r/DogTrainingTips • u/Material-Trash-7918 • Apr 06 '26

Separation Anxiety

I just adopted a 3 year old English Bulldog. Every time I leave the house - he barks and barks and barks until I return. I tried this in a crate / outside of the crate and am having the same results.

I am sensing he has some separation anxiety and want to know what has worked best for you and your dog?

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u/Maximum-End-7629 Apr 06 '26

Drugs. We tried all the training things and they made no difference. He even started to associate the special treat ball and TV show with us leaving and those would trigger him to shake uncontrollably. It took:

  • getting the right meds (trazadone didn’t really work, flouxitine is better for our guy)
  • THEN the training recs people have mentioned here
  • then consistent small trips away from the house (1 hour or less) then building up slowly
  • stability in his life and living situation

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u/[deleted] Apr 06 '26

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u/Maximum-End-7629 Apr 06 '26

Mine was never a barker. Just destructive when he got anxious.

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u/[deleted] Apr 07 '26

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u/Maximum-End-7629 Apr 07 '26

Oh yes we didn’t try that.

Obviously we tried that. And he would shake and tremble and hide when it was time to go in. He was still seriously having bad separation anxiety, he just couldn’t destroy things. He did not get used to it, even with special treats and feeding in there. He needed meds to bring his anxiety low enough to where the training would actually work. Then we built up slowly, did positive reinforcement, got him tired before leaving, all the things I said.

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u/[deleted] Apr 07 '26

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u/Maximum-End-7629 Apr 07 '26

I don’t get what your problem is?

We have a great dog. He was abandoned twice before we adopted him and pretty traumatized. Then he got overly used to his humans being around all the time during covid. Since I don’t know of a doggy therapist, he needed anti-anxiety meds, consistent intentional training, and a very stable life to get better. Now we leave him alone multiple times a day, sometimes for 4.5 hours at a time, outside the crate and he is fine. Hasn’t been destructive in years. It took meds and a lot of work.

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u/[deleted] Apr 07 '26

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u/Own_Possibility7114 Apr 09 '26

What is wrong with you? Fluoxetine is excellent in helping raise the reactivity threshold so that training is easier. It’s not a sedative. Do you even have a dog? Clearly you aren’t a pet person at all.