Behavior Camp
A 4 to 6 week immersive behavior-modification program, the best fit for moderate behavior issues.
Dog Behavior Solutions
Leave Home Without Leaving Your Dog in Panic
Separation anxiety can trap both ends of the leash at home. Partners Dogs helps you understand what happens after the door closes and build alone-time your dog can tolerate, one realistic step at a time.
Behavior severity
ModerateWhat you may be seeing
Common signs
- Vocalizing, pacing, panting, drooling, or trembling around departures
- Destruction concentrated near doors, windows, or confinement areas
- House-soiling only or mainly during absences
- Refusing food and being unable to settle when alone
- Following people constantly and reacting to departure cues
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- Broken teeth, bloody paws, cuts, or other self-injury during escape attempts
- Breaking through crates, doors, windows, or fences
- Sudden onset, confusion, pain, or abrupt house-soiling
- Collapse, breathing difficulty, or inability to function normally
Moderate is a starting point for planning, not a diagnosis. Self-injury, escape, or severe panic requires veterinary care and an in-person assessment before program placement.
Understanding the behavior
What is separation anxiety?
Separation anxiety is distress related to being apart from a person or left alone. It is not spite. Barking, destruction, house-soiling, pacing, drooling, and escape attempts may be signs of panic, but video and history help distinguish separation distress from boredom, confinement fear, outside triggers, or a medical problem.
Training uses absences short enough to avoid full panic and increases duration according to the dog's response. Repeatedly leaving a dog to cry it out can intensify distress. Some dogs also need changes to confinement because a crate can increase panic rather than create safety.
Sudden onset or house-soiling warrants a veterinary check. Medication prescribed by a veterinarian may be appropriate for moderate or severe cases. Many dogs improve with a consistent plan, but progress is rarely linear and results vary with severity, household logistics, medical factors, and follow-through.
Partners Dogs has trained Arizona dogs through every kind of separation anxiety case since 1997, at our Scottsdale and Cave Creek facilities. Lifetime trainer support is included with every board-and-train program.
The transformation
Before and after training
Drag the slider to see the change our programs make for a dog with separation anxiety. Same dog, same home, real outcome.
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How we work on separation anxiety
Short walkthroughs from our trainers on the exact techniques we use to resolve separation anxiety. See how the work actually looks, then choose the path that fits your dog.
70,000+Dogs Trained
28+Years Experience
4.8★Average Rating
2Arizona Campuses
Recommended path · Moderate severity
The right program for separation anxiety
Based on how separation anxiety typically presents, here is where we would start. Not sure which fits? Take the PD360 assessment for a personalized recommendation.
Private Lessons
One-on-one sessions to address specific triggers and transfer trainer skills to you.
The process
How it works
Assessment and check-in
- We verify vaccination records and complete pre-check-in forms.
- Your dog receives a full behavioral assessment.
- We set goals and build a personalized training plan.
- You meet the primary trainer and tour the facility.
Training and progress reports
- Multiple active training sessions every day.
- Controlled exposure and desensitization to triggers.
- Immersive socialization in a managed environment.
- Regular progress reports with photos and video.
Transition and follow-up
- Private lessons that transfer the training to you.
- Pet Parenting group classes for ongoing support.
- Access to our full Pet Parent Guide.
- Weeks of follow-up so the change lasts at home.
Not sure which program
Get a recommendation in minutes
Take our quick PD360 assessment for a personalized recommendation, or talk to a trainer who has seen separation anxiety many times before.
What our clients say
“"I was working from home full-time just because I couldn't bear leaving Maple alone. After Behavior Camp and our home follow-through, she can handle meaningful time by herself without the old level of distress. I actually cried on the drive home the first time I left her and nothing happened."”
“"Our neighbors had approached us twice about the barking. We were embarrassed and at our wit's end. The team at Partners Dogs didn't just work with Biscuit, they changed how we approached being alone. Six months later, he settles on his bed when we leave."”
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
Why does my dog hate the crate?
Dogs do not naturally hate crates. A well-conditioned crate is a den, a safe, quiet space dogs choose to nap in. Dogs come to hate crates when one of these has happened:
- It was used as punishment. “Go to your kennel” said in a sharp voice has poisoned the crate for a lot of dogs.
- They were locked in too long, too soon. A puppy who was crated for eight hours their first night learned that the crate equals panic.
- They were never properly introduced. The crate just appeared, the dog was put inside, the door closed. No conditioning, no positive associations.
- Separation anxiety. Some dogs hate the crate because they hate being alone, not because they hate the crate.
The fix is rebuilding the crate as a positive space, never closing the door until your dog enters voluntarily, feeding meals inside, building duration slowly. If the dog has injured themselves trying to escape, you have to back up further and rule out separation anxiety first.
How do I crate train a puppy?
The right way to crate train a puppy in the first week home:
- Set the crate up before the puppy arrives. Comfortable bedding, a few toys, in a quiet but not isolated room.
- Feed every meal in the crate with the door open. The crate becomes the place good things happen.
- Closed-door rest periods, short to start. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, while the puppy is calm and tired. Not when they are wound up.
- Build duration gradually. By the end of week one, 30-60 minute naps. By week three, 2-3 hours during daytime sleep.
- Overnight is separate from daytime. Puppies sleep longer overnight. Crate near your bed for the first few weeks so they are not isolated.
Never use the crate as punishment. Never force the puppy in. Never leave a puppy crated longer than their bladder can manage (roughly one hour per month of age, up to about four hours).
Should I crate a dog with separation anxiety?
It depends entirely on the dog's history with the crate. A well-conditioned crate can be a safe den that lowers anxiety. A dog who has only experienced the crate as a punishment, or who has injured themselves trying to escape one, will panic harder in it.
Here is how we think about it:
- If the crate is already a positive space (your dog naps in it voluntarily, eats meals in it, settles calmly), continuing crate use during desensitization is often fine.
- If the crate is associated with panic (bent bars, broken teeth, blood, urine and feces inside), forcing crate use will make the anxiety worse. We work on a different management strategy first.
- Never use the crate as the “solution” to separation anxiety. Containment is management, not treatment.
At Partners Dogs we condition crates as a positive space first, then layer them into the separation work, never the other way around.
How do I know if my dog has separation anxiety or is just bored?
The destruction can look identical, but the patterns are different. Separation anxiety usually shows these markers:
- Distress starts before you leave. Panting, pacing, drooling, or shadow-following as you put on shoes and grab keys.
- Destruction is focused near exits. Door frames, windows, baseboards near the front door, not random shoes and pillows across the house.
- Vocalization. Howling, persistent barking, whining that neighbors hear.
- Distress within minutes of your departure. Video shows the dog unable to settle in the first 15-30 minutes.
- House soiling in a housetrained dog.
- Desperate greeting when you return.
Boredom destruction tends to happen across the day, scattered around the house, in a dog who was fine in the first hour. If you are not sure, set up a camera. The first 30 minutes after you leave will tell you.
How do you treat separation anxiety in dogs?
Real separation anxiety responds to a structured behavior modification protocol, not generic obedience work. At Partners Dogs we treat it through Behavior Camp paired with in-home private lessons. The core components:
- Systematic desensitization to departure cues. Keys, shoes, bag, coat. Your dog reads these like a countdown. We decouple them from your actual leaving by performing them dozens of times a day without leaving.
- Graduated absences. Starting from absences your dog can handle without panic, sometimes just five seconds, and building duration in small steps.
- Independence work at home. A dog who shadows you everywhere when you are home does not have the practice of being alone. We build that capacity first.
- Confidence work in general. Place commands, structured walks, and impulse control training all build the dog's sense of being okay on their own.
This is one area where DIY rarely succeeds because the steps are too small to feel like progress and the timeline is too long to sustain alone. Get professional eyes on it.
Why does my dog have separation anxiety?
Separation anxiety almost always traces back to one of three patterns:
- Over-reliance on human presence for emotional regulation. Your dog learned, often through no one's fault, that safety equals you. When you are gone, safety is gone.
- Early life disruption. Dogs who were rehomed, who came from shelters, or who experienced a major routine change (move, new baby, divorce, owner's job change) often develop separation anxiety in the aftermath.
- A scary alone experience. A storm during a long absence, a burglar alarm, a single panicked first-time-alone event, sometimes one bad experience tips a vulnerable dog into ongoing anxiety.
This is genuine panic, not spite or stubbornness. If your dog could reason their way out of it, they would. The fix is rebuilding their emotional capacity to be alone gradually, not punishing them when you come home to chewed baseboards.
Related behaviors
Dogs with separation anxiety often show these patterns too. Explore the behaviors below. We treat them all.
Keep learning
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Talk to a trainer now
Every dog and household is different. Get a real conversation with a Partners Dogs trainer who has treated separation anxiety for more than 28 years. You hear how we would approach it, and you decide from there.