Is There Any Hope For Jake.. Seperation Anxiety

[Erny]

Well we got there in the end and survived JUST! I was so close to giving in to him, but my will held out longer than his. When I opened the blind and the door he wasn't even standing there, he'd run off somewhere, I had to call him to come inside.

These things are alot easier to talk about doing than actually living through. It took about an hour the first time.

It gets easier - especially more noticeably earlier after the first few times. So don't give up on the (eg) second or third times if you don't detect much change. Dogs learn by recognising patterns. Once isn't usually enough for a pattern to be discerned, so its possible he'll be thinking it's a 'one-off'. At some point there may be an 'extinction burst'. That's where your dog's prior belief in his 'system' being generally successful. So if the barking becomes seemably 'worse' at one point or other in these early stages, don't think it isn't working. When the cause is "attention seeking", the 'extinction burst' is often a sign that what you're doing IS working. And you need to work through that or you run a high risk of making your initial problem worse. But you should see progress along the way .... it might not always be 'steady' improvement from your pov though.

Great that you've taken the first tenative move in 'step 1' .

[Michelleva]

Thanks for your continued support and advice Erny, its much appreciated. After he came back inside we got ready then went for a nice walk and a romp at the park, you should have seen the goofy grin on his face, pure joy! But when we got back I made him come inside last, instead of bashing the door down to go inside, he didn't like it and wimpered but when he calmed down I let him in. We'll get there, just need to stick with it.