Dog has Seperation Anxiety only on Leash

Question
Hello Barb,

My dog, Howie, is a 13 month old West Highland Terrier who is having some challenges with leash walking/separation anxiety. My boyfriend and I frequently take him on walks since we live in a condo. However, if we are both walking him and one of us decided to go in a coffee shop, for example, Howie will whine, bark and make a scene until the other member of the pack comes back. We can't really take him with us on many opportunities because of this reason. We have tried practicing at the dog park with no luck. Please help!

Answer
Hi Hayley.  Let's teach Howie a sit/stay that doesn't include whining and barking.  

Start in the house with some small tasty treats or bits of leftovers (no bigger than a pea).  Have Howie sit in front of you.  He'll probably volunteer to do so being that you have food!  Put your hand in front of your chest, palm facing the dog like a stop sign and say "stay".  Feed your dog one small treat.  As soon as he's done chewing, repeat the cue and give the stop sign and feed again.  He should remain sitting through this process.  Repeat 5-6 times.  Release the dog from the sit by saying "OK", clapping your hands - or whatever visual cue you can be consistent with  - and encourage him to move from the seated position.  Always release the dog before he becomes antsy and wants to move on his own.

Next trial, same set up as the first, but this time while he's chewing the food, take a small step backward.  Go back to your dog to feed the treat.  Work up to a point where you can go about 5 feet away and the dog will maintain the sit/stay.  Gradually increase the length of time between treats.  Work at this slowly and set the dog up for success.  If he breaks, next trial don't move so far back.  

Train while the dog is hungry.  There shouldn't be too many distractions in the room while you do this.  However, when you get to the point where Howie is doing well with the sit/stay, you'll want to add the presence of your boyfriend into the picture.  Move the training session out to the front of your building.  Remember that this is going to be harder for Howie, so treat frequently and don't move very far back to start with.  In fact, when you work on this outside, you can remain standing directly in front of the dog.  Have your boyfriend disappear around a corner very briefly - and only coming back if Howie is in his sit/stay.  This is very important.  Howie has learned that by throwing a tantrum, it makes whoever has disappeared come back!  Now he's got to learn that only by remaining calm and quiet and in his stay that his person comes back.  

Find different places to practice this.  Keep the disappearances short to start with, gradually working up to the time it would take to go into a coffee shop and get an order.

Basically we want to teach Howie that staying quietly is rewardable - when he stays he gets goodies - and that only when he practices self control will his loved one reappear.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this.  Good luck!