Separation anxiety is a slow process. We work at the dog’s pace. Often the most difficult part of the training is the speed. A typical training result looks like the chart below. There are ups and downs. We purposely build in the volatility so that the dog cannot predict the absence duration. This is intentional. This is what normal training looks like. Sometimes we hit plateaus and even regressions. This is normal volatility. Often the biggest disconnect for clients is the expectation that training will result in a straight line. While the straight line in the chart (trend line) does slope upwards, which is what we want to see, the day-to-day results do fluctuate. This is normal, planned and intentional.