The Pet Sit Blog

Fido may have the Back to School Blues too!

September 8, 2009

Posted in: Uncategorized

It isn’t just children who suffer from the back to school blues, you’re pets suffer too.  After spending all summer with their favorite companions constantly around, your pets definitely feel the absence once the big yellow bus whisks them away for the day.

According to The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), pets experiencing separation anxiety may:

• Dig, chew and scratch at doors or windows in an attempt to escape and reunite with their owners.
• Howl, bark and cry in an attempt to get their owner to return.
• Urinate and defecate as a result of distress, even if housetrained.

Don’t punish your pet for exhibiting any of these behaviors; it may only increase your pet’s stress.  The HSUS recommends trying the following techniques to help alleviate your pet’s separation anxiety.

• Keep arrivals and departures low-key. For example, when you arrive home, ignore your dog for the first few minutes and then calmly pet him. This may be hard for you to do, but it’s important!
• Leave your dog with an article of clothing that smells like you—such as an old T-shirt that you’ve slept in recently.
• Establish a “safety cue”—a word or action that you use every time you leave that tells your dog you’ll be back. Dogs usually learn to associate certain cues with short absences by their owners.