What Actually Happens When You Work With a Certified Separation Anxiety Trainer
Category: Separation Anxiety
If your dog's separation anxiety is significant, self-directed advice only goes so far — this is a condition with dedicated specialists for a reason. Malena DeMartini's organization trains and certifies Separation Anxiety Trainers (CSATs) specifically for this single condition, and their process is more structured than general dog training.
The three-step process
Initial assessment. A CSAT completes a full assessment of your dog's specific separation anxiety presentation and reports their findings back to you.
Custom-tailored missions. Your CSAT builds an individualized plan — not a generic protocol — based on your dog's assessment.
One-on-one remote training. Ongoing, one-on-one support delivered remotely, meaning geography isn't a barrier to working with a specialist regardless of where you live.
Specifically built for shelters and the adoption process
This matters directly for rescue adopters: Malena DeMartini's organization offers customized programs for shelters at four distinct stages — support at intake, separation anxiety work in the foster environment, and dedicated support for families spanning the period from pre-adoption through post-adoption. This reflects the same pattern the ACVB names directly: separation anxiety is disproportionately common in shelter dogs, so specialized support that starts before the dog even leaves the shelter is a meaningfully different (and more effective) approach than waiting for problems to show up at home.
Why a dedicated specialist, rather than a general trainer, matters here
Separation anxiety doesn't resolve on its own without training, and the standard progression — brief departures gradually lengthened at a pace matched to the individual dog — requires real expertise to calibrate correctly. Move too fast and you can set a dog back significantly; a CSAT's entire specialization is reading that pace correctly for each individual case.
Source: Malena DeMartini — Certified Separation Anxiety Trainers
