Should I leave a piece of my clothing with my dog when I leave?

A dog's sense of smell is vastly more sensitive than a human's, and familiar scent can serve as a genuine source of reassurance and continuity during your absence, similar in concept to how a child might find comfort in a favorite blanket.

An item worn recently, ideally the day before, and placed in the dog's usual resting spot rather than somewhere it might get chewed to pieces, works best. Rotate it out for a freshly worn item every few days to keep the scent meaningful.

This is a small comfort measure that works well alongside proper training and enrichment, but it will not resolve genuine separation anxiety on its own, so treat it as one supportive element of a broader routine rather than a complete solution.

While the scented item should not be freshly laundered, it is worth washing occasionally once its usefulness fades or if it becomes visibly soiled, then re wearing it for a day before returning it to the dog's space, rather than leaving an increasingly worn item in place indefinitely. This keeps the practice both hygienic and genuinely effective, since an item that has lost its distinct scent through months of continuous exposure to the same room stops providing much benefit anyway. Keeping two items in rotation, one in use and one freshly worn and ready to swap in, makes this refresh cycle easy to maintain without extra thought.