How to untrain a dog/Seperation anxiety ??

Amber_Girl said:

A problem, though, that I have with his training, is that he needs permission to eat and drink. I have to put the food in his face and say "Eat, good boy," and after after every bite or drink he has to have reassurance to continue. He really won't eat more than three bites or so without refusing to eat. I think he is pretty underweight how it is, so I need tips on untraining him from this.
Also, he had severe seperation anxiety. Just from me, and I'm not being vain. Even if he is with someone else, he will whine and try to follow me where ever I go. This is a problem because we have to keep him seperate from our other dog (we're working on this), and now I have to crate him just so I can go downstairs. We had the stairs blocked with a gate, but he has learned how to open that. He is not even scared of his crate, he just doesn't want to be away from me.
The seperation anxiety is going to cause some real problems, since I am on summer vacation and am able to be home with him all day now, but when I start school in the fall, he will have to be crated for three hours at a time (my dad will let him out at noon)
One more problem. It's pretty simple, I just need to ask if I'm going at it the right way. He has a fear of men, and will run away from them if they approach him. I am asking men to feed him treats when they meet him. I hope this is right.
Thanks.

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I have no idea on why you would want to un-train your dog from seeking permission before he eats. I have purposely trained Lola to do that as well as when she leaves with me walking her she is to wait until I say she can leave when I exit the door first. Same on returning, she needs to hear me say come on before entering the house after I entered first. In addition I have taught Lola that when I place treats on the floor she is to wait until I tell her she can have them and at that point she can only have the one I am pointing to.

With your dog eating three bites of his food and then seeking your reassurance are you sure he even likes his food? Try hiding a treat under his food to see if that makes a difference. You might find that he takes more than 3 bites trying to get to the treat in the bowl. If that is the case then perhaps he does not like it.

As for your dog being clingy and needing to be near you all the time you need to start training your dog to be more independent and have more confidence. You can do that by taking small steps and leaving the dog on his own. Start by being in another room for a few seconds. Build up the time slowly. Have him in the crate, leave the room for 30 seconds if he does not whine then re-enter the room and praise him along with a treat. If he whines then tell him quiet from where you are do not re-enter the room. Not only should he be quiet but he will also know that you are not far away. After it builds up in time the next step would be to leave him loose in the house and you go outside. If he starts whining then tell him quiet again. This will reassure him that you are there. Build that up to some significant time. The next step would be to leave and go out. take the car around the block and return. Again build the time up to where you can be away slowly. You might want to leave a radio or TV on when you do this. You might also want to have a tape recorder going to record if he barks or whines when your gone.

Also when leaving the house give him something to do such as a kong or two filled with treats. I use the kong ball as it is harder to get treats out of. Begging strips are great if left as large as possible.

Over a period of time you will be able to leave him on his own. It takes weeks to do this but since you do not have school until September you have plenty of time.

For the not liking men part have your dog in the same room as a man or outside. The man should not make eye contact with the dog and not talk to the dog. The man should then throw a treat towards the dog. Slowly decrease the distance between the man and the dog feeding him treats until the dog is at arms length then have the man give the treat by hand to the dog. Don't rush into it and expect the dog to like men after one day, all the above takes time and a lot of patients.

canteloupe said:

Add-on: Lola's Dad's suggestion of giving him a stuffed kong is a very good suggestion. Some people on here fill them up with wet food and then freeze them for extra long-lasting fun. A busy dog is a happy dog.
But I really think you shouldn't follow his advice about praising your dog when you rejoin him. Also, when he whines, I don't think it's smart to tell him to be quiet from the other room because just hearing your voice could actually be reinforcing in this situation.

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When I am giving advice in this thread it comes from actual experience. I went through SA with Lola. She barked, whined, destroyed carpeting, would be panting really bad etc. So what I am posting above has actually worked for me. The thing is with a dog that has SA you need to take it in very small steps. You can't go from leaving the dog for five minutes to leaving the dog for 30 minutes in one step. It has to be built up to that.

I would tell Lola quiet when she was whining because if I did not she would go into full non stop barking mode. I live in an apartment and I did not want to have her barking disturbing the neighbors. There were times when she was in her crate in the bedroom with the bedroom door being shut and I would go to the front door and open it and close it and she would go into bark mode right away at that point I had already got her to be quiet in her crate when I was in the apartment.

By me closing and opening the front door with her in the crate in the bedroom and the bedroom door being shut I was able to see how she would be if I actually left. When I said quiet after she started barking it re-assured her that I was still there and she would settle down.

All the advice in the world people can have different opinions on but if they actually experienced it then I would try what the person did that actually had the experience and what worked for them first before someone who never had the experience.

NOTE: I am not saying that you had or had not had the experience and I am not trying to start an argument.