I'll be Home Soon: How to Prevent and Treat Separation Anxiety.
by Patricia B. McConnell Ph.D.
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Book Summary Information
Author: Patricia B. McConnell Ph.D.Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2000-06-01
ISBN: 1891767054
Number of pages: 38
Publisher: McConnell Publishing, Ltd.
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9781891767050
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of I'll be Home Soon: How to Prevent and Treat Separation Anxiety.
Book Review: A Thorough, Comprehensive Pamphlet with Only Two (Major) Errors
Summary: 4 Stars
A client recently gave me her copy of I'LL BE HOME SOON. She said it hadn't helped with her dog's separation anxiety and she thought I might like to read it. I have and I think it's very thorough, comprehensive clearly written, intelligent, with only two things that are more than slightly off the mark (which is something I've come to expect from McConnell). Still, I would absolutely recommend that anyone with a dog suffering from this affliction, or anyone who wants to prevent their puppy from developing it in the first place, buy a copy.
My caveats?
ONE: The recommended De-Sensitization and Counter-Conditioning techniques only work about 15% of the time, if at all. That's been my experience. I've only met one dog owner who said a behaviorist had actually helped solve her dog's separation anxiety. ("Really? How?" I asked. "Elavil," she replied.) Also, there was a (roughly) two year period, about thirteen years ago, where I experimented with operant conditioning techniques myself and found they rarely worked to solve severe behavioral problems of ANY kind for more than a brief window of time.
On the other hand, I have never seen a more thorough and comprehensive outline for applying these techniques. That's something I hadn't taken into account. Certainly, between your dog and you, sooner or later one or the other of you is going to HAVE to get tired of doing these exercises, so I suppose if you have the stamina to outlast a frantic, frenetic pooch, god bless you; you may very well be successful in curing the problem without drugs, and more power to you.
TWO: McConnell simply doesn't understand the inner workings of the dog's psyche. She just doesn't get it. First of all, she talks about the need for being a "benevolent pack leader" when no such animal exists. That whole idea of the social hierarchy is a fantasy, a myth. And anyway, a dog who goes through a door ahead of you is not doing it because he doesn't know his place in the social pecking order (since there isn't one). He just wants to go for a walk. Is that so hard to understand? (Actually, there's more to it than that but space here is limited.)
Secondly, McConnell recommends training a specific stay exercise (one that I call the "peek-a-boo stay"), which I've found is vitally essential for curing separation anxiety. The only problem is she recommends using a treat as the focal point of the training, which is absolutely the wrong way to go about it. Food actually creates an unnecessarily difficult learning process for the dog. You need to use a toy instead. That's because the behavior of holding still, not moving, keeping in one place for an increasingly longer and longer period of time, is already built into the animal's DNA as part of his predatory sequence: THE SEARCH > THE EYE STALK > THE CHASE > THE GRAB BITE > THE KILL BITE. Stimulating, amplifying, and satisfying this sequence, particularly the EYE STALK, while the urge to bite a is present, puts the dog's instincts back into balance. And separation anxiety, like most behavioral problems, is caused by the animal's instincts being OUT of balance in the first place. Biting games, like tug-of-war, where you always let the dog win and praise him enthusisastically for winning, will also help. (These are the two main things that have always helped my clients' dogs, including the one who gave me this booklet.)
One other thing McConnell fails to mention: This condition should probably be called "separation PANGS." That's because a 2003 research study done at UCLA shows that feelings of social exclusion are registered in the anterior cingulate cortex, the part of the brain that controls feelings of actual physical pain. So the animal is, in all likelihood, feeling severe physical pain when he acts out while you're gone. (Poor baby...)
Still, even with these flaws in mind, I seriously doubt if anyone who goes to the average "behavioral specialist" in their town or city will end up with anything even anywhere close to the amount of good, solid information that's contained in this little pamphlet. Four stars, even with my two caveats.
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