The Dog Behavior Institute Blog
Why Separation Anxiety is one of my favorite behavioral challenges to treat
I know it sounds weird: separation anxiety and “favorite” in the same sentence. But it’s true, separation-related problem behaviors are one of my favorite types of behavioral challenges to treat. It wasn’t always this way. Early on in my career (over 17 years ago, long before I encountered Behavior Analysis), I was flummoxed by separation anxiety (SA). With the understanding of behavior that I did have at that time, it seemed reasonable that a “cry it out” approach (i.e., operant extinction) would work. I recommended the use of crates, baby gates, or pens - as many trainers did and still do - and I had very limited success. Eventually this became a behavioral challenge that I avoided as a trainer. So what changed?
Introducing: The DBI Interview Series
Our inaugural interview took place this fall with Dana Rebaza, CSAT, CPDT-KA, KPA CTP, VSA-CDT. Dana (they/she/he) is a fabulous dog trainer and consultant who owns The Brave Dog Collective. They are a Certified Separation Anxiety Trainer (CSAT) who works specifically with dogs who suffer from separation anxiety and their people. In our conversation, Dana and I talked about their work with separation anxiety dogs and what makes the work both challenging and fulfilling. It was such a pleasure to conduct this interview.. As you’ll read below, Dana provided such thoughtful, honest, and heartfelt answers to our questions. Read on to learn more about Dana and the important work they are doing.