Be Right Back!: How To Overcome Your Dog's Separation Anxiety And Regain Your Freedom

by Julie Naismith

Are you ready for a life that isn't ruled by your dog's separation anxiety? Discover the secrets to a dog who happily chills when you’re gone.Is caring for your stressed-out dog making you feel like a prisoner in your own home? Does your dog freak-out when you leave?

Globally respected, certified dog trainer Julie Naismith has helped thousands of stressed owners get their dogs past separation anxiety.Having guided her own dog, Percy, over the same separation anxiety, Julie is here with a game plan to steer you and your four-legged friend toward independence so that you can return to normality when all this is over.

Be Right Back! is the 5-Star rated international bestseller. Here's what just a few readers are saying about

What owners are saying about Be Right Back!

★★★★★“This book covers everything you need and more!" Jasmin ★★★★★"This is the ONLY book you will ever need if you have a dog with SA" Yvonne ★★★★★“One of the BEST books on separation anxiety out there!” Mary ★★★★★“Stop asking Google!” Gemma ★★★★★“Buy it. This method works!” KathrynBe Right Back!: How to Overcome Your Dog's Separation Anxiety and Regain Your Freedom is a proven, evidence-based approach to overcoming separation anxiety. Naismith's step-by-step program lets you gently move your dog from a place of fear to a brave new world of happy home alone confidence.

By implementing this treasure trove of coping strategies and tried-and-true methods, you'll soon see how you can get a dog who feels safe and settled when you leave.Inside Be Right Back!, you'll ✓ A comprehensive system to transition from freaking dog to contented canine. ✓ Common training myths that may worsen your pet's condition. ✓ Success stories from other owners who have reclaimed their calm. ✓ Tips for dealing with judgmental friends and family so you can side-step the guilt-tripping. ✓ Free, downloadable training plans, how-to video links and much, much more!Be Right Back! is the complete reference for you to soothe your anxious dog. If you like expert advice, simple-to-use techniques, and getting positive results without fuss, then you'll love Julie Naismith's practical guide. All this for less than the cost of one day at daycare!

Your dog can learn to be alone.

Buy Be Right Back! to get you both on the trail to happiness today!

Genres: Nonfiction, Dogs, Self Help

311 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 25, 2019

Reviews

[Erin Kellan · Rating 3 out of 5]

75% of this book is spent outlining why owners aren’t responsible for their dog having separation anxiety. If you are an owner that believes it was your fault, this will help alleviate that. I already knew that, and felt that the actual practical tips and training exercises were minimal. I’m going to start working on them with my dog and if they work, fantastic and I’ll update this accordingly. Doesn’t change the fact that the book itself is longer than it needs to be.

[Tessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good resource if you have a dog with separation anxiety. I adopted a 1-year-old pup in October 2020 and he's had extreme separation anxiety from the beginning. I can't leave him alone at all.

I already knew most of what was said, but still struggled coming up with a solid training plan. This book comes with a training plan that makes a lot of sense and is very straight forward. I think I can stick to it and am hopeful to see good progress.

I can leave my dog home alone for max 30 seconds right now.
As of this week he will go to doggy day care 2 half-days a week and I will start the training plan 5 times a week, starting with the baseline of 30 seconds. I will not leave my dog alone at any point outside of these training sessions. I will do about half of the training sessions from the car as I move houses a lot and the car is something that stays the same, so I want him to be confident alone in the car as well.

Hopefully I can give an update in a couple of months with loads of progress (fingers crossed!).

[Rhiannon Ladd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good tips using positive reinforcement techniques that I will be trying, however I did feel this book rambled on and could have been half the size. Some points could have been summarised much more.

[Libby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm giving this a 4 star, but it can easily be a 3 or a 5, depending on what you need from it.

It's not a full 5 stars for me, because I think she has a great training regime, but I'm not entirely sure it was enough content for a full book. For that reason, there's a lot of content on not finding fault in yourself, not giving up, how to tackle stigma your friends and family might have about separation anxiety in dogs. All of that is really important, and I'm sure many readers have needed to address these issues (and it does help to have reassurance), but you don't actually get to the training plan until Chapter 4, nearly 100 pages in. I'm a slow reader, so by the time I got to that chapter, my dog's anxiety had improved significantly. It felt a little like reading the rest wasn't necessary.

I did, however, keep reading, and there are some useful things about attachment (another issue of ours) and how to decipher if it's anxiety or something else making them bark. It's become clear that our dog has suffered from separation anxiety, but he also has a case of FOMO and boredom that we need to tackle. The book was reassuring in that sense - and it has some tips for it, too.

The biggest sticking point to her plan is that she insists your dog isn't left on its own throughout the training. Honestly, there have been times - hospital appointments, for instance - where it just wasn't possible. I fully accept that this could have prolonged his anxiety.

I also completely appreciate her stance on medicating anxiety for dogs. Luckily our boy is not so anxious anymore, but if he hadn't improved I would have certainly considered it. I think the problem is, we haven't got over the stigma of medicating for mental health in humans, so I don't think medicating dogs for their mental health would go down any better.

All that said, it's a solid training programme and worth reading if your neighbours are knocking on your door asking if your dog is OK after 2 hours of nonstop barking. Thanks, Buster.

[Kamila · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nie przekonuje mnie narracja tej książki. Więcej w niej porad i sposób na to, jak NIE zostawiać psa samego, narracja typu "przyzwyczaj się do niewychodzenia z domu bez psa". Jeśli chodzi o trening samodzielności i pozostawania w samotności, to sprowadza się do "rób to stopniowo, nie przekraczając progu lęku psa", co zmieściłoby się na 2 stronach, a nie ponad 230. Nie nauczyłam się z tej książki niczego nowego i nie znalazłam w niej porad na temat radzenia sobie z lękiem separacyjnym, których nie znałabym już wcześniej. Za to mnóstwo tutaj klepania po pleckach z serii "lęk separacyjny psa to nie Twoja wina" i metod radzenia sobie w sytuacji "a co powiedzą sąsiedzi?". MOŻE dla kogoś, kto dopiero zaczyna i jest laikiem w psim behawiorze, tak na pierwszy kontakt będzie sensowna, ale dla mnie była to kompletna strata czasu.

[Caitlin Mccluskey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing for dog owners struggling with separation anxiety in their pups. Super informative and actionable.

[Vanessa Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly helpful but really repetitive.

[Julianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Repetitive in spots, but repeating is part of training. Has some very useful tips and techniques, and it's a quick read. Well worth it if your dog has separation anxiety.

[Olivia M · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very repetitive, but what is dog training without repetition? However, it made for a longer read and I felt like I could’ve gotten more from this book if it had focused less on the emotions of being an owner of a dog with separation anxiety and more on training. I did appreciate everything it included though.. especially the “what to say” parts directed toward people who are uneducated about panic disorders is dogs. At the beginning, I needed the affirmations. Great training plans and anecdotes included and I’m glad I got this book.

[mkmk · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's only one advice given in this book for separation anxiety for dogs - and it's to be with your dog for some time without leaving him and then to practice leaving him for short amounts of time until he's used to being left alone. The rest of the book was simple fluff, not worth reading..

[Teri Bloom · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moderately helpful, but most of the stuff you could find on the internet.

[Emily Brinkman · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s hard for me to rate this because I don’t know if the training plan works yet but I’ll circle back in 3 to 6 months! All my friends seeing this- please manifest an anxiety-free Junie.

[campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly very helpful! Hopefully ben can like survive while I go to the store I pray

[Sarah Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has changed my perspective on how my dogs feel and what I can do to stop both of our anxiety about being home alone.Great information on dogs with separation anxiety in easy to digest pieces.

[Bryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some really useful exercises and small plans in here but the book is so repetitive throughout. I got halfway through and wondered when it would start giving me some tangible stuff to work with. Great if you need a confidence boost as a dog owner and appreciate some of the background info.

[Brandi Kern · Rating 4 out of 5]

Repetitive, as others have stated. This book is helpful for dog owners as well as dog trainers who need more info on the subject. Much more clear and readable than Jean Donaldson's "Mine!" which I found to have distracting high brow language, Be Right Back was a breath of fresh air compared to that. Basically the information is the same. However, I disagree with the author's assertions that people are not responsible for their dog developing separation anxiety. Although it is often not the owner's fault, it can be much more often than Naismith asserts. Many dogs do develop separation anxiety or lookalike disorders because of excess coddling and I don't think it's helpful to ignore that. How dogs are confinement trained (or lack thereof) also plays a role in how dogs handle being left alone.

[Pusiu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nie ma tu nic czego nie wiedziałabym od behawiorysty, ale to dobra książka na start, albo do odświeżenia wiedzy :)

[Petrina Binney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I live in a multi-dog household. I’ve had dogs since I was really little - six months old when we picked up Rupert from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home - and I’ve had my dog Doobie for almost ten years. Although I have spent my life with dogs, I don’t pretend to be an expert. Luckily, my partner is training to be a canine behaviourist, so I have a bit of a leg-up when it comes to doggy problems. But I suspect one of the most troubling behaviours for most owners is separation anxiety.

It is heartbreaking when you hear a whining, barking, scratching sound from behind the front door, or come home to find the house trashed, the dog trembling; and there’s so much advice out there. Much of it, dreadful. Some of it, harmful. And everyone has an opinion. I’ll say it: often, it’s wrong.

As explained adroitly by Ms Naismith in this how-to guide to dealing with your dog’s separation anxiety, there is no need to use painful, damaging or uncomfortable collars and other equipment to frighten your dog into behaving better. Although shock collars and such do supply quick results, they will do physical and psychological harm an already petrified dog. If you have dogs, especially a dog with separation anxiety, you know you need to put in the work to see meaningful results and a happier dog.

I especially loved the explanation of the difference between attention-seeking and terror-barking. I’ve been told by drinking buddies to let my dog bark it out and I’m absolutely going to quote this in conversations in bars from now on:
“When your dog uses barking to get what he wants, letting him bark it out does work. The dog thinks, Hmm, this isn’t getting me anywhere. I guess I’ll give up.
“The barking that comes from their fear of being alone doesn’t die out. In fact, this kind of barking can spiral. Your dog isn’t barking with an end in mind. It might start out as, “Hey, where did you go? Come back!” but as long as the fear remains, the barking will continue. Anxious dogs don’t think clearly. The longer you leave the dog who has separation anxiety, the more fearful he will become and the longer he will bark.”
Page 43, Chapter One, What Is Separation Anxiety?, Be Right Back! by Julie Naismith

This book teaches the reader, step by step, how to gradually expose your dog to short periods of alone time, at the dog’s pace, so that they learn to manage their emotions and not associate your leaving with the end of the world.

It is so refreshing to find a guide that’s written not for the expert, but for the standard dog-owner (me). There’s a lot of emphasis placed on the dog’s emotional well fare and a lot of honesty regarding how long it’ll take for the training to stick, and I think that’s very important.

[Danniiee · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book to understand separation anxiety from a high level point of view but I was hoping for something a lot more training focused.

I tried some of the things suggested with my dog which was good but apart from learning the basics it doesn't explain how to progress to the next level with the training.

I personally think it could have covered more:
About Desensitization
Reading body language
When and how to progress

[Kirstin · Rating 2 out of 5]

So repetitive and didn’t tell me anything I didn’t know. Was so disappointed, from the blurb I thought this book was going to be groundbreaking

[MIA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to my neurotic dog for getting me 1 book closer to my reading goal 🫠

[Claudia Almeida · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been dealing with my dog's separation anxiety for over two years now and was hoping this book would bring me new insights. Unfortunately, it didn't. All advice is too general, the actual separation anxiety protocol makes up about 10% of the book, and the case studies are not useful as they don't detail any training plans. 90% of the book is spent motivating owners to start training (if we're reading the book, we're motivated), talking about how difficult having a dog with separation anxiety is (we know!), and debunking separation anxiety myths (this is useful but too long-winded).

As much as I wanted to love this book, it didn't add anything to the knowledge I already had and it was too infantilizing at times. Plus, the frequent comparisons of training to diet and weight loss were completely unnecessary.

If you know nothing about separation anxiety, then maybe give it a go. If you're looking for more detailed training information, I'd recommend Malena DeMartini's Separation Anxiety in Dogs: Next Generation Treatment Protocols and Practices.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provides a lot of background information and practical guidance on training steps. As others have said this book is longer than it needs to be and is quite repetitive. As someone with a new shelter dog showing some signs of separation anxiety, this resource was affirming and priceless. My two issues are 1. The resources she mentions no longer seem to be free and require spending $150 on her app and 2. The insistence of starting medication without ANY guidance on whether these drugs are addictive and how you wean your dog off of said medication. That being said, I’m looking forward to starting this training.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is written alright, but for some reason I just really don’t want to agree with how the author handles training. I’ve had some pretty good dogs in my family using other training methods, and the way this book is written makes me feel like we didn’t actually do a good job training? Kinda gotta look with my own eyes at some point right?

With that being said, I’ve never even considered what it takes to train an anxious dog. Was I just lucky all my other dogs weren’t anxious?

I found a lot of the concepts and reasoning a bit repetitive, especially with the chapters feeling like they were written essay style.

The appendix is quite valuable. Start there!

[Lara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful, but a bit repetitive. I recently found my dog's separation anxiety improved immensely and I couldn't figure out what had helped. I had been practising (not with a training schedule, but some similar exercises as the ones she recommends) with her, but I wasn't making any progress. Suddenly I saw a huge improvement and this book, to me, explained what happened. If I hadn't read it I would still be wondering why and how. Thanks to this book I'm also prepared for any setbacks and I now have a very useful training schedule I can hold onto if any setbacks occur.

[Angela Poisel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d honestly give it 2 stars for myself. There’s a lot of repetition, a lot of “this is the right way to do it” without feeling like there was science to back it up, and my biggest concern is that the author’s strict advice actually will inadvertently increase owner’s anxiety which isn’t going to help any dog. I feel like there was a huge draw back for me in the using absolutes even tho she also made it obvious some of the behaviors could be for separation anxiety or other causes. I think if you without a doubt have a dog with separation anxiety, the exercises would be beneficial.

[Anna Shishmanov · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has been so helpful in collecting a strategy to combat my 1 year old dog’s separation anxiety! We have only just begun but I’m feeling hopeful for the first time in so long about how he’s doing!

Would definitely recommend it to anyone struggling with separation anxiety.

My only con is that I feel like the book could’ve been a bit more concise so you (and me!) could get started ASAP on training.

[Natalia Karwowska · Rating 1 out of 5]

Książka jest bardzo powtarzalna. Co chwilę mamy wiadomość że lęk naszego psa to nie jest nasza wina. I zamiast skupiać się na faktycznych rzeczach, które mógłby by nam pomóc, cały czas dostajemy tą samą poradę czyli stopniowo musimy zostawiać naszego psa a najlepiej to w ogóle jakby nasze wychodzenie nie było konieczne. W dobie internetu znajdziemy lepsze porady na pierwszej lepszej stronie internetowej niż tutaj.

[Lina · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent read. it took me a while to get around finishing this.
I think this is also very useful for puppy owners.
I haven't started with daily/consistent training for separation anxiety yet so I'm not sure how effective it'll be with my pup; but I love the way the training is broken down into very simple steps that are easy to follow. There's also a few other trainings to follow (crate training, mat training and controlling barks).

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the method and explanations, but feel like a lot of this is padding and I only really needed to read chapter 4? If that to be honest, because all of this info is already available online. The book really only confirmed to me what I already knew. A lot of the book is designed to make you feel better about the problem but I can't say it did that for me. Looking forward to continuing with the training though.