Lala's Separation Anxiety Training

For the past nine months, my boyfriend and I have been fostering this sweet little land seal named Lala. Prior to us fostering her, Lala spent six months in the shelter and everyone knew her as the pup that cried all day long. Lala was adopted out three different times and each time she was returned for severe separation anxiety. After going through so much change, Lala's separation anxiety only got worse and pretty soon, she was so miserable at the shelter that her only option was to go to a longterm foster home. The very first day we brought her home, Lala did a few minutes of investigating and then quickly fell asleep on our couch. She could finally rest knowing that she wasn't going to be left alone.

Initially, we wanted to give her lots of time to decompress. Thanks to an incredible support network, we were able to ensure that she was never left alone. In time, Lala got used to her routine and her overall anxiety went down. We became increasingly attached to her as she quickly became a big part of our lives. As the prospect of her eventually getting adopted became more of a reality, we realized it was difficult to imagine our lives without her. But, there was still the huge obstacle of not being able to leave her alone. As we talked more about potentially adopting her ourselves, it was clear that it was time to tackle her separation anxiety to see whether we could provide the right home for her longterm.

After COVID-19 began, I stopped working and we decided it was the perfect time to begin separation anxiety training with Lala. Somehow, we landed with the most amazing trainer we could imagine, Maia. She is warm, encouraging, supportive, compassionate, and has lots of experience helping out dogs like Lala. Thankfully, we were able to receive support from Seattle Humane for Lala's first 4-week session of training but they are not able to help finance more sessions until we adopt (if we make that decision) at which point they will offer a month of post-adoption support. 

After the first 2 weeks of training, Lala was only able to be by herself for 1 minute. Since starting her second 4-week session, Lala has now reached the 20 minute mark. She has made tremendous progress and we are so incredibly proud of her. She has been so brave and is slowly learning to tackle her greatest fear: being left alone. But due to the complexity of separation anxiety, it takes a very long time to address the underlying anxiety that leads to the panic response that dogs with separation anxiety experience. While we are incredibly excited with how well Lala has done so far, we also recognize that we are at the very beginning stages of her training. 

So we are looking for some help in financing more training sessions for Lala. If we reach our fundraising goal, we will be able to pay for three more sessions with our wonderful trainer. If you are able to chip in, any amount would be hugely appreciated and will go directly towards paying for Lala's separation anxiety training. 

Thank you so much!!

- Sophie, John, and Lala