My previously human aggressive dog was retrained with play rewards. She has relearned behaviours through shaping, with pleasure and the satisfaction of her prey drives as the incentive. That`s not bribery, that`s using my brain to retrain a `dangerous` dog.
I am very suspicious of gurus.

How would you make yourself the reward with a dog with seperation anxiety if the standard leaving the house and coming back etc... has failed miserably but leaving a stuffed kong and a treat ball with a portion of the dog's daily food in it to give the dog something to do has the desired results? Me being the reward in that case got us nowhere for months as she'd just bark until until I came back.

Personally, I think turning your back on using food as an incentive judiciously is restricting your options. Especially with some of the more independent breeds who will just laugh at you if you expect them to see you as the reward.

Apart from by Matthew Margolis, but I'd rather you be like him than Cesar Millan.

If a redirection has worked for you that is fine, yet the dogs level of drive and excitement is still quite high so my only question from my view point would be has your dog learned to be calm around strangers? I would also like to add this is not a criticism of what you have done as you are happy with your dog and, above all, that is the most important thing.

Seperation anxiety can be caused by the dog associating you leaving and arriving with a higher level of stress with which you interact. The leaving of a Kong filled with food is an option yet still makes it impossible for you to leave your dog alone. It is a good compromise but would a better result be having a dog that remained relaxed without having a distraction, one that associated being in the house alone as a calm and relaxed experience?

It is interesting this reference to the more independent breeds and how they are deemed to be more difficult to establish a connection with. Yes, I agree they can require a little more patience but with any working breed, engaging their brain by letting them work out for themselves what you want by being carefully restrictive with your attention, they learn to enjoy the fact their owner is stimulating them mentally without having to be engaged in an activity.

'restrictive with your attention'

So you isolate the dog until it is so emotionally worried that it wants your attention.

Thats why gundogs that are kenneled are so keen to work.

rune

Has everyone taken a grumpy pill tonight?

Just once it would be nice to read a thread started by a new member who has perhaps some differing opinions on how to go about things, without seeing the inevitable attack from the pack.

Tut. Being friendly doesn't hurt anybody does it

Could you explain this a little further please as I'm sure I must be misunderstanding your meaning so would prefer to be clear before commenting? Thanks.

What a lot of scepticism on here!!

I believe your methods can be very effective and can't wait for the show.