Record and Measure Your Results to See the Improvement
It is really common for clients to start all fired up and then fizzle out during the training process. Sometimes it is hard to see the results when the change is gradual. Especially with issues like leash reactivity or separation anxiety, the progress can often be very slow.
One of the ways we suggest to clients to stay 
on track is to measure and document their process. We recommend you make a log or use a journal. Make notes about progress after each dog training session. Use measurable units such as feet, minutes, and number of repetitions. This way you can go back and look at your notes to see what happened. Without a tracking method you will not be able to see the progress as clearly and as early on.
For a dog that barks or paces when you try to leave them alone, it seems like the separation anxiety will never go away. After working on it for days or weeks, it can be very frustrating if you think there is no progress. But if you record the time it takes for the dog to recover when you return and you realize there is actually measurable progress, then you really know it is working. If you can document that the barking is continually improving (you measure a progression of less barking) then you know you are heading in the right direction.
It is so important at those times to keep up the momentum, because that is when you know it is really working. And even more than that, don’t stop just because you have made a little progress. We will cover that next.
