Written by: Sam Kabbel, CPDT-KA, President, Pet Behavior Solutions
Newly adopted pets may be more prone to adjustment issues in their new home. Often times newly adopted dogs attach quickly to their humans as their source of security while they are negotiating the environment and learning the routine. With most dogs, they adjust quite readily but in some cases, they can become anxious and inconsolable when their owners leave. This article is designed to help you identify whether or not your dog may have separation anxiety. It will give you some general guidelines to help your dog adjust and tolerate being separated from you.
What is Separation Anxiety?
Separation anxiety describes dogs that are overly attached or dependent on family members. They become extremely anxious and show distress behaviors of vocalization, destruction, house-soiling, or inactivity when separated from the owners. Most dogs with separation anxiety try to remain close to their owners and become increasingly anxious the greater the separation. They may follow the owners from room to room and begin to display signs of anxiety as soon as the owners prepare to leave. Some of these dogs crave a great deal of physical contact and attention from their owners and can be demanding. During departures or separations they may begin to salivate or pant profusely, vocalize, eliminate, refuse to eat, become destructive, or become quiet and withdrawn. Most often these behaviors occur within about 30 minutes of the owner’s departure. While typically the behavior occurs each and every time the owner leaves, it can only happen on selected departures, such as work-day departures, or when the owner leaves again after coming home from work.
Many dogs enjoy chewing and engage in the behavior when they have nothing better to keep them occupied. House-soiling may be due to medical problems, leaving the dog alone for longer than he can control his bladder, or inadequate house-training. Vocalization may be due to territorial intrusion by strangers or other animals and can be a rewarded behavior if the dog receives any form of attention when he vocalizes or rewarded by the stimulus leaving. Some dogs will attempt to escape or become extremely anxious when confined, so that destructiveness or house-soiling when a dog is locked up in a crate, basement, or laundry room, may be due to confinement or barrier anxiety and associated attempts at escape. In addition, noise phobias such as a thunderstorm that passes through during the owner’s absence, may lead to marked destructiveness, house-soiling, salivation, and vocalization.
What can I do immediately to prevent damage?
This is an extremely difficult question. The goal of treatment is to reduce your dog's level of anxiety by training him to feel comfortable in your absence. This can be a long intensive process. Yet, most owners will need to deal with the damage or vocalization immediately. During initial retraining it may be best to hire a dog sitter, take the dog to work, find a friend to care for the dog for the day, board the dog for the day, or arrange to take some time off from work to retrain the dog. Crate training or dog proofing techniques may work especially for those dogs that already have an area where they are used to being confined. Crates should be used with caution however with dogs that have separation anxiety and/or also have barrier frustrations because they can severely injure themselves attempting to get out of a crate.
What should be done prior to departures?
Before any lengthy departure, provide a vigorous session of play and exercise. This not only helps to reduce some of the dog’s energy and tire him out, but also provides a period of attention. A brief training session can also be a productive way to further interact and “work” with your dog. For the final 15-30 minutes prior to departure, the dog should be ignored. The key is to avoid as many of the departure signals as possible, so that the dog’s anxiety doesn’t heighten, even before the owner leaves. Brushing teeth, changing into work clothes, or collecting keys, purse, or briefcase are all routines that might be able to be performed out of sight of the dog. As you depart, the dog should be kept busy and occupied, and preferably out of sight, so that there is little or no anxiety. Giving favored treats and food for departure times (and taking them away when you are at home) can help keep the dog distracted and perhaps “enjoying himself” while you leave. Dogs that are highly stimulated by food may become so intensively occupied in a peanut butter or dog food stuffed dog toy, a new chew bone, or some frozen dog treats, that they may not even notice you leave. Be certain that the distraction devices last as long as possible so that the dog continues to occupy his time until you are “long gone”. Frozen treats placed in the dog’s food bowl, toys that are tightly stuffed with goodies, toys that are designed to require manipulation and work to obtain the food reward, toys that can maintain lengthy chewing, and timed feeders that open throughout the day are a few suggestions. Naturally, food will not be effective for dogs that will not eat when the owner is preparing to leave. If you have multiple dogs, you should take caution about competitive situations with food and treats.
What should I do when I come home?
At homecomings, ignore your dog until he calms and settles down. Take this time to get changed, check your e-mail or read your mail. When he has calmed from his initial reaction, then you may calmly greet him. Exuberant greetings or any type of punishment for misbehavior will only serve to heighten the dog’s anxiety surrounding homecomings.
None of this is helping, what should I do?
Sometimes, a dog’s anxiety is so severe that none of these things work. If this is the case, you should contact Pet Behavior Solutions or another behavior expert, or your veterinarian. You will likely need a systematic protocol to desensitize your dog to departures and separation from you. These protocols will contain exercises designed to teach your dog to relax and accept longer periods of separation from you. These protocols should be specifically designed for your family, environment, routine, and your dog. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions at all. I can be reached at sam@petbehaviorsolutions.com or at 602-324-8948.
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