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.