Separation Anxiety in Dogs

Separation anxiety in dogs is distinguished by destructive behavior when the dog is left alone. Behavior such as barking, howling, demolishing household items, digging, chewing and peeing are signs.  Some dogs will go into a panic and dig at a door to try and break out and find you. Normally this is set off when you leave the dog at home and can even start when the dog senses that you are leaving.

It is typical for a dog with separation anxiety will also respond to your return with hyperactivity after being home alone for even a short time. Some dogs will even follow you from room to room to ensure they will not be left alone.

Use a distraction for your pet while you are out. This is a good way to relieve some anxiety.                   

For example:

·        Leave the radio or tv on so the dog can hear humans talking

·        Leave them with a toy or a treat ball to give them something else to focus on.

For a dog with more severe separation anxiety problems you should start trying to desensitize your dog. Here are a few examples of how you can start putting your dogs anxiety at ease

·        It can be helpful to change your leaving routine so that the dog is unaware of your plan to leave. Normally a dog will notice small signs like when you are putting on your shoes or grabbing the keys, your dog’s separation anxiety starts kicking in and the panic begins. Try to make leaving the house unexpected to your dog by putting your shoes outside or leaving without doing your normal leaving routine. Then after waiting 10 minutes outside return to the house. This begins to desensitize the dog to the fear of separation. It is good to make sure that leaving the house and arriving is always a calm event, if the owner responds to the dog in an excited way it increases the excitement of the dog.

 

·        Another way is to show the dog repeatedly that the leaving routine doesn't need to result in a panic attack. You go through the familiar leaving routine, grabbing keys, putting on shoes and picking up a bag to leave then sitting down again. After repeating this exercise a number of times, try going one step further and finish the leaving routine by opening the door and standing outside it for a minute with the door open.

These exercises need to be repeated over and over to desensitize the dog.

It is important to get a dog with separation anxiety comfortable with even short absences, daily routines like getting the mail, result in a short absence. Use this time to make your dog feel that even though you are leaving, you will return.

Once your dog can handle short absences (30 to 90 minutes), he'll usually be able to handle longer time alone and you won't have to repeat this process every time you are planning a longer absence.

The hard part is at the beginning, but the job gets easier as you go along. Nevertheless, you must go slowly at first. How long it takes to condition your dog to being alone depends on the severity of his problem.