEPARATION ANXIETY   As more working families are keeping dogs as pets, many of these pets are usually left alone at home while their masters are working. If you are one of these masters, you will find that you come home from work to a God-awful mess.  Every day on your way home from work you get tense just worrying what you will open the door and find.    If the destructive behavior is happening only every once in a while then it may be boredom related. If your dog is a very active breed it is quite likely that doesn’t get the physical and mental stimulation that it needs so it takes it out on your possessions! If this is a possibility then getting someone to take her for a walk during the day is a good option.    Separation anxiety is not something that dogs have been born with although some dogs are more susceptible to it than others. To cure separation anxiety, here are some recommendations for dealing with it. The goal that we are aiming for is to reduce the dog's anxiety through conditioning it to associate being left alone and outdoors as a good thing. Here are a few tips and techniques I like to share if you do not wish to crate your dog when you are out.       No.1 Arrivals and departures Keep your arrivals and departures very low key. Try leaving your dog alone for at least 15 minutes when you come home. Just ignore it. If your dog calms down then show it some attention.    No.2 Do not respond It is important that you do not respond to your dog when it starts acting up. This is inadvertently rewarding your dog for poor behavior and will not help. If your dog starts barking or whining, ignore it, no matter how difficult that may be. Do not even make eye contact!    No.3 Attention Only give your dog attention when it is lying down or relaxed and not actively seeking attention (by barking for example). Do this by calling your dog over and making it sit before petting, etc.    No.4 Contrast Your dog is probably having difficulty accepting that sometimes it is going to get all the attention and other times none (like when you are at work). You can help this problem by ignoring your dog for 6 hours a day on the weekends. You can feed your dog but that's it. The idea is that your dog will think “What's the big deal when my owners are gone? Even when they are home, they still ignore me! ”.    No.5 Exercise 30 minutes before you leave home, walk /jog your dog for 15 minutes at a fast pace. If your dog is tired then it will have less energy to be a nuisance with.       Good piece of advice from Faith.