Why most anxious dogs never heal.

Most anxious dogs will never heal from their anxiety. Why?

Well before you get all down in the dumps, let me clear something up. It’s not because it’s not possible. It’s not even because it’s very difficult. It’s for one primary reason-

Lack of owner training.

When it comes to curing anxiety, and especially retaining the training once it has been done, the number one problem comes down to a lack of information and training given to the owner.

There are many trainers that can help a dog with anxiety, even severe anxiety issues. But if you as the owner can’t stay consistent and continue with the training that was done, your dog will stop progressing and almost inevitably revert back to its old ways. How can you stay consistent if you aren’t fluent in what helped your dog in the first place?

You’ve probably heard of a lot of the training options- there’s 1 on 1 aka private training, which is fantastic, except typically all of the information is dumped on you like a bucket of ice water and then the trainer leaves for a week or more, coming back only to dump more ice water/information on you! It’s overwhelming and difficult to retain everything you learned- particularly for an issue like anxiety. There are also time constraints that make it difficult for the trainer to impart all of the knowledge you might need and answer all of your questions.

There’s the board and train option, where you leave your dog at the trainers facility typically for a period of weeks. Again, a lot can be achieved, and your dog may make significant progress- but without YOUR own comprehensive training and learning, progress is likely to stop once they get home, and even regress.

My focus is on training you.  I can absolutely train the dog, that part I’ve done many, many times- but the mark of a really good trainer is whether or not they can impart their skills to the human.  After all, YOU are your dog’s guardian, protector, and family.  You are the superhero of their story (and they make sure you know it with those excited butt wiggles of theirs!!).  Ultimately, it’s you that will be handling the day to day challenges.  And I want to empower you to be able to do so.

If you need help with an anxious dog, fill out the contact form on my site and I’ll be happy to chat with you about training options. All the best!