Customers say
Customers find the book provides helpful information and advice. They find it easy to read and follow, with a sample schedule and weekly plan at the end. However, opinions differ on its effectiveness and value for money. Some readers found the ideas effective and simple, while others felt it was not helpful or a waste of money.
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A quick rundown of this product’s key features:
Figure out if your dog suffers from genuine separation anxiety or just bad manners. Then learn how to keep her happy and your home safe while our are gone. Better yet, learn to prevent problems in the first place!
Our Top Reviews
Reviewer: aciras
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Finally helped with separation anxiety in my shelter pup
Review: I adopted a pit-mix from a shelter who had a SEVERE case of separation anxiety. All pitties love people (despite popular ignorance), but my girl literally could NOT be without people. Didn’t matter who it was, she just couldn’t be alone (even with another dog present). I was at my witts end after mutiple classes, training sessions, and very unhappy neighbors. This book finally turned the corner with helping me understand what was going on. I bought it at 3:00am one night in a panic off Amazon (with overnight shipping). It was easy to read and very helpful. It taught me what true separation anxiety was, and what it was not. I had a case of true separation anxiety. I would highly recommend this book. Below are my personal best tips below on separation anxiety and how we overcame it together (I now have the best, sweetest doggie ever!). These are in the book as well. BUY IT – it will help you, and you need the full background and ALL tips to understand what will work best for your dog (this is just what turned the corner for us).1. Make your comings and goings uneventful and routine. Commit to practicing leaving the house for intervals of 5, 10, 30, 60 SECONDS (yes, that’s right, seconds) until you are working up to 2 hours successfully. The research is right – if you can get up to 2 hours successfully alone, you are on your way.2. Give your pup extra special treats when you are leaving the house. Frozen kong stuffed with salmon treats and banana, and a hollowed out bone filled with wet dog food and frozen worked well for us. She only gets this when I leave the house and we finally have the reaction the research said to look for – “they will be happy for you to leave because they know they are getting their special treat”. This only works for food motivated dogs however.3. For shelter dogs, think twice about crate training. It does not work for every dog. Mine chewed through (yes, that’s right, THROUGH) three crates, and one was wrought iron. Yes, she is a pit so she has the jaws of life (not to be confused with lock jaw, which is a myth – do your research badrap.org). If I ever get caught in a bad car wreck she’s my gal. Some dogs are happier out of a crate, but they need to be slowly entrusted with that responsibility. We ended up going this route and I purchased locks for all doors outside living area (because yes, she can open doors too – told you she was smart), so she is confined to only a few rooms in the house.4. Get a dog walker you trust. Leaving a dog with separation anxiety home for 8-10 hours at a time initially is only going to drive you both insane.5. (I came up with this one on my own) If you have a home phone, try calling your cell phone from you home phone and leaving it on speaker as you leave the house. This gives you a long-range two-way radio of sorts to listen to your pooch from miles away (I used to listen to her and talk to her/soothe on the way in to work). This is really only good for knowing what’s going on at home while you aren’t there for the time you listen. I learned that A) it will not fix the problem, and B) you have no idea what happens once you hang up. Other people recommended video feed/Skype/motion-activated video cameras. I was too cheap and not tech-saavy enough to try those options.Whatever you do, please put in the EFFORT for your pup and don’t take the dog back to the shelter/breeder/store. I’ve seen this happen too many times and the dog doesn’t know what they did wrong. These dogs can be fixed without medication (I considered it, but felt I owed it to her to try everything else first before medicating her. If you do want to explore meds, the book gives a very in depth coverage of what’s available, but also speak to your vet.). Owning a dog is a responsibility – step up to the plate and give them the best life possible! This book will help you do that.
Reviewer: Lynn B.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: This book cured our dog’s separation anxiety
Review: I can’t thank Patricia McConnell enough for this book. Our daughter had wanted a dog for 10 years, and we finally got her one. She was a sweet dog, but we immediately discovered that she had a severe case of separation anxiety. We would not have been able to keep our dog if it hadn’t been for this book. This book has much helpful information, with the most valuable part being a sample schedule to follow. We followed with no deviation the sample schedule near the end of the book. It really works! Before I found this book, we had spent weeks of time and effort following advice found in books and on the internet, only to be devastated to discover that our efforts had not actually worked and we were back to square one. That is when I discovered I’ll Be Home Soon in the middle of a stressful, sleepless night when I got up to look one more time on the internet for help. We were fortunate that we spend most of our time at home, since it is necessary that your dog is comfortable during the six-to-eight-week process of treating separation anxiety. In her book, Patricia McConnell has suggestions for what to do with your dog while you are at work, and she says her clients always came up with a solution. We completed the process ten months ago, and our dog knows we will be leaving when she sees us filling her Kongs. Instead of panicking, our dog is now excited when she knows we will be leaving!!!
Reviewer: A. Rhoads
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great Length
Review: I bought this book after adopting a rescue dog. The book was helpful and added some insight to our dog’s behavior although most of it I had already read online. I liked the fact that the author explained most dogs do not have separation anxiety but still had helpful information for dog’s that were simply bored. I particularly loved the length of the book. I still think the price was high for a pamphlet but I was able to read through the information in less than an hour and it was very well writen.
Reviewer: J
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: very helpful
Review: my dog, like many others, was put on meds. even with chewing couches, etc we thought that was a symptom. turns out that’s bad manners! definitely helpful for identifying what traits are separation anxiety and helping address them! i loved the reactive dog book by her, this is another good one and i love that these mini ones are affordable and easy to read! just recommend they review typos
Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Useful only for certain populations
Review: It pains me to give anything by Patricia McConnell less than 5 stars. However, after adopting my beagle mix, who turned out to have strong separation anxiety, this little volume was not immediately useful for my situation.Key to this program is the ability to leave your dog with someone (or leave someone with your dog 🙂 while working in the tiniest increments imaginable to desensitize (and perhaps counter-condition) your dog to your absence. Both leaving my dog with human company and counter-conditioning her (given her fear was so extreme she would not think of eating) did not work out for me. Thanks to the Web, I was able to find advice better suited to my circumstance. When I had no choice but to leave her for longer periods, I used one location. When I was actively working with her, I used a different location. I also implemented an “independence” program of rewarding any voluntary efforts on my dog’s part to be somewhere other than glued to me.Later, when with the help of medication her frantic state lessened, I did actually include most of the suggestions in this book in our program. After 6 months, we were able to wean off the meds. She still doesn’t enjoy seeing me go, and she is still confined to limit her powers of destruction (I give her acceptable outlets for her “need to shred”) but together we have survived one of the hardest trials in doggiedom.I do agree that the level of detail in this book is exceptional, as is the section on deciding whether your dog has SA, or other issues. But you may still need to shop around for additional advice to fit your needs.
Reviewer: Rui Marini
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: This is a excelent book! Terrific! Help me and my dog very much. I recomed this book for all dog’s owners.
Reviewer: Christina G.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
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Review: Sehr modern, effektiv und einfühlsam geschrieben. Ein Klassiker von Patricia McCornell – unbedingt lesen, wenn Ihr Hund Angst vor dem Alleinsein hat!
Reviewer: carol anne woods
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Short book full of practical advice on how to deal with separation anxiety. Well worth it
Reviewer: Helen
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I know this is really a booklet not a book but so helpful. You feel a bit alone when you have a dog you can not leave. This helps you make the tentitive steps to freedom for you and your dog you start to desensitize your dog by picking up coat and keys etc and putting them down moving on to steps to the door whilst your dog is enjoying a big kong. Well worth buying helps make new path ways in the dogs brain with regards to association its the amount of repititions that slowly build things up any fear from the dog and you are going to fast. Good luck and stick with it you will be rewarded.
Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: A no nonsense approach. I particularly liked the distinction between what separation anxiety is and what it isn’t. I’ve done quite a bit of reading on the topic and this was the first book to mention that. Very helpful.
Price effective as of Mar 12, 2025 01:59:43 UTC
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