Dog Behavior - Separation Anxiety

Separation anxiety is a behavioral problem that manifests itself in a number of different ways. When left alone some dogs will whine, bark, or destroy your stuff. Separation anxiety, at its root, is caused by stress. When your dog is not able to be near you it is a source of such stress that is causes these irritating behaviors. It is important, though, to understand the cause of this dog behavior problem so that you can attack it effectively.
Dog owners who have dogs afflicted with separation anxiety often worsen the problem because they don't understand the cause.
Understand that correcting your dog, yelling, or other such traditional forms of discipline may backfire with separation anxiety. As I mentioned earlier, separation anxiety is caused by stress. Actions that add more stress will not help but hinder your progress in dealing with this dog behavior problem.
Take a sensitive approach to correcting this problem. Understand that fixing this dog behavior problem will require a shift in your dog's perception of the world. Right now his perception tells him that not being near you is a cause of fear, panic, and worry. Proper training for separation anxiety will show your dog that being without you is not something to fear.
The best way to approach this problem is by doing proper crate training. You need to show your dog that it is possible to be alone and to not feel stress.
Start out by putting your dog in the crate, closing the door, and sitting in front of the crate. Your dog may whine, cry, and bark. Do not pay attention! If you pander to his whining you will succeed not in fixing his separation anxiety problem, but will train him to whine uncontrollably. Just wait him out. As soon as he has calmed down sufficiently, let him out of the crate.
Repeat this process over and over. Each time insist that he stay crated a bit longer and gradually increase your distance. Stick to your guns! It is going to be tough to listen to his whining but you must stick it out.
Let's examine this process from your dog's point of view. He knows that being separated from you causes huge amounts of stress, yet you put him in his crate and cause him stress. Invariably he feels stressed and manifests it by whining and crying. He feels that these actions will alleviate his stress. They don't, however. His screaming does nothing to help his situation because you don't pay attention to him. Eventually, he tires of this. When he spends a few moments in the crate being calm you are actually training him. You are showing him that there are other ways to deal with stress. Before he only believed that he could deal with stress in one way, now, being calm is an alternative. If you persist in this course of training you will create a new pattern or new behavior. You will slowly train him to be calm and to accept not being near you.
When you have accomplished your dog being calm in the crate while you are at home, start venturing outside. Leave the house and wait for only a few minutes. Gradually increase the time until you can leave for hours and your dog is fine in his crate. When you have accomplished this, you have trained him to know that being without you doesn't cause stress.
When you have arrived at this point, you can gradually wean your dog off the use of the crate. Allow him more freedom when you are home and when you are gone. I would recommend that you always keep the crate handy and use it a few times a week, even when your dog is cured of his separation anxiety. This will help to maintain the training you have done.
Separation anxiety is a dog behavior problem that can take time to fix, but is definitely within the scope of your capabilities. ( by Ty Brown )