DOGS AND SEPARATION ANXIETY

WHAT IS SEPARATION ANXIETY?

When a dog experiences anxiety upon being separated from it’s companions - in this case we will assume ‘companions’ refers to the dog’s humans. Separation anxiety is a psychological condition.

CAN SEPARATION ANXIETY BY TREATED/CURED BY DRUGS (SSRIS)?


The answer is NO! I do NOT recommend the use of anti-depressant SSRIS (i.e. Reconcile) for dogs. Reconcile is actually Prozac. Prozac/Reconcile:

• Will NOT cure separation anxiety, or any other anxiety for that matter;
• Has many and serious, including lethal side effects;
• Actually induces many of the symptoms of anxiety, and;
• Can make the anxiety a heightened and chronic condition.

To understand more about the seriously harmful effects of this SSRI drug you can read on here.

Separation Anxiety can be Summarized as Follows...

• The Root Cause of separation anxiety is insecurity;
• Provocation can be immediate or accumulated;
• The Source of the provocation is predominantly caused by inadvertent human-based influence;
• However the condition may also be triggered and/or exacerbated by a sudden traumatic event or an event in tandem with human-based influence;
• The Result of provocation without proper intervention is a destabilized physiological state - 'an altered normal' which when addressed properly can be reversed.

 IS SEPARATION ANXIETY EXPERIENCED BY ALL DOGS IN THE SAME WAY?

No, just as we humans react in various ways to stressors, so too do dogs. If your dog has separation anxiety he may have a very mild case of anxiety and just gets into little things like tissue boxes…or if the anxiety is more severe may destroy couches, walls, crates. Dogs with extreme anxiety can really harm themselves as they chew on things that can cut their mouths, or they may get tangled and trapped trying to escape confinement.

CAN THE BEHAVIOUR GO FROM MILD TO EXTREME?

Yes, if left untreated the behaviour can escalate over time. Depending on the dog, escalation may be slow, for others dogs it may occur rapidly.

SYMPTOMS DON'T USUALLY EXIST IN ISOLATION
Separation Anxiety is usually a symptom of a bigger issue...
- the issue for the dog is usually insecurity;
- enabled (unintentionally) by lack of leadership from the human.

Usually symptoms do not exist in isolation but are fed and supported by other symptoms. Treating an issue really requires a holistic approach. A dog usually has other symptoms, for example, exhibits nervousness, fear when encountering:
- garbage bags;
- construction vehicles;

- flags;
- loud noises, etc.;

In order to successfully eradicate the issue (insecurity), all of the symptoms must be addressed. I never allow a dog to flee or avoid something that they fear. With patience, calm confidence, respect, understanding, determination and persistence I coach and mentor the dog through each and every situation. In so doing I ensure that the dog leaves each situation it (formerly feared) with a new association - an understanding that it is safe and will not be harmed. By employing this methodology the dog learns confidence, over time insecurity fades away...and so to do the symptoms of insecurity.

HOW DOES A DOG END-UP GETTING SEPARATION ANXIETY?

Well, just like humans, every dog has their own natural pre-dispositions. Some of us are born with a greater tendency to be anxious and insecure while others are calmer - this is true for dogs as well. Just because we have that pre-disposition does not mean that it will ever come to the foreground. But, if environmental influences (such as incidents that happen to us on a regular basis or as a one-of occurrence, people, places and things that we encounter) spark our discomfort and become a stressor we can develop anxiety.

When I am explaining to my client’s how a situation or circumstance may impact their dogs, I ask them to think in human terms. That way the human can grasp the relativity of the situation with greater ease and speed

So if we think of a child…were we to leave a young child (with no experience of being left without companionship) alone in our home, most children would panic. Some would be curious about the experience and seek something to play with or get into. Then they would eventually become bored. Once boredom sets in and the novelty has worn off, they will recall the lack of companionship and become unhappy or indeed distraught.

Other children would weather the experience in complete contentment…this though would be rare.

If you plunk an adult down (alone) in a space that they are unfamiliar with…we will see the same pattern emerge. Some will become agitated and nervous, others may become bored, and some will be completely comfortable. And thus it is for dogs.

However - it can be even worse for dogs if we first wind them up with all of our human emotions, and then leave them! And then when we come back more emotion as we greet our dog in a frenzy of excitement and/or guilt at having left them alone. The human unknowingly reinforces the dog’s anxiety by making such a big deal of leaving and returning.

LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT HOW THIS CONDITION PROGRESSES…

So you go out for a few hours, or for the day leaving your dog alone in the house. Your dog may have ‘the run of the house’ or you may have shut a few doors so he can’t go everywhere.

At first your dog may be fine with this - as far as you can tell. Then one day you come home to find something chewed - nothing important just a tissue box. You think, 'well that is odd' or may even think 'that is kind of cute'. The next day everything is OK. But the day after you come home to another mess. So you decide to get him some chew toys. The next day you come home and more mess and the nice chew toys are sitting just as you left them.

Well, your dog is insecure and finds that having all of that space to himself is daunting. He is unsure what to do, where to rest...how to rest without his human companions to provide structure, direction or just companionship...so he starts to feel anxious. He gets nervous...nervous energy must have an outlet...any unspent energy must have an outlet or frustration and anxiety increases.

Chewing helps him release the anxious energy. Chewing the toys is not resolving his issue - anxiety...so he moves onto another object to try to solve his dilemma. He starts to chew on the couch!

The longer you leave your dog’s condition untreated the worse it will get - exponentially so! To help your dog to feel comfortable and safe you need to reduce the space he has access to while you are gone. This will be a temporary measure until he learns to have more confidence. You can either use a crate or baby gate or dog playpen to confine him to a smaller space - what you use will depend on the dog, its size and the intensity of its anxiety. Then there are some dogs who will do anything they can to escape confinement - they will chew there way out of metal wire crates, chew through drywall - open windows, we will speak of that later.

SO NOW LETS’ TAKE A LOOK AT HOW THE CONDITION CAN BE FIXED…

STEP ONE

First of all we need to make sure you understand how to avoid enabling you dog’s anxiety. The first place to start is with you! Take a minute to read these two articles - they are short but the information in them is profound and forms the foundation for curing your dog’s anxiety…these are your first building blocks.

Sensitivity of Dogs

The Art of Greeting in Silence

So, having read those two articles you now understand that the first thing you are going to have to do is prepare yourself. You need to reset expectations, forget what has happened in the past and disengage all of your emotions. You need to view working with your dog as 'work'. You are going to need extreme patience, you will have to strengthen your will so it is stronger than your dog's will. You are going to have to be incredibly calm and confident. You are going to have to completely change your dog's association with crating - it is a negative association right now.

STEP TWO

If you haven’t already done so…you need to normalize the experience of leaving and returning to your home.

When Leaving Your Home
…if you feel guilty about leaving your dog alone - your dog senses this, it can make them anxious as they feel you are not comfortable with the situation. Instead clear your mind of any emotion and calmly, confidently go out with the understanding that leaving is normal, with the expectation that your dog will relax.

…if you are always in a big rush, stressed and tense, your dog learns to associate your leaving with stress, tension…anxiety. Take a few minutes to calm yourself - this is essential! You must lead by example - be calm so your dog can be.

…direct your dog as to what you expect it to do…go lie down…and make sure you correct and follow thru if he does not. If you leave and he is barking and agitated he will stay that way. More on that later.

…if you leave and make a fuss, you teach your dog that leaving is not common place, it is instead an exception. Many people make a fuss over their dogs when they leave and when they arrive back home. This creates intense excitement and destabilizes the dog. It can also overwhelm their senses. When you go outside and your husband/boyfriend etc is inside do you go up to him and make an excited fuss? Or do you calmly, naturally just give a kiss and say I’ll be back? Well with dogs you do not even (should not even) say I’ll be back - they can feel your intent - no words required.

When Coming Back Home

No talk, no touch, no look…and do not anticipate excitement…relax, be calm and walk in with confidence…

When dog pack members great each other in their natural state they are calm and simply use their nose to sniff each other to understand where each has been. Normalizing, making common place the action of coming and going.

We humans do not think to honour the dog in our dogs and instead impose on them a human greeting. This is unfair to the dog. Dogs have a +300 million olfactory sensors in their nose, we have only 3 million. Please, when you greet your dog - honour him...no talk, no touch, no look, just let him quietly sniff you - this is like a beautiful glass of wine for your dog. Later when you have put your briefcase down and gone to the bathroom, come out and quietly touch your dog. Following this procedure normalizes the coming and going experience and removes the excitement associated with your absence...it deflates the anxiety.

So to recap Step two…DO NOT feel sorry for your dog, do not talk, do not touch...allow him the grace to just relax. If you leave in a hurry and are stressed or anxious - those are the feelings that you leave your dog with! Be calm, take a few extra minutes to ensure that when you leave you are relaxed in mind and body - this gives a very different message to your dog. THIS IS LEADING BY THE RIGHT EXAMPLE! This is coaching and mentoring your dog. THIS IS TRAINING YOU!

STEP THREE

Make sure your dog has had sufficient exercise

Before you leave make sure your dog has had enough exercise. Dogs need to expend their energy to feel relaxed and calm. You cannot expect a dog with unspent energy to be content left alone or contained in a crate if they have not first run down their energy level. Remember, dogs have two types of energy;

…their daily quota of energy, and

…if they have not had enough exercise on a regular daily basis they can have stored energy in addition to daily energy.

Just as we would find it difficult to settle down if we were revved up, so to do dogs - even more so. Unspent energy can lead to frustration and anxiety too!

STEP FOUR

If you are crating or otherwise confining your dog…

If a dog has separation anxiety a crate can be an important tool in their rehabilitation. Like people who have a phobia of large open spaces, a dog left alone in a home can feel overwhelmed. Crating is not a cure, but it can be used to support the rehabilitation process. Crating coupled with good leadership including a structured approach to coaching/mentoring the dog to navigate through all situations that it fears, etc. will help the dog become a secure, confident, well-balanced canine. Again your state of mind is very important. If you feel bad about using a crate for your dog - the dog knows and will learn to associate the crate with discomfort and unease. If you feel confident about using the crate your dog will too.

Introduce your dog to the crate in the right way

If you introduce your dog to a crate the right way– in almost all cases the dog will not fear or dislike the crate. Once a dog has found a crate to be a calm and comfortable place to be, the dog will often choose to use the crate as a place to go and rest. As long as you leave the crate door open when not in use, the dog can choose to use it when he/she pleases. When first introducing your dog to a crate, leave the door open and let your dog use it’s noise to explore the  outside and inside of the crate. You can direct your dog to lie down in the crate and relax - stay with the door open. You can feed him a treat while he is lying in the crate. Foster good associations.

Once your dog is comfortable with the idea of being in the crate, close the crate door and let him stay in it for a bit. Normalize the experience for your dog. When you go to let you dog back out of the crate, make sure he is relaxed, not excited. If he is excited just keep the door closed, be calm. Turn your body so you face sideways to the crate. Do not talk to, look at, or touch your dog. In this way you disengage and do not enable your dog’s excitement. When your dog is calm, open the door, and at your request he can come out of the crate. Do not allow him to bolt out of the crate. Use your body to block the door and when ready step aside to allow him out.

I have ten dogs in my dog pack and they all enjoy going off to lie in their crates when they feel like it. They are allowed to lie down wherever they like in the house – including on couches. Sometimes they prefer a crate. No one dog in my pack owns a crate – they all share the spaces in the house including crates. For example, when I am preparing their food, my smallest dog (a four-pound Pomeranian) will sometimes go to lie down in a large crate located in the kitchen and share the space within the crate with one of my German Shepherds or with my Australian Shepherd. There are other places in the kitchen they can ‘hang-out’, but they often choose the crate. Why do they choose the crate? The crate is a space of comfort and calm and all of the crates in my house are comfy – they are lined with dog beds and some have pillows too!

Even dogs who are capable of escaping any crate – like my dog Sarah (German Shepherd X Husky) will accept being in a crate as I have coached & mentored her in the right way. She is a wily, intelligent and resourceful canine who spent the better part of her first year as a stray – wiliness meant survival!

Make sure the crate is the right size for your dog

Make sure you get the right size crate for your dog; a dog should be able to stand up & turn around in its crate.

Never place a crate in a location that gets overly warm or where theair quality is very poor. We humans don’t appreciate such conditions neither do our dogs! Remember that cold air stays close to the ground. If your dog is not great with cold temperatures make sure the crate is not located where there is a cold draft.

STEP FIVE- for those with dogs who try to escape crates/confinement

You will have to work in baby steps. You are going to have to take the time to teach your dog that the crate is a place of comfort and peace rather than dread and stress. You need to get your dog accustomed to using the crate when you are in the room. Your dog will need to learn to relax in the crate - sit and lie down. Then you build up over time the periods he spends in it - while you are home. Dogs like people shut down when they are in a state of panic. It takes great determination, presence of mind and patience to turn this around.

Prepare yourself - you need to reset expectations, forget what has happened in the past and disengage all of your emotions. If you anticipate trouble you will get trouble, if you believe in what you are doing and forget the past it helps your dog to move forward. 

Helping your dog return to a normal state (not ridden with anxiety) means that you have to think and move in a deliberately calm fashion. Your dog did not get to this state overnight so it will take time to change his state.

 
Get yourself in the right mindset and then start to work with him/her.

IS SEPARATION ANXIETY A PERMANENT CONDITION? 

No, it is very rare for a dog, who has been coached and mentored properly through this anxiety to remain anxious. Depending on your dog and the severity of their anxiety...they will eventually get over this condition and learn to normalize being alone. For some dogs it is a relatively short process - requiring weeks or several months. For other dogs the path to normalization can take a year or more. My Australian Shepherd Tasha had a bad case of separation anxiety...curing her took around a year! 

Remember patience and calm confidence is key to success. Tasha can now be left out all day free in the house with my other dogs. At one time she would pee and poo in the house, chew furniture, shred whatever she could get her teeth into!. 

You can read her Bio if you are curious...Tasha, my Australian Shepherd
 

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Notes:

Please note - this article is for information purposes and is not a substitute for an in-person Session with me. When working with dogs I use many techniques - it is important to note that this article may touch on one or several techniques but not all. I select the technique that I use for a particular dog based on my observations of the dog and an intuitive, instinctive assessment of that dog's and its human's individual requirements. For example when I am working with a dog that is hyper sensitive and very physically reactive I will not use voice or touch. I use a lot of therapeutic touch on some dogs, others require the use of herding techniques and so on. Each and every technique must be combined with:

• an understanding of the real intelligence, sensitivity and capability of dogs;
• an understanding of how to read a dog's face and a dog's overall body language;
• an understanding of the full spectrum of ways that humans communicate and dogs communicate; 
• understanding and recognition of the individual that is each dog - no two dogs are the same...taking a 'cookie cutter' approach to techniques is not the way to work with a dog;
• a complete recognition and understanding of all the elements that feed a behaviour and create an issue:
•  the vast majority of people can only identify one or two elements...which vastly inhibits the ability to resolve behavior issues;
• behaviours do not exist in isolation - there are always many elements that feed a single behaviour, there all always multiple behaviours that create a behavioral issue;
• self-restraint and discipline on the part of the human who is directing the dog;
• sensitivity, awareness, intuition, instinct and timing on the part of the human who is directing the dog;
• to understand, connect with and adapt quickly and effectively to a dog's learning requirements you must be able to employ the same tools a dog uses - acute sensitivity, awareness, instinct, intuition and timing;
• kindness, endurance, consideration, patience, persistence, perspective, the ability and know how to let the past go, the ability to set realistic expectations at any one point in time;
• the creation of structure, rules, boundaries and limitations for each situation at the macro and micro level;
• understanding of all the elements that make up an instruction and direction to a dog...there are multiple steps involved in an instruction - not just one!
• absolute honesty - if you cannot be honest with yourself you will not be able to communicate clearly with a dog.

These are just some of the techniques that I teach my clients - it is a holistic, all-encompassing approach. If you are missing any one element of the above mentioned your success rate will be affected to one degree or another in implementing the techniques offered in the article presented above.