8 month old akita separation anxiety soiling on rug when away

Separation anxiety is always hard to combat and you need to have lots of patience.

I strongly advise against talking to your dog via baby cam. I once saw a Youtube video (sorry but I can't find it anymore) where a trainer explained that it only increases the anxiety of the dog. The dog knows you're gone because he cannot hear the sound of your steps or your breathing and your smell slowly fades. And then suddenly there is a voice...

• Either the dog doesn't even recognize you because your voice sounds different
• Or if the dog does recognize you, he gets even more anxious because it sounds like you're here, but all of his other senses tell him that you're still gone and when your dog goes searching for you he cannot find you.

In addition to that, you need to understand that urinating is not called "relieving onself" without a reason. It's common for dogs to spontaneously pee in highly excited situations to relieve the excitement. Scolding an anxious dog for an act that relieves the anxiety only leads to more anxiety. As hard as it is, you must ignore him while he's soiling the carpet and you must not scold him for it when returning home.

To combat the seperation anxiety, you could try these methods alone or in combination with each other:

• Give your dog a potty break shortly before leaving.
• Keep a radio or TV on low volume so the dog hears familiar sounds and doesn't feel abandoned.
• Leave a worn (smelly) shirt for your dog so he has your personal smell around. Dogs measure the time of your absense by how much your smell disappears, so keeping an item with your smell close should feel like less time passed.
• Do not establish a ritual of leaving the home like saying good bye to your dog or giving him one last parting look. From a dog's perspective, if you first initiate an interaction and then suddenly the door closes and you're gone, the dog tries to follow you because you just interacted with it for some reason. Dogs don't interact to say good bye, they interact to get the pack to follow them, tell them about an intruder or a food source or if they need help with something. If a dog has to leave, it turns around and leaves.

The spot on the rug should be cleaned with an enzyme cleaner that chemically destroys the smell. In the meantime, try placing a peepad right over the spot when you're about to leave to spare the carpet.