Puppy Separation Syndrome

This is also a consequence of the puppy's anxiety. The dog is a social animal. For it loneliness is not a normal state and can lead to a great problem if it doesn't get used to it progressively. The moment when the puppy is sold gives the puppy a series of changes which are hard to assimilate. Suddenly the puppy is separated from the mother and the rest of the herd. Therefore, the puppy looks for its owner's affection, who is naturally willing to give it to it. We have to find the balance between calming the dog down and over protecting it. The owner must be able to reject the puppy; if no, this creates an affection dependence, which is harmful for the dog's balance. The syndrome of separation happens frequently when after living after living one way for a while there is a sudden change. A clear example of this is when we buy a puppy during our vacations and then we go back to our normal way of life.

Symptoms: The syndrome of separation is expressed with the total rejection to solitude. The dog howls and scratches the doors with no control. If we yell at the dog the only thing we will do is worsen the situation. Since the dog can't modify the surroundings it enters a state of anxiety that increases the intensity of the pathological manifestations: licking itself, bulimia, self-destruction, etc. The next step is the state of depression, characterized by the puppy's indifference toward everything that surrounds it. The evolution is similar to the evolution of the privation syndrome, but the origin is different.

Hyper-Dependency Anxiety: This is a very frequent phenomenon. The only people who are responsible of this are the owners, even though many refuse to accept this. Nevertheless, it cannot be corrected if the owner cannot accept his mistake. The affective link that joins the mother and with the puppy is very strong during a certain period of time, but later the mother provokes the separation with rejection. She instinctively prepares the puppy to be an independent individual. On the other hand, some owners do the contrary with the puppy. The owner considers the dog as a puppy and not as an adolescent, and the intensity of the relationship does not help the animal confront the different situations that social life raises. This is when the hyper-dependency anxiety appears. When the owner is not present, the puppy is very nervous. When an unknown situation is presented, the puppy searches for the owner immediately for comfort, which does nothing but reinforce its dependence. The dog is always nervous and cries often. The owner cannot live with a puppy that is annoying and he can't stand, this is where the vicious cycle starts.

This conduct is normally abnormal, it happens in small breeds, since the owners tend to let them play the role of children. This will go on until the owner accepts his/her responsibility. 

Enuresis: It is a problem that is manifested only in training. The puppy's education is the one that we want and it develops a state of anxiety that is manifested in the lack of control when it urinates. Maybe the origin is an education that does not go with the puppy's character. In that case we have to restart education, giving a lot of importance to playing around with it so that it regains confidence and trust. This problem is easy to solve if the owner accepts to change certain educational aspects. In the puppy's education we have to have in mind its previous life, the character of the breed, its temper and the way the owner should behave. It is strictly psychological. Dog Depression