Alleviating Separation Anxiety

The following are guidelines to alleviating separation anxiety:

A retired racer is used to sharing the attention of 2 or 3 people with a kennel full of dogs. They are not used to getting lots of one on one attention. Spend a lot of time ignoring your greyhound. This means do not talk to, touch, or look at your greyhound. Just pretend he or she does not exist. This sounds very harsh, but this is a very important step. When I rehab a greyhound with SA, I do not acknowledge them for about 2 weeks. The goal is to help your greyhound to gain some independence and to learn how to handle being alone while you are actually there. You do not want to create a pet that feels that his or her purpose in life is be stuck to you like glue. It is extremely overwhelming and shocking when you finally do go to work. Please do not skip this step. It is understandably difficult to ignore your pet. Once your greyhound becomes more independent you can begin to gradually give them more attention.
Particular actions of your routine trigger the SA response. Practice your coming and going routine even though you may not actually leave the house. Put on your shoes and grab your keys as you head out the door. Make sure you do everything you normally do. Do this as often as you can. We want the dog to feel as though the routine is not big deal.
Break up your routine. If going out the front door triggers the response, try going out the back door one day. Garage door the next day. Just do something different.
Generally, the first 30 minutes of you leaving are the most traumatic. Feed your greyhound in the crate. Also provide food stuffed Kongs or marrow bones. Hide kibble or treats under the crate bedding. This gives your dog something to do, provides stimulation, and makes the crating enjoyable. Do this a few times while you are home, so your greyhound associates good things with being in his or her crate. This is a good time to practice leaving the house. Also include hiding treats or providing stuffed Kongs each morning before you leave the house. Again this provides the dog with something enjoyable to do and changes the focus of each morning. Instead of worrying about you leaving each morning, they will hopefully be excited about their special treat. And they will keep busy during the critical 30 minutes.
It is especially important to be unemotional 10 minutes before leaving the house and 10 minutes after arriving home. You want to present yourself as a confident leader, so show your dog that leaving the house is no big deal. It is even more important to be unemotional when you get home. Your arrival will usually spark a lot of excitement and emotional. Again, just focus on taking your greyhound out to potty.
EXERCISE, EXERCISE, EXERCISE. A tired dog is a good dog. It would be especially helpful if you could change up the morning routine by including some exercise. A walk/jog or a play session in the yard. The more aerobic and vigorous the better.
Teach your dog to down stay, so that you can make he or she stay put when you leave the room for a short period of time and do not need to be followed. You want to discourage he or she from following you everywhere. You can leash them to a piece of furniture while you are watching TV and you can practice leaving the room during each commercial without being followed.
Do not allow a greyhound with SA to sleep on the bed or couch next to you. In fact, move their bed as far away from your bed and couch as possible. Keep it in the same room, but move it to the other side of the room.
You might also consider getting a prescription of Clomicalm from your vet. The drug reduces anxiety while your dog is relearning how to handle being alone. It is extremely important to be retraining during this period. The drug alone is not going to solve your problem and eventually you want to wean your dog off of it.