How do you stop your dog from getting worked up when someone leaves?

I've got a problem and I want to know how you all might work through it. Misha is very good about letting guests leave. She knows the wait command. She lets them go to the door and walk out before she goes to the door.

However, it is a completely different story when my Mom leaves for the day. Misha becomes a raving lunatic. She cries and barks. She charges the door and won't let my Mom out. I usually have to get the shaker can and hold her back so my Mom can go out. (My Mom lives here, too.)

Once she sees my Mom get in the car, she's done. The histrionics are over. She'll sit quietly at the door, and then, she gets bored and goes back to her bed.

Honestly, it is a nightmare. She knows when my Mom plans to go out and she will start the crying sometimes a half hour before she leaves.

Has anyone dealt with something like this? How did you get your dog to settle down and not get so worked up?

 

Goodness, how did Misha become like that? Did your mother take her for walks before? Is she very attached to your mother?

 

The tenant's dog is just like that and worse when all the people in their house leave since he will really cry like a wolf and will almost break their door.
And the most disturbed is us just good thing we are fond of dogs and we try to calm him and let him stay inside of our house.
Sadly no training or remedy was done for it, he just get used to it. Meaning, he just improve each time as he gets older and get used to it.

 

I'd like to know something like this as well. Milla gets really anxious when either me or my mom leaves. She usually goes to sleep in most cases while we are gone (it's kind of easy to notice due to the untouched water bowl, and how heavy of a water drinker she is), but in other cases she starts biting furniture left and right.

 

Victor, I cannot say exactly, but I suspect it's leftover anxiety from her nervous breakdown after my Dad died. She didn't do this before I moved in with my Mom. I think while I was working on all her other behavior, she became attached to my Mom in a different way than she is me. It may be because I'm the leader and do all the training whereas my Mom is the softy. I think there might be a little bullying mixed in with the anxiety.

The strangest part is that she gets all worked up before my Mom leaves. But, once she is gone, it's as if she forgets about her. She stands at the door for a couple of seconds then does the dog's equivalent of a "whatever!" The whole episode is over.

We've worked through so many things. I think if I could get her to calm down when my Mom leaves, it would be very nice.

 

I've always made leaving the house into treat time for my dogs. They get put wherever I want them to be with a fun command and lots of petting and then I leave them with a couple of biscuits, thrown so they have to forage, or a dog chew, or a Kong toy with a treat inside. It means that they see my leaving as a positive thing rather than something that's upsetting. They never quite know what's coming, but they know it will be something good.

Could you do something like that with your Mom?

 

I am disabled and off work, and have been for the entire life of my girls, so they only know life with mommy home. When I leave they stay at the door and whimper and cry until I walk through the door, I am told they do that for the whole time I am gone! I once had to leave Kotton with a friend for three months while I looked for an apartment that would take her and that is where her anxiety comes from...she thinks I am leaving her again.

I am getting out and about more so I have been working with their anxiety by getting ready in steps. They have always known that when mommy puts on "outside clothes" and shoes she is leaving. So now, I will get dressed and sit and watch TV with them for about 1/2 hour till they calm down. Then I will put my shoes on and repeat the process. Then a coat if it is cold, followed by picking up my keys. And I do this on days I am not going anywhere also so that they don't associate those actions with leaving anymore. It is working with the younger two, but I still have a long way to go with Kotton.

 

Hey all, we've had another minor breakthrough with the problem child. As you know, I've been working hard on the wait command with Misha. But, I never had success when my Mom left the house. Well, yesterday, that all changed!

For the first time, my Mom went to the door and Misha went through her histrionics. I got in front of her and gave her the wait command. She stepped back and she sat down. She was still barking and whining, but she did it in a seated position. My mom got out the door without Misha jumping around her ankles. That was a first.

Then today, with the same situation, I was able to put Misha in a wait, though she stood this time. Again, my Mom got out with there being distance between her and the dog.

I think we may be on to something. It appears that using wait at the door for so many different reason might be sinking in with Misha.

 

It works for my little dog too. Me and my family, we always have a little treat for Homer when we are leaving. We even have a special pot with little treats - like pieces of bread or carrots - prepared specially for this occasion. I think it's a great solution. Homer always is pretty cheerful when we are living. Sometimes even too cheerful, he loves his treats