Separation Anxiety

Separation anxiety (SA) is a behavioral disorder where a dog feels severe distress when separated from its group. This can often be in the form of a panicky reaction or depression.

The common signs of separation anxiety are being a velcro dog, showing anxiety when an owner gets ready to leave, destruction, vocalization, elimination, excessive greeting behavior (over excited), self destructive behavior, drooling, vomiting, and/or the inability to eat while owner is away. Usually, if a dog displays just one of these behaviors, it is not automatically assumed that the dog suffers from SA. Instead, the dog needs to show a
few of these signs. And, there are varying levels of SA (some dogs suffer more than others).

Crating often leads to self harm because dog tries to escape the crate. The same can happen in a home—some dogs jump through windows to get outside.

There are some behaviors that people perceive as separation anxiety, but are not. Barrier frustration is one. Lack of stimulation leading to destructive behavior is another. Incomplete housetraining is a third. It is important to obtain the correct diagnosis in order to treat your dog appropriately.

Separation anxiety stems from lack of confidence and, according to Dr. Nicholas Dodman, it is very prevalent in dogs with dysfunctional backgrounds (multiple homes, etc). There is a strong association with noise phobia, so if you have a dog with SA, then you will want to keep an eye on him or her firework and thunderstorm season approaches.

Things that can trigger SA: boarding, bereavement, a change in an owner’s schedule, multiple relocations. Some dogs will go years without experiencing SA and others will experience it the first time they are left alone.

Those random departure/densensitization of leaving cues instructions that you read about on the internet? They do not work (according to studies done by Dr. Dodman). The problem is that the dog is actually having panic attacks when left alone. Having longer and longer absences doesn’t work, either. These things don’t work for true SA. A lot of dogs have a pseudo SA and this treatment does work.

Here are the basics for treating SA:
• Break the anxiety cycle
• Make leaving fun
• Environmental enrichment
• Low key returns (everyone should do this, even it their dog doesn’t have SA)
• Build their confidence
• Medication

So, let’s take each one step by step. Each step needs to be done in conjunction with each other – doing one step will not solve the problem for most dogs.

Break the cycle!
Doggy daycare, pet sitter, friend or relative takes care of dog, dog walker.

Make leaving fun!
Or, “oh, good, you are leaving now!” Make sure that you do not sympathize with the dog - this can change our entire demeanor, so the dog reacts to that. Keep your goings upbeat and fun. Give instructions - sit, be a good dog, etc. Make sure that leaving = good things, so Kongs, Buster cubes, interactive toys, etc are key here.

Environmental Enrichment
All food comes out of toys (well, except training food). Morning meal comes when you leave. All uneaten food gets picked up when you get home (and not given at the next meal). Most dogs will not go hungry for more than a few days. The critical time for SA is the first 30 minutes. If you can have them eat and work to get their meal during this time, then that will help a lot. Also, feed the evening meal at least an hour after you get home so that your arriving home doesn’t mean food. This meal should be out of toys, too.

Low Key Returns
Only respond to the dog when she is calm. The goal here is to even out the emotional rollercoaster that coming and going elicits in a dog (this is a quote-ish from Dr. Dodman). Obviously, no punishment - this makes SA seriously worse.

Build Their Confidence
Work on stays. No close contact while resting. That means the bed is off limits, too. We need to make the dog less of a velcro dog, so we do that by encouraging independent behavior while we are with the dog. Do not respond to demanding behavior. Work on Dr. Overall’s Relaxation Protocol (e-mail Stephani for a copy of this). The later days of this have out of sight stays. That will help a lot with confidence. Take the RP as slow as needed - you might have to repeat days for a long long time before moving on to the next day’s steps.

Reward calm, independent behavior.

Think about doing obedience, rally or agility training. Some of the tasks in these venues means that the dog works away from you. Herding classes might be a good idea, too. Anything to increase your dog’s life experience will also help increase her confidence. And, if she shows fear, give lots of food so that the fear lessens over time.

Try to exercise your dog immediately before leaving.

Medications
There is absolutely nothing wrong with giving a dog medication to help with this. It is very effective to medicate at the beginning of the SA program and then wean off the medication as the dog becomes more confident and learned behavior is changed to confident behavior.

The FDA approved meds are Clomicalm and Reconcile. Please do not use Acepromazine. It is on the MDR1 list (bad for those herding dogs that suffer from SA) and it has been know to make the dog’s body relaxed, but not their mind, so the dog is still feeling fear (shudder).

Some people have had good results with melatonin for anxiety. This drug is over the counter and easily given in food. Tryptophan is also used and some say that it works great.

Overall, treatment for SA has a fairly good prognosis, but, like anxiety that humans suffer from, it will mean dealing with it for life.

Barking - Part 4

In general, we can use the “Look At That” (LAT) game interchangeably with basic desensitization and counterconditioning (DCC). However, there are instances where one technique will work better than the other. The LAT game is essentially pairing DCC with a clicker and retraining the dog to have an appropriate response at the same time.

Remember that all treats need to be high value and pea sized. Milk bones and dry biscuits will not work. Use a high value treat such as chicken, cheese, beef, liver or peanut butter (in a tube).

The “Look At That” game in more detail (for a really detailed description, please see Leslie McDevitt's Book Control Unleashed):

Items needed:

• Treats
• Clicker (or use a marker word)

Basic Instructions:

• When the dog looks at something, it gets a click and a treat. When the dog looks back at the item, repeat. This is a fast game (you will give a lot of treats).
• If the dog stares at the item and refuses to look at the trainer, then more distance between the object and the dog is needed.
• If the dog is already reacting, then the dog is too close.
• Only play the game for a few minutes at a time.
• Only proceed closer to the item when the dog displays a Conditioned Emotional Response (i.e., looks at item, looks back at owner for treat). This is often called the “Whiplash Turn” since the dog will eventually look at something and whip back to look at the owner for a cookie (we want this behavior).

When to use:

• During class, when your dog barks at other dogs.
• While walking – barking at strangers, cars or other items.
• While in the car – barking at other cars (this will require a driver).
• Anytime a dog is being reactive.

The Basics of Desensitization and Counterconditioning

• This is not luring or bribing.
• Food does not make aggression worse.
• The dog does not need to do anything but take the treat (no sits, downs or stays)
• If the dog takes the treat and spits it out, some benefit will still be seen.
• Distance between the scary object and the dog is critical. Start with more distance at first and slowly work up to being close to the object.
• Do not force the dog to be close to the object
• Food fundamentally changes the emotional response that the dog has to the scary object. Praise and petting does not do this. Punishment will make the fear worse.

Remember this equation

o Object = scary

o Object = food

o Food = good

o Object = good

When to use desensitization and counterconditioning:

• When the dog is extremely shy or fearful.
• When the dog is afraid of objects or things that are unclickable (like wind and rain noises).
• When the dog is fearful but not reacting
• When the dog is afraid of the clicker
• Anytime!

Fear of the Hair Dryer (or vacuum cleaner or other noise making objects)

When working with dogs that react to noisy objects, I do not start out with the LAT game. Instead, I use the DCC technique to reduce the dog’s reaction. Once I get a quieter reaction, then I start playing the LAT game, if needed.

Let’s use an example. Dutch is a dog that barks at the microwave beeper. He also reacts loudly to the hair dryer. We start by figuring out how far away from these objects Dutch needs to be in order to not react. Dutch also has anxiety issues and is a demand barker.

In Dutch’s case, we needed to have the hair dryer in the garage and Dutch across the house in a separate room (about 25 feet, with walls in between).

We started Dutch out with the hair dryer on the lowest (quietest) setting and all doors between the garage and Dutch shut. One person turned the hair dryer on and Dutch was given treats by another person while the dryer was on (about 1 minute). The treats were given one at a time, one right after the other. During this first stage, Dutch did react a little bit at first (muffled growls and quiet barks).

We stopped the dryer and gave Dutch a break (did some training, played with some toys). Then, we repeated the process. We noted that Dutch growled less and did not bark at all. We repeated this process (hair dryer on, treats, hair dryer off, and then some play time) a few more times.

At this point, Dutch needed a break. So, Dutch’s owner was instructed to repeat this exercise in the same place for the next week – once per day. During this time period, Dutch’s owner also had to agree not to use the hair dryer inside. She decided to not use it at all until Dutch was retrained.

After a week, Dutch’s owner was able to move Dutch into the next room (i.e., closer to the dryer) and repeat the process.

Over time, Dutch was able to be next to the door leading out to the garage and listen to the dryer while taking treats. This took about a month, with the owner working about 5 minutes a day.

At this point, Dutch was able to be around the dryer without reacting. So, we now needed to train Dutch to stay on his bed while the owner dried her hair. This part was easier – Dutch was given his morning breakfast out of a Kong while Dutch’s owner dried her hair.

This same technique can be used for a doorbell, a vacuum, or any other noisy object that a dog reacts to. However, some extremely noise phobic dogs might need more work and medication.

Out for a Walk: Barking at Cars

Many dogs bark at cars during walks. This can be problematic if they pull, twirl, lunge or redirect frustration onto their owner. Just like with noisy objects, we can use LAT or DCC techniques to change the way or dogs behave.

Cooper is a big dog who lunges and barks at cars. He scared his owner on one particular walk when he dragged her into the street after a loud car. In all other ways, Cooper is a normal dog – he is not afraid of strangers, he is not hyper: he is a calm, gentle dog.

The first thing we did was put Cooper in a front clip Sense-ation Harness (an Easy Walk harness would work well, too). This type of harness works by turning the dog back to the owner (and loosening the leash) when the dog pulls forward. When used in conjunction with loose leash walking practice, they are extremely effective and can give an owner more control over the dog. I do not recommend Gentle Leader head harnesses, because they limit a dog’s ability to communicate with other dogs and a lunging dog can hurt its neck.

The second thing we worked on was Cooper’s sit. Because walking near cars can be dangerous, we needed Cooper to focus on his owner when around cars. Having Cooper sit meant that the owner had a bit more control. For a dog that does not lunge at cars, but just barks, a sit is not needed.

Finally, we needed to determine the distance that Cooper needed to be from cars in order to not react. In Cooper’s case, we needed a lot of distance – at least 50 feet. So, we practiced with Cooper in a local park that was near a quiet road.

We used the same technique with Cooper as we did with Dutch above. Except, this time, we were able to incorporate the clicker. Every time Cooper watched a car go by, he was clicked and then given a treat. At first, we aimed to click when the car first appeared. This helped cut off Cooper’s reaction and distracted him as the car passed, since he turned his head to us for the treat.

After a few minutes of practice, we started walking Cooper back and forth in the field. Every time a car went by, Cooper got a click/treat. We kept our distance at 50 feet. We needed to work on this technique while walking because it would be counterproductive for Cooper’s owner to always have to have him sit when a car goes by. She can use the sit when needed, but she also needed to practice walking, clicking and treating.

Now, we don’t know why Cooper barked and lunged at cars. It may have been fear. It may have been some prey drive. Whatever the reason, we decided to take a gamble, since Cooper is so well adjusted in other ways. In the same session, we moved Cooper 10 feet towards the cars and continued walking parallel with them. While walking, we clicked and treated. After about 10 minutes, we moved even closer. By the end of the session, with a very full Cooper, we were able to walk down the sidewalk with cars passing by. Treats were given to Cooper every few steps or so at this point, since we were working on both loose leash walking and changing his reaction to very close cars.

Is Cooper completely issue-free at this point? No. We were near a quiet road. Not a lot of cars went by and Cooper was tired. So, Cooper’s owner needed to continue practicing with him in different spots at different distances. She needed to go to less quiet spots and practice. She needed to make sure that their daily walks were on quiet road and that she had her treats with her.

Eventually, she was able to walk Cooper on busier streets, but it took time and patience. The things that she told me that she needed to remember were:

• Distance: If Cooper was reacting, she needed to increase her distance between them and the cars.
• Level of Distraction or the number of cars that go by (and how fast they were going). When retraining Cooper, she needed to keep in mind that he was not ready for busy roads. So, she kept an eye out for quiet roads and would drive to places that worked for them.

Stays: What does distance mean?

There are two types of distance in stay work.

Type 1: Distance between you and your dog

This type seems pretty obvious, right? This term can also mean where your body is in relation to the dog. So, standing in front, standing to the side and standing in back are all important. Be sure to practice distance from your dog at each spot!

The distance between you and your dog needs to be built up slowly. The amount of distractions in an environment can impact how well your dog does with distance stays.

Type 2: Distance between your dog and distractions

It is important when training stays to remember that low distraction environments are easier to train in than high distraction environments.

But, we can help our dogs learn to work in a high distraction environment by increasing the value of the reward and increasing the distance between ourselves and the distractions.

For instance, if I am working on stays near a busy playground, I will first pick a safe spot far away from the playground. Then, over time, I will slowly decrease the distance between the dog and the playground. It is far better to proceed too slowly than to go too quickly.

If the stay becomes difficult for your dog (they are not paying attention or break the stay a few times), then move 5 feet away from the distraction and try again. If you are still not getting a good 1-2 second stay, then increase distance more.

Breaking stays are a sign of:

• Too much distraction
• Length of stay is too long
• Distance between you and the dog is too far
• Not enough reward
• Not enough practice

If you constantly have to put the dog back in a stay, then try changing one or more of the above to lower criteria (shorter length, distance, fewer distractions) and using a higher value treat.

Stay - Part 1

A very brief overview!

Stays have three major components: distance, duration and distraction.

Distance: This is the amount of space between you and your dog.

Duration: This is the amount of time that a dog holds its stay.

Distraction: This is what is going on in around the dog while it is doing its stay.

For beginning stays, we only change one component at a time. So, if we are standing close to our dog, we can ask for a longer stay or we can add a distraction, but not both at the same time. If we are standing away from our dog, we should have the duration and the distractions as low as possible.

For more advanced dogs, we can change more components at a time.

When working on stays, we need to be able to reward in position. This means into the dog’s mouth when the dog is doing a sit-stay or between the dog’s front feet when doing a down-stay.

If you are using a clicker, remember that a click marks he end of the behavior, so your dog will/can break the stay. Training a release word (OK), which is different than your clicker/marker word (YES), is useful.

Some do’s and don’t’s:

Do reward in position.

Don’t drill too many stays at once (or boredom will set in).

Do treat before the dog has broken the stay. In fact, it is better to treat long before you think your dog will break its stay than to keep re-cueing the stay.

Do work with one beginner dog at a time.

Don’t try to lump stay behavior. In other words, take your time! A five second stay is great at first, but don’t try to jump from there to a 2 minute stay! Or, one foot away from your dog does not translate to 20 feet.