How to help a dog with separation anxiety
Separation anxiety includes genuine fear of being home alone and dogs that are just unhappy they’re not with you rather than being panicked about it.
How-to: help a dog with separation anxiety
Ciara Pollen
Behaviour and training advisor (dogs)
Meet Ciara!
Ciara has a passion for dogs that started at a young age. She spent a lot of her childhood helping friends and family look after and train their four-legged friends. Since then, she’s pursued her dream of working with dogs and gained over 11 years of valuable experience, along with a growing list of qualifications.
She’s particularly interested in helping owners with dogs who have complex behaviour needs. This support makes a real impact – keeping dogs in their loving homes. Of course, she’s on-hand to help pets at Woodgreen too. In recent years, we’ve seen more dogs coming into our care who need extra support with their behaviour, so having Ciara on the team is a big bonus!
More about Ciara
Ciara has a master’s degree in Zoology from the University of Bristol, where she completed a research project on play behaviour in dogs. She’s also a certified APDT UK Dog Trainer and an Animal Training Instructor with the Animal Behaviour and Training Council. At the moment, Ciara is working towards achieving Clinical Animal Behaviourist status, which means she’ll be able to support even more dogs in the near future.
At Woodgreen, Ciara has a varied workload that allows her to support pets and people in many different ways. From advice to hands-on support, she’s dedicated to helping owners to better understand their canine companions – enabling them to live their best lives. You may recognise her from our advice videos on TikTok and YouTube!
A typical week for Ciara could include one-to-one training consultations, home visits, advice calls, and even video chats with owners while they walk their dog! Whilst the issues she helps with are varied, she has a special interest in reactive behaviour, such as lunging and barking. This is a common reason why people request to hand their dogs into our care. It’s fair to say that her efforts are helping to keep many pets and people together.
Ciara shares her home with her cheeky German Spitz pup, Fable. She plans to do dog sports with him like rally obedience and scentwork.
She had this to say about her job as a behaviour and training advisor: “My favourite thing about my job is empowering owners with the confidence that they can train and understand their dog on their own, without my help.”
Ciara's featured dog advice articles
How can I stop my puppy biting and nipping
Puppies will bite! It's a completely normal part of growing up and you’re not doing anything wrong.
How can I stop my puppy biting and nipping
Dog training methods: Which are best?
Teaching your dog how to behave politely is just one of many important aspects of being a responsible pet owner. A dog won’t do this on their own, we need to help them learn how to behave.
Dog training methods: Which are best?
Discover Ciara’s dog breed guides on Ask Woodgreen
Check out the brilliant breed profiles Ciara has written for our Ask Woodgreen website! Learn more about these unique dogs:, American Akita, Borzoi, Greyhound, Japanese Akita Inu, Lurcher, Pomeranian, Saluki.
View more of Ciara's dog advice content
What should I feed my new dog or puppy?
Dog food isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ approach. There are different brands and formulas to suit a dog’s life-stages and dietary requirements.
What should I feed my new dog or puppy?
Adolescent dog behaviour training
Step by step adolescent dog training videos at your own pace
Adolescent dog behaviour training
Why are dogs noses wet or dry
There are a few reasons why dogs have wet or moist noses. A dog’s nose is very sensitive to different smells. The wetness can help them detect odours more efficiently. It can also help regulate their body temperature.
Why are dogs noses wet or dry