Agree with @elbrant and I'd like to add, when you return be very matter of fact, do not make a big fuss, particularly if she is excited and effusive in her greeting to you. Sure, acknowledge her if you must but don't make any sort of big deal out of it. Go about your business, e.g. if you've been shopping, put your things away before spending any time with her. Your goal is to make your absence just part of a normal routine, nothing to be excited about. I've had two separation anxiety dogs, and you know you have won the battle when the dog just glances at you in an "oh, you're back" way and doesn't bother getting off the couch! Yes, people like it when their dog greets them and makes a big fuss, but if you feed that behaviour you give too much emphasis to your absence and that can grow into anxiety in your dog.
Taking our Old Man on vacation
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As 4th of July rolled around again this year we made our annual pilgrimage to Lake Erie and the family cabins. This is a dog friendly cabin campground near Ashtabula Ohio. My 12 year Cody did well except he didn't get enough sleep.
This is his first outing since losing his B-girl compainion who passed away a couple of months ago at 15 yrs of bladder cancer. Cody was awesome. even though we had a leash on him we almost never had it in our hand. He stuck with us and when we hung around the campfire at night he would make himself comfortable under someone's chair and hang out. Our only incident was when some crazy person shot off a gun and it startled him and he ran off. Since everyone there is dog knowledgable they simply got up and walked in the direction he went and called his name. A minute later after he calmed down he walked back to us and followed us back. He also did well with the 2 ( 2 1/2 yr and almost 5) small children staying in the cabin with us. They've never been around dogs but were very good not to mob him, they would walk up to him calmly and look at an adult and ask if it was ok to pet him. I instructed them were to pet and they respected that. They did not once pull his tail or poke him. He was so tired he slept the entire 3 1/2 hour drive back home. -
Aww what a good boy, I love them when they are old. I always called my other dog old man too.
Jolanda and Kaiser
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sounds like a great experience for all! don't ya just love it when they surprise you with such good reactions around new things?
