While most will have a newfound appreciation of their personal freedoms in this post-covid world, many dogs dream of the days when their owners were only allowed out of the house for 30 minutes per day, and have struggled to adjust to their owners’ hybrid working.

New data released by a dog training app by leading apps and games developer, Gismart, has revealed that a staggering 73% of dog owners say that separation anxiety is the biggest behavioural issue they are currently facing with their dog/s.

From scratching, chewing and digging, to inappropriate elimination, separation anxiety can cause distress to both dogs and leave owners feeling frustrated and picking up the pieces.

This has been increasing ever since the pandemic and has increased just 15% in the past year. This continued increase is believed to be in part due to owners adopting hybrid working, making their presence at home less predictable and consistent for their furry friends to understand.

Woofz and pet monitoring camera and software company, Petcube, have designed a specialised training course which blends Petcube technology with proven canine behavioural science, and is specifically aimed at helping dog owners resolve separation anxiety and the distress it causes both dogs and their humans.

The brand new ‘Home Alone’ course, available via the Woofz dog training app on both iOS and Android, includes a set of techniques and guidelines for both owners and dogs, which is specifically designed to reduce the stress separation anxiety cause.

Included in the course are guides to identify whether behaviour is separation anxiety or not, as well as suggestions for ways to entertain pets while away from home and techniques to get your dog used to your absence gradually.

The course also includes specialised recommendations related to using Petcube pet camera to interact with and keep an eye on dogs while their owners are out of the home, and a dedicated module for puppies 6 months or older.

“We’re thrilled to be launching this course which blends the latest in connected pet technology with behavioural science, to provide a truly contemporary and digital approach to managing a really prevalent dog behavioural issue. Our data has shown that separation anxiety has been a huge problem for dog owners ever since the pandemic began to ease, as dogs have struggled to adapt to their owners’ lifestyles as the world has opened up,” commented Natalia Shahmetova, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Woofz by Gismart.

“This is a very exciting partnership, as Woofz and Petcube share similar values, rooting for ethical, transparent and modern ways of dog training. We’ll soon be able to announce new steps of our collaboration, so watch this space,” Shahmetova continues.

Andrey Klen, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at Petcube comments: “We’re thrilled to partner with Woofz on the Home Alone course, as separation anxiety actually made us create our first product and start the company. This is the issue we’ve been addressing for over a decade now, and we’re happy to help fellow pet parents ease it – particularly at a time when it is more of a pressing issue and we’re seeing instances of separation anxiety increase.”

A subscription to Woofz is available for £8.49 following a 3 day free trial, or for £26.99 for a 12 week subscription.

Woofz is a tried and tested dog app that helps you unlock the secrets to what makes your pet tick and create a more harmonious pet-person relationship with dog training lessons, pet tracker functionality, a puppy log, and a handy pet clicker tool all in one app.

Woofz was officially launched at the very beginning of the pandemic and over the course of 2 years has managed to achieve more than 2 million downloads with almost 200,000 monthly active users, showing consistent growth.

Within the last 12 months, the number of downloads has tripled, while the MAU (monthly active users) saw a 4 times increase. Woofz collaborates with dog-handling experts from the UK, the US, Portugal and other European countries.

The Woofz app is the first venture into pet tech for Gismart, and is the first launch from its Pet Tech range.

Woofz has won the Lovie Awards for two years in a row: Silver Lovie Award in the Best User Experience category in 2022; Bronze Lovie Award in the Best Visual Design category in 2021.