Pet owners as well as their pets often suffer from separation anxiety. This is when animals or owners feels anxious and stressed when they are apart. I'll leave addressing the owner's anxiety to someone with more college degrees than I have. As for the pets, however, I believe I can offer some tips that may be helpful.

Dogs that suffer from separation anxiety can be very destructive to the owner's home. Additionally, they can cause problems for the owners when the neighbors start to complain about all the barking and noise that happens whenever the owner is away. It can be very frustrating for everyone involved.

A typical case of separation anxiety is displayed when a dog becomes nervous or anxious just prior to the owner leaving the home, exhibiting their emotional state by drooling, panting, pacing or whining.

Once the owner has left the home the dog may begin finding things to chew on, run back and forth between the window and the front door to look outside, urinate or defecate in unacceptable places, and/or start barking and whining incessantly. All of this can bring about a large amount of stress for the owner and neighbors.

Here are some tips to help train your dog to overcome separation anxiety:

• Provide exercise for your dog regularly. A physically healthy dog is also more emotionally healthy. If you can give your dog a hearty helping of exercise just prior to your departure it can certainly help. A tired dog may simply be too exhausted to get worked up about your absence.

• Provide an interactive toy of some sort when you leave. If you can pre-occupy your pet for the first 30 minutes that you are away it can go a long way toward keeping the anxiety level from ever rising. There are many chew toys on the market these days that allow you to hide a food treat inside, forcing your dog to work at it to get the treat. Having a few of these loaded and ready to provide to your pet when you leave is well worth the money.

• Your dog picks up on cues that you are about to leave. When you go and get your car keys, open the coat closet or pack your lunch, for example. Your dog observes this and knows what is to follow and therefore the anxiety begins. One thing you can do is to desensitize your dog to these clues. Spend a few days going and getting your car keys and then not going anywhere. Walk to the front door and open it, then close it and go and sit back down. In other words perform all of the normal cues but then do not leave and your dog will start to become desensitized to these cues.

• You can take it a step further and do some counter-conditioning. To make this effective, give the cue to the dog (go and get your car keys) and then give them a treat of some kind. In this way your dog will begin to associate you getting your keys with something positive, the treat. You have to be consistent. Keep at it until you can leave for a minute or two while your pet enjoys the favorite treat, but do not stay gone too long. Gradually, after you have reinforced to your dog that the cues to your leaving and the leaving itself bring about positive rewards, then you are on your way to curing the separation anxiety. It will be hard work, but it will be well worth it.