Usually, the symptoms of separation anxiety are hard to ignore. These include howling, incessant barking, noise complaints from neighbours, pacing, whining, over-zealous greetings when you return, destruction of furniture, walls and doors, elimination (peeing and pooping) in the house in an otherwise housetrained dog, injury and self-harm, escaping crates or trying to break out of the room, or the home. However, there are instances when the dog does not have home-alone issues but still shows some of these same behaviours. Lack of exercise or mental enrichment, boredom, housetraining problems, too much time alone can yield the same symptoms, but the root cause is not fear or anxiety. Your separation trainer can help you determine if you are dealing with separation anxiety or boredom, FOMO or frustration and advise the right training plan to address the problem behaviour. This is why Sharon requires an assessment first before recommending a coaching program.