13 Sure Fire Ways to Fix It
Separation anxiety in dogs according to dog psychology occurs when a dog believes itself to be the leader of a family group and becomes protective of even its owners in such a way that, when the owners disappear, the dog is filled with stress at not knowing where those it watches after are gone. To fulfill its narrow sense of responsibility, not knowing where those it protects disappeared, the dog starts chewing up things, barking, panting, whining or worse. These are all signs of separation anxiety. The dog is stressed over the unknown and worried over those it feels responsible for.
There are degrees of separation anxiety in dogs. Dogs can start heavily panting, scratching at the locked crate, peeing in the crate, defecating in the crate, barking ceaselessly, busting through screens, jumping off balconies to get to their departing owners. They’ll do some amazing things under the strain of anxiety. When severe enough of a problem, it has led to having to consider returning them to shelters and even putting them to sleep over unresolved separation anxiety issues. So, a solution to this problem is of immense importance.
Not All Anxiety Is Separation Anxiety in Dogs
It is of vital importance to make a distinction between a dog being anxious over a separation from someone it wants to be with versus being distressed over having to face isolation, which is when the dog merely doesn’t like to be alone. Separation problems are generally harder to fix than isolation problems.
A dog that simply doesn’t like to be alone, may simply need to discover better things to do while alone. One that becomes anxious over being separated from its pack, however, is a different matter. In packs, the dog in charge is the one no one has to worry about. If your dog does not consider you to be the lead in your house, then it will play this role on you for the pack and it will grow anxious over your absence, potentially becoming very harmful just to get to you as soon as possible.
You need to deal with dog anxiety symptoms and demonstrate to your dog that you are the leader in the pack and that you need not be protected when stepping away from it. You do this through counter-conditioning: you turn the perceived negative of you leaving the house into a positive that the dog can experience only while you’re gone. Below are 13 sure fire ways to eliminate all but the most severe cases of separation anxiety, by teaching your dog how to love being alone and apart from you.
13 Sure Fire Ways to Help You Eliminate Separation Anxiety in Dogs
- Desensitize the dog to your departure cues. So, you pick up your keys from the table and the dog starts jumping and barking and whining. It’s time to begin a desensitization routine with your dog, so that these cues no longer have an effect on the dog. You start by picking up the keys and not leaving. You pick them and take them with you to another room in the house. You grab them and sit to watch TV. You start disassociating them from departures. You do this again and again and again, until the dog doesn’t know whether you’re leaving just because you took the keys. Do the same with other cues that you’re aware the dog has picked up from your departure routine. Get up one Saturday and prepare as if for work. Shower, put your work clothes on, grab your keys. Then get back to bed. Don’t let the dog think you’re going to work just because of all these cues. Get the dog to become insensitive to them.
- Desensitize the dog to your actual departure. At some point, nevertheless, you will have to leave. Long before that, start leaving the dog alone for short periods of time. Do it constantly, where you leave for tiny intervals of 5, 10, 15 seconds and gradually increase to 30 and 60 seconds before you return. Work your way into longer periods and repeat the pattern with different lengths of time. Do it until the dog becomes exhausted in realizing there is no problem in you leaving since you always shortly after return anyway. When you leave, however, do not even mind the dog. And don’t mind the dog when you return either.
- Avoid excited hellos and good-byes if your dog is suffering from anxiety. Cut down the excitement and make the moment of separation decisive. If your dog is suffering from degrees of separation anxiety, stop rousing it with questions that get it all energetic. The goal is to calm the dog down, not stir it further into excitement. Ignore the dog the moment you arrive. Don’t encourage upon arrival finding a panting, drooling, and prancing mess greeting you. Do not pay attention to the dog until it is calm. Be the independent agent that needs not report to the leading member of the pack. Teach the dog who is boss.
- Exercise the dog intensely at least 30 minutes before your departure. A tired dog is a less anxious dog. Structure-walk the dog. This means no sniffing, no marking, no lunging, no barking, no greeting, just marching and the dog at your heel. If you can’t do the walk yourself, get a professional dog walker to do it for you, but tired out the dog before you need to leave.
- Crate train the dog to love being in its own cage. Do it for the safety of the dog and that of your own property. The dog should know how to go in and out of the crate on command, and to be inside the crate whether with the door open or not even while you’re at home. Keep the crate completely clear of any articles, such as cushions or fabric toys if you have a very anxious dog that you leave behind. An anxious dog will destroy and eat anything. This can prove deadly. Teach the dog to love its crate well before teaching it to go stay there for any reason, especially your departure. The dog must learn that its crate is a wonderful place to be because it is safe and enjoyable and exclusive to it.
- Teach a dog how to be alone. Since dogs are social animals, they require training to become comfortable being alone for several hours. Positive reinforcement can be quite successful at this. As part of crate training a dog, for instance, use frozen kongs filled with treats to keep the dog’s mind busy while inside the crate. Stuff these attention-getters with salmon or if you use hollowed out bones, fill them with moist dog food. Freeze them and leave them in the cage with the dog before you begin your departure desensitization exercises. Give these special treats only when you leave and no other time. This way the dog associates an enjoyable experience with your departure.
- Use gates to limit the dog’s space while you’re present at home. Control the spaces of your house. Limit the dog to certain spaces for certain times of the day. This teaches the dog to be alone. Make the place comfortable where the dog will be by itself. Place its crate there, toys, kongs, food. You may need to train the dog to its own gated space in a comparable way to how you train it for use of its crate. This way the dog won’t be barking at you to get out of its gated area just to be with you. This is yet another reason why it’s important to keep the crate in that area and crate train the dog to use it there.
- Create an ambience of quiet and calmness inside the home. If you want the dog’s energy level to be low while at home rather than feeling like at a doggy park where it can run wherever it wants and chase whatever it wants, then work at making the mood in the house relaxed and quiet. Choose your music to match. There are some scents that ease a dog’s tension. In fact, some aromatherapy essential oils are designed specifically for dogs for this purpose, such as lavender, cedar, lemongrass, chamomile, neem, frankincense and benzion. Build an ambience of tranquility before you depart and leave it so once you’re gone, and the dog will experience far less anxiety.
- Treadmill walk your dog. Very anxious dogs need more structured exercise. This means that the dog is not getting overly excited, such as by catching a ball or chasing a frisbee, but is getting a real work out that leaves it exhausted. Depending on the size and age of the dog, a simple walk simply won’t do for this. The dog needs to be placed on a treadmill and walked long enough to deplete him of whatever energy it will want to use to get self-destructive if you leave the animal alone.
- Use a bark collar (without a citronella spray) that gives split second stimulus whenever the dog needs correction. A dog’s smelling sense is incredibly sensitive. Bark collars that use a citronella spray to dissuade a dog from barking leave a lingering odor in the dog’s nose long after the correction occurred, only confusing the dog as to what else it’s doing wrong for the unpleasant odor to remain. Use a bark collar that does not dispense citronella. A bark collar is a type of training collar and useful tools for extreme cases, when you fear you will have to get rid of your dog if it doesn’t stop troubling the neighbors. It literally discourages the dog from barking. Use it while you’re still present in the house. When the correction ends, draw the dog’s attention to something else, such as its kong, toys or cage where it can feel safe. Although you can leave a bark collar to work automatically, it’s better to maintain the control of the e-collar so that you know what degree of negative reinforcement you’re applying and how effective it’s being on the dog.
- Stop all whining with a swift attention-getting poke or peck of your fingers to the dog’s backside or underside or by use of a pet convincer (dog training device that projects a puff of air). By this technique while bluntly saying “Quiet!”, you are suddenly knocking the dog out of its immediate state of mental insularity and resetting its mind to accept additional information, namely “Be quiet! Whining is unacceptable. Nothing wrong is happening here except your whining.” If done consistently, this form of negative reinforcement often is sufficient to convince some dogs of who is boss and to relieve them from their anxiety.
- Use a pet sitter if you are going to leave the dog alone for too many hours or separation anxiety training is still in its infancy. There are cases where a dog takes quite a bit of time to train to enjoy being inside its crate and alone for several hours. And yet there are cases where you simply cannot leave a dog alone for 10 to 12 hours without fearing returning home to a royal mess. In such cases, pet sitters are a godsend. They can arrive to your house and remove the dog from the premises. Some doubling as dog walkers will exercise your dog before housing them in their own kennels or corrals for several hours before returning them to you or waiting for you to drive by to pick them us, just as if they’ve been in school. It is an expense, no doubt. But it may be the only way for you to be able to keep your dog while it learns to stay alone longer without separation anxiety.
- If a behaviorist doesn’t succeed at helping your dog modify its behavior, consult a vet for dog medication. All of the above techniques can help you curb various degrees of separation anxiety in dogs. But all dogs are different. Some will readily respond to positive reinforcement techniques and quickly learn not to worry about your leaving. Other will require more diligence and time, maybe even some negative reinforcement techniques before they’re convinced that they have no reason to worry about you leaving and stop minding having to remain home alone. However, in exceptional cases, some dogs cannot be calmed down without professional help from behaviorists experienced in the treatment of fear through desensitization and counter-conditioning techniques. And even then, their training may not take without help from anti-anxiety medication to help condition to the dog to its new behavior, for which you will need a prescription from a veterinarian. It’s important to remember, nevertheless, that medication is not a solution. It is a tool that relaxes the dog sufficiently so that training in behavior modification can take place. Both separation anxiety training and medication go together for extreme cases.
Treatment for a dog with separation anxiety aims at addressing the dog’s underlying causes for anxiety. This requires training the dog to know you are boss and do not need it to be anxious on your behave when you disappear from its side, plus teaching the dog to bear even enjoy being alone for several hours. To achieve this, set your surrounding so that the dog can experience a time of quiet and relaxation and enjoyment in your absence that will avoid causing it anxiety from fear and loneliness. For more information on the topic from a professional dog trainer’s perspective, you may be interested in the following read titled “Don’t Leave Me! Step-by-Step Help for Your Dog’s Separation Anxiety” available below at Amazon.com.
