How Can I Make My Dog Feel Better About Me Leaving Next Week?

[Zanki]

I have to go away next week for eight days. A friend of mine is going to be house sitting, looking after Shadow, my other animals and the house for me. Shadow loves him, but I'm still worried about leaving her behind. She got so upset when my boyfriend was gone for a weekend a few weeks ago, now we both have to go away and I don't want to freak the poor girl out. Is there anything I can do to make her feel better about me leaving?

[mydiamond]

Do you mean she has Separation Anxiety (we often shorten them to simply "SA")? If yes, then practice leaving every day until you leave for real. Just don't say anything, don't think anything, and go out the door. You don't need to actually go somewhere, just make sure you're out of her sight for a minute or a half. Go back in, don't say anything, act as if nothing has happened. Rinse and repeat. Increase and decrease leaving time in an irregular pattern so she'd never be able to guess how long you'd be gone. Lastly, add your dog sitter on Skype so you can have a chat with Shadow whenever you please

 

She should be okay have a safe trip! x

[Removed #5]

Zanki, the quick answer is that I don't think you can really prepare them for an absence that's that long.  If you were dealing with a 3 year old child (or older, of course) you could explain it to them.  The problem with dogs is that don't really understand a lot of what we have to say.

 

I think you've done the best you can by bringing in a house sitter whom she knows and left her in her own home so there should be a comfort factor there for her.

 

Go, take your time away and enjoy yourself, even if it's for business there's always free time to enjoy.

[Zanki]

My girls is good about being left alone, I'm just worried she will freak out if I'm not there and do something naughty. Unlike me, my friend has a place of work (I'm self employed and work from home so I'm here a lot of the time), so that's going to be something new to her. I can leave her long periods and she's fine, I just worry that with her owners gone and my friend not being here all the time, she's going to be very upset, no matter how many treats etc I leave for him to give her to keep her occupied.

[Emma]

To be honest I can't really think of too much more to suggest.

Dogs like routine and familiarity, so trying to keep things as 'normal' for her as they would usually be should help her.  I appreciate that it's just not practical to keep everything in her routine exactly the same as your friend has to work and fit things around that but simply just by being in her own home with it's own familiar sights and smells should be some reassurance.  Items of clothing/bedding with your scent on should help her too.

We left our dogs in our house with my in-law for three days earlier in the year and they were fine when we were gone.  So you never know, you might just be pleasantly surprised and find that she handles it ok. 

[valkyries]

when i used to leave my boy Odin he went off his food so i used to phone him and skype, it always worked once he heard me on phone or saw me on skype he'd eat his food xxxx 

[Stephanie Gonzalez]

Wish my pups didnt have SA ): the few weeks i left to AZ, my pups wouldnt play, wouldnt eat. What worked tho is I would facetime them and they would go crazy (: as soon as i had to go tho it went back to the same thing, and when i came back they were really thin, you could see their spine [emoji29] Shadow got better tho now my solution is to take them with me whenever i have to leave again haha [emoji28]

[valkyries]

not always easy to take which is sad but we do our best 

[Zanki]

I hope it doesn't come to me having to Skype Shadow, but I got a 3 SIM to use while I am there so I get 25gb data to use so it's not such a huge deal so long as I can get a 3g signal on my phone.

 

It's a shame I can't take her, but I don't think taking a dog from the UK to California for a week is such a good idea.