Separation Anxiety in Dogs: Misbehaving When You Leave

Separation anxiety in dogs? Never heard of it? Paint a picture in your mind of this scenario. It is 6am in the morning and you are peacefully preparing to leave for work. The whole neighborhood is still silent as you start your car. The moment you start your engine, there it goes, loud barks emanating from inside your house. If this sounds like you, your canine friend might be suffering from separation anxiety. Separation anxiety in dogs affects around 20% to 40% of dogs brought to veterinary behavior specialists, making it more common than you would think.

Separation anxiety in dogs is a condition where the canine becomes chaotic or wreckful when feeling that it will be left alone. The troublemaking behavior is not limited to barking but could also range from howling, chewing, digging, or even trying to escape once it notices that the owner has left or is about to leave. Pets with this kind of behavior seemed to have stemmed from some kind of traumatic experience like when the owner went on a vacation for a week and decided to leave the pet alone, only to be fed and walked once a day by a neighbor. When the owner drives out of the garage, the separation anxiety in the pooch gets triggered as it remembers the time it was left alone for a long time in the house, not certain when its owner would be back. Genetics also plays a role with separation anxiety in canines. Some dog breeds, apparently, are also more prone to suffer from it.

Are you worried that your dog is suffering from separation anxiety? Check below the list of the following symptoms of this condition:

• Peeing and pooping inside the house only when owner is not home
• Peeing and pooping and then eating the wastes only when owner is not at home
• Barking and howling when it senses that the owner is about to leave
• Chewing household objects when owner is not home when usually the dog does not chew anything when owner is at home
• Trying to escape by attempting to dig or chew doorways or windows
• Walking in a fixed pattern like a circular one or a back and forth in a straight line one

Separation anxiety in dogs is not something that you as a dog owner should shrug off as harmless. If left unchecked, this behavior could cause long term damages to the dog. It could also be a problem to the owner especially if the dog exhibits destructive behavior. The worst case scenarios of this condition includes the dog getting sick from habitual eating of its excrement, broken teeth and injured paws from forcefully looking for an escape, or being lost or dying after successfully breaking out of your home. If you would like to know more about this condition, you might want to check out this more comprehensive article from ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).

Fortunately, separation anxiety in dogs could be managed. Below are the ways on how to deal with it:

1. Counterconditioning for Mild Cases 

   This is a method where you have to associate good things happening to your pet whenever you leave. This rewires the dog's fear to become a positive experience for it. An example of this would be buying your dog a puzzle toy filled with delicious food that will take for him around 30 minutes to figure out to be able to eat the food. An example of this puzzle toy is the Kong Chew toy that you will be stuffing with treats inside. It costs from around $12 to $24 depending on the right size for your pet. Note though that this will only work with dogs that has mild separation anxiety as others with more severe conditions would be too stressed out to play with the toy.

   

2. Desensitization and Counterconditioning for More Severe Cases

   This is a more complex method for dogs that requires the help of a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB) or a board-certified veterinary behaviorist(Dip ACVB). In this method, it is crucial to slowly make the dog comfortable to being alone by starting with many short separations that does not trigger the fear and then, little by little, do increments in the duration of the separations across many weeks of daily sessions. The professionals would create a customized plan for the desensitizing depending on the severity of the anxiety of the dog. These sessions typically range from $85-$150 per hour when done face to face and $25-$75 when done remotely.

   

If all the management solutions provided above seems too costly for you, here is an alternative solution to manage your dog's separation anxiety whenever you leave. Hire a pet sitter for free! Luckily for you, we offer our services of pet sitting for free. Here at FreePetSitters, our pet sitters are certified pet lovers who are willing to sit for you with the payment only being they get to care for your beloved dog. The difference with FreePetSitters from other sitting services is that our sitters are not ones that register on the website over some online verification methods but rather they are picked by our pet caring CEO personally, assessed carefully and rigorously by checking out their police verification documents and their prior experiences with pets. This is the reason why we only have a handful of sitters as each and everyone is ensured to provide the best sitting service for you in exchange for getting to take care of your pet. With this method, you are sure that there is always someone with your pet whenever you have to leave, thus, no separation anxiety in your canine best friend would occur.

At the end of the day, it is up to you to manage the separation anxiety in your dog whenever you have to leave. Choose wisely for the most cost-effective solution that works for you and your beloved pet!