Anxiety & Fear

What Behavior Camp Did for Xela

Before camp: Severe separation anxiety, with reactivity on top of it.

Breed: German Shepherd X
Age at intake: 5 years
Program: Behavior Camp
Length of stay: Three weeks
Trainer: Chase Larson

Before

Where Xela Started

Severe separation anxiety, with reactivity on top of it

Don described his five-year-old girl as sweet and gentle. That is not what most days looked like. Xela could not be left, and the reactivity that came with the anxiety made ordinary outings hard to plan.

Separation anxiety narrows a life quickly. Errands get timed around the dog, and a dog who cannot be alone eventually stops being a dog you can take anywhere either.

The program

Xela's Behavior Camp

Xela boarded with us for three weeks of Behavior Camp. Chase and the team worked the anxiety and the reactivity as one problem rather than two, because the second one was riding on the first.

Structured time apart, a calmer baseline, and steady exposure gave her a way to be alone without falling apart, and gave Don a version of her he could actually take out.

Three of her days went to resource guarding, eating and playing without needing to hold on to what was hers. It was not on the list when she arrived. It showed up on the training floor, so the team worked it rather than sending it home.

Episode by episode

Watch Xela's Journey

Filmed during the stay, in order. Nothing here is staged after the fact.

See every Training Journey

After

Where Xela Ended Up

By the end of camp the sweet, gentle dog Don had told us about was the dog we were seeing every day. Xela went home with a calmer baseline, settled around her food and her toys, and with Don handling her himself before she left.

He described it as a new version of Xela. It was the same dog, finally able to show up.

Published December 02, 2024

The trainer