Granted no canine problem generates as much scientific, political, and media attention as canine aggression, especially when it involves people. But when it comes to possessing the potential to destroy or prevent the development of a mutually rewarding human-animal bond, separation anxiety shares top billing on my list.
Most of us take an “I know it when I see it” approach to separation anxiety. As a result, the same behavior that fits one person’s definition may not fit someone else’s. What Jane perceives as a wantonly destroyed couch, her sister Mary may dismiss as a sign of normal puppy behavior.
In general though, I think it’s safe to say that for most of us the phrase “separation anxiety” elicits mental images of anything dogs do when left alone that we don’t like. The more extroverted anxious canine’s rap sheet includes chewing a wide variety of articles, many of which often carry the owner’s scent. These behaviors may lead people who don’t understand what these behaviors communicate to accuse of the dog of being spiteful, mean, or worse. Other dogs may mark with urine or stool, bark or howl like banshees, dig holes in outside enclosures, or scratch at rugs, bedding, or interior doors, window sills or frames when confined indoors. Other dogs (and sometimes the same dogs) will counter-surf, get into garbage or recyclables, or steal clothing or other personal human belongings and hide them or use them for bedding. More introverted anxious dogs may drool, whimper and whine, chew, scratch or lick themselves (even to the point of creating sores), vomit, or have loose stools or diarrhea. As if things weren’t complicated enough, the stress experienced by these dogs may lead to medical problems and vice versa: medical problems that make a dog feel more vulnerable may trigger bond changes that result in the stress that causes separation anxiety. It’s this mixed bag of definitions and symptoms that contributes to the challenge.
The specific causes of separation anxiety are as varied as the dogs and the people with whom those dogs share their lives. Factors such as breeding, early care from canines as well as humans, and most certainly the way we interact with our dogs on a daily basis all may affect how they respond in our absence. Puppies in particular are often so doggone cute it’s difficult not to want spend as much time with them as possible. Some socialization programs even urge us to get out and about with them and introduce them to all kinds of novel experiences and people. But then the vacation or summer ends, school starts, work schedules change, and suddenly the puppy must be left alone. That’s when the trouble begins.
- A stress-preventing tip for those whose puppies and dogs almost certainly will be by themselves at some time in their lives: If we provide them with a mentally and physically secure environment, a few toys, and the freedom to learn to play by themselves, the ability to do so will ensure that, while they may need to spend time alone, they’ll never be lonely.
Because separation anxiety may function as a stealth behavioral problem in shelter and rescue dogs, its presence may generate much adopter frustration that gets the new relationship off to a rocky start. Sometimes previous owners fail to mention the problem when giving up the dog in hopes that the behavior won’t happen in the new environment. Other times inexperienced shelter folks may perceive a previous owner’s admission that the dog spent most of his times outdoors as meaning the dog was abused instead of delving into why this occurred. A fair number of dogs start out inside but then their destructive behavior when left alone leads to their banishment outdoors. Unfortunately if the dog is presented to the public as “abused” in his previous home, that may cause kind-hearted but naïve adopters to interact with their new pet in a manner that will increase instead of decrease the probability that his destructive behavior will recur in their absence.
Further complicating matters for potential adopters, shelter or foster environments usually include people and/or other animals around most of the time. Consequently those with the dogs at that time legitimately can claim that a particular dog showed no sign of separation anxiety while with them. Even so, wise adopters devote as much time to ensuring that their new dogs are content when left alone as they do to exposing the animal to novel events. That way they can identify and address any behavioral issues immediately instead of getting blindsided by them when the vacation or summer ends and they go back to school or work.
Regardless of the specific elements in these cases, the combination of problematic canine behaviors and negative human emotions they create may quickly reach crisis proportions.
Over many years I’ve seen numerous treatments come and go, some of which may work for some canine and human pairs at least for a while and with or without negative side-effects. But regardless which method is used, all of their experienced creators acknowledge that it takes time for a dog to establish a new behavioral pathway and that nothing we can do will speed up that natural physiological process, no matter how anxious and impatient we may be. Nor are there any magic devices or drugs that can accomplish that process some other way. But what we can do is consistently make those changes that best support new pathway formation instead of hindering it.
Think of the construction of behavioral pathways in the brain as a process comparable to a dog’s badly fractured leg healing. Just as periodically banging into that that leg or allowing the dog to engage in activities where this may occur prevents the fragile bony framework from properly forming and then solidifying, inconsistent behavioral and bond responses on our parts have the same detrimental effects. Worse, not only do inconsistent bond and behavioral responses disrupt the formation of the desired behavioral pathway, it reinforces the undesirable one. Talk about a waste of time and energy!
The nice thing about bond-based approaches to separation anxiety compared to methods that focus primarily or even exclusively on only changing the dog is that these also enable us to take advantage of the caregiver placebo effect. And when we do this, we literally become an active participant in the healing process in mind as well as body.
In the over-all scheme of things, using a bond-based approach to resolving challenges of separation anxiety has much to offer. Unlike drugs, the use of the bulk of which is experimental in dogs, there are no sometimes expensive pre-drug screening tests and then routine testing to monitor the dog for negative physiological side-effects. Unlike many of these drugs, it’s also nonpolluting. Instead it uses an ancient system of interspecies communication that’s existed for thousands of years. But it does require patience and self-control on our parts, or a sincere willingness to develop those skills…
Which ironically brings us back to the bond. It’s the awareness that on some level a special, albeit sometimes inexplicable, connection exists with this dog in spite of his or her behavior that inevitably makes such an effort worthwhile.
Granted no canine problem generates as much scientific, political, and media attention as canine aggression, especially when it involves people. But when it comes to possessing the potential to destroy or prevent the development of a mutually rewarding human-animal bond, separation anxiety shares top billing on my list.
Most of us take an “I know it when I see it” approach to separation anxiety. As a result, the same behavior that fits one person’s definition may not fit someone else’s. What Jane perceives as a wantonly destroyed couch, her sister Mary may dismiss as a sign of normal puppy behavior.
In general though, I think it’s safe to say that for most of us the phrase “separation anxiety” elicits mental images of anything dogs do when left alone that we don’t like. The more extroverted anxious canine’s rap sheet includes chewing a wide variety of articles, many of which often carry the owner’s scent. These behaviors may lead people who don’t understand what these behaviors communicate to accuse of the dog of being spiteful, mean, or worse. Other dogs may mark with urine or stool, bark or howl like banshees, dig holes in outside enclosures, or scratch at rugs, bedding, or interior doors, window sills or frames when confined indoors. Other dogs (and sometimes the same dogs) will counter-surf, get into garbage or recyclables, or steal clothing or other personal human belongings and hide them or use them for bedding. More introverted anxious dogs may drool, whimper and whine, chew, scratch or lick themselves (even to the point of creating sores), vomit, or have loose stools or diarrhea. As if things weren’t complicated enough, the stress experienced by these dogs may lead to medical problems and vice versa: medical problems that make a dog feel more vulnerable may trigger bond changes that result in the stress that causes separation anxiety. It’s this mixed bag of definitions and symptoms that contributes to the challenge.
The specific causes of separation anxiety are as varied as the dogs and the people with whom those dogs share their lives. Factors such as breeding, early care from canines as well as humans, and most certainly the way we interact with our dogs on a daily basis all may affect how they respond in our absence. Puppies in particular are often so doggone cute it’s difficult not to want spend as much time with them as possible. Some socialization programs even urge us to get out and about with them and introduce them to all kinds of novel experiences and people. But then the vacation or summer ends, school starts, work schedules change, and suddenly the puppy must be left alone. That’s when the trouble begins.
Because separation anxiety may function as a stealth behavioral problem in shelter and rescue dogs, its presence may generate much adopter frustration that gets the new relationship off to a rocky start. Sometimes previous owners fail to mention the problem when giving up the dog in hopes that the behavior won’t happen in the new environment. Other times inexperienced shelter folks may perceive a previous owner’s admission that the dog spent most of his times outdoors as meaning the dog was abused instead of delving into why this occurred. A fair number of dogs start out inside but then their destructive behavior when left alone leads to their banishment outdoors. Unfortunately if the dog is presented to the public as “abused” in his previous home, that may cause kind-hearted but naïve adopters to interact with their new pet in a manner that will increase instead of decrease the probability that his destructive behavior will recur in their absence.
Further complicating matters for potential adopters, shelter or foster environments usually include people and/or other animals around most of the time. Consequently those with the dogs at that time legitimately can claim that a particular dog showed no sign of separation anxiety while with them. Even so, wise adopters devote as much time to ensuring that their new dogs are content when left alone as they do to exposing the animal to novel events. That way they can identify and address any behavioral issues immediately instead of getting blindsided by them when the vacation or summer ends and they go back to school or work.
Regardless of the specific elements in these cases, the combination of problematic canine behaviors and negative human emotions they create may quickly reach crisis proportions.
Over many years I’ve seen numerous treatments come and go, some of which may work for some canine and human pairs at least for a while and with or without negative side-effects. But regardless which method is used, all of their experienced creators acknowledge that it takes time for a dog to establish a new behavioral pathway and that nothing we can do will speed up that natural physiological process, no matter how anxious and impatient we may be. Nor are there any magic devices or drugs that can accomplish that process some other way. But what we can do is consistently make those changes that best support new pathway formation instead of hindering it.
Think of the construction of behavioral pathways in the brain as a process comparable to a dog’s badly fractured leg healing. Just as periodically banging into that that leg or allowing the dog to engage in activities where this may occur prevents the fragile bony framework from properly forming and then solidifying, inconsistent behavioral and bond responses on our parts have the same detrimental effects. Worse, not only do inconsistent bond and behavioral responses disrupt the formation of the desired behavioral pathway, it reinforces the undesirable one. Talk about a waste of time and energy!
The nice thing about bond-based approaches to separation anxiety compared to methods that focus primarily or even exclusively on only changing the dog is that these also enable us to take advantage of the caregiver placebo effect. And when we do this, we literally become an active participant in the healing process in mind as well as body.
In the over-all scheme of things, using a bond-based approach to resolving challenges of separation anxiety has much to offer. Unlike drugs, the use of the bulk of which is experimental in dogs, there are no sometimes expensive pre-drug screening tests and then routine testing to monitor the dog for negative physiological side-effects. Unlike many of these drugs, it’s also nonpolluting. Instead it uses an ancient system of interspecies communication that’s existed for thousands of years. But it does require patience and self-control on our parts, or a sincere willingness to develop those skills…
Which ironically brings us back to the bond. It’s the awareness that on some level a special, albeit sometimes inexplicable, connection exists with this dog in spite of his or her behavior that inevitably makes such an effort worthwhile.