While camping at Detroit Lake, we had two of my friends join us. They brought their two German Shepherd puppies. Don't get me wrong: Not only do I love puppies, but I love German Shepherds. So it was fine. The only problem: They'd never been trained to be tied up on a leash while their masters were out-of-reach, busy, and inattentive to them. Naturally there was a lot of whining and barking that went on. I believe we were the scourge of the campgrounds. We tried different techniques to get them to calm down. Besides untying them, we tried "redirection." It's when you just redirect the youth's attention from something traumatic on to something else. For example, if a kid fell down instead of saying, "Ohhh honey here (kiss-kiss-kiss-hold-hold-hold)," you'd say, "Oh ouch, now look at that pony honey!" Seems to be quite a brilliant application for non-serious issues.
During breakfast, I successfully applied the redirection technique to help puppies deal with separation anxiety. I sat down by them and offered them a stick to chew on. Naturally they took the bait but I didn't let them have the stick I held it for them so I could pull it away. Therefore they were focused on the stick and not what their owner's were doing around the campsite. Now it wasn't successful for longer than 10 minutes, but while they were chewing on said stick, they could neither whine nor bark. And I bet our neighbors appreciated the respite.
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