What should I do about my dog's fear of abandonment?

In the morning, I walk my son to school with our dog (nine months old and a mongrel), then the dog and I head into the woods where we walk for an hour and he is free to run free.The problem is when I have to take my son into school, obviously Deefer can't come so I leave him for a couple of minutes outside. As soon as we walk away for him he becomes very agitated and upset, he barks constantly and when I return he has often got himself completely tied up in his lead because he's been going mad. I thought that after a while he would get used to the situation, he knows that he'll not be there for longer than a couple of minutes and I thought he would improve. However, he is the same all the time. He was an abandoned puppy and I feel this might have something to do with it. How can I help him get over this fear?Thanks

My dog was just like this. We couldn't even leave the room or else he would panic. What we did is at night for the first week or two, we put him in his cage in our room. He still whined, but you have to ignore it. After that, we started making him sleep in the living room in his cage. Again, ignore all barking. If he ever went the whole night without barking, he got a treat. That way he knew that not barking was good. Of course, this wont work with every dog, but it's worth a shot.

Hi, there - With three large rescue dogs, we had to overcome this situation ourselves. This is a blog post I wrote for my friend's company. Hope it helps! http://crunchkins.blogspot.com/2012/08/every-time-we-say-goodbye-dogs-and.html

It sounds like your dog is suffering from separation anxiety, where the dog becomes nervous by you being out of sight of even just a bit too far away. This can be caused by various different things, often being taken away from the mother too early. Other causes can be from the dog not being used to being alone. I do not personally think that the dog will associate you tying him to the gate with being abandoned, as the chances are that the person abandoning the dog wasn't nice to it in the first place.What you need to practice first is distance in the house. Firstly wait until he has had his nice hour walk (good for you! some people are so lazy with walking, but it's so beneficial to the dog and owner!). A worn out dog will give in to new situations faster, as they have less energy to panic. The I would practice getting the dog to be in the same room, but not with you. Some people would use a blanket and call it the dogs "place". So to teach the dog it's place, drop a few treats on the blanket and then the second the dog puts a paw on the place, you click with a clicker and give a treat. After a few times doing this you say "place" as the dog gets onto the blanket. Then you move to pointing with your hand to the blanket and when the dog gets on the blanket you say click and place.That is the first step complete! Then you have the advantage of letting your dog know where you want ti to be, without physical restraint. Start by sitting on a sofa or chair and put the blanket a slight distance away. Tell the dog to go to it's place and repeat the same steps with a click and a treat. When the dog gets good at this, you start waiting a couple of seconds before the click and treat. This way the dog learns that it is good to be a distance away from the owner. you can then get the blanket further and further away and longer periods of time, until you can just say place and he will go on there and go to sleep. Teaching the dog to be happy away from you is the best first steps.You can then build this up to him being on his blanket in a different room from you or a different level of the house. This way, they are learning to be happily away from you. You can also try this with them being in the garden.Once your dog is comfortable being away from you and has been for a few weeks, then you can practice tying him in the garden, walking off a few meters and then clicking and giving a treat. This then gets further and further. You can then start trying this outside the school, maybe when there aren't children about, after the school has opened already or closed. Eventually you will be able to leave him there whilst you go into the school.During the training, if you can help it I wouldn't leave your dog tied outside the school. Have a month where he can be away from that situation and focus on all the positive "being left alone" work you are doing.Don't rush things with him. If you over expose a dog in a situation that makes them nervous, it can only heighten the fear. I think this would take a month if you worked loads on it daily or a few if you didn't have the time to have lots of focus on it.Try not to think about his abandonment, as he is now in a happy loving home. He will not be thinking about being abandoned if you stay calm and guilt free when leaving him tied up. Maybe he felt a bit more nervous when you subconsciously worried about him being alone. Don't make a massive fuss when you leave him or get back to him. Just keep it casual so he will stay calm :)Separation Anxiety is not too difficult to overcome. Some veterinarians will suggest sedatives for the dog, but I have found this just makes the dog less aware, not actually calmer. It also makes the situation worse if you are without sedation.I strongly suggest using a clicker instead of the words "good dog". When training, animals get bored or sometimes even seem to go backwards. This would be irritating to some people, so they may have a harsher tone to their voice, even whilst saying good words. It also means if someone else was to be training the dog, the dog would understand it had been good,, no matter who's voice.Hope this all helps Sorry for the long answer, but I tried to be as detailed as I could!