Does your dog whine and cry every time you leave the house? Perhaps it starts before you can even put on your shoes. Have you ever come back to a shredded bed, or to get your keys and return to poo and pee even though you just took your dog out 10 min ago? If so, you may be dealing with a dog that is suffering from issues with being alone, more commonly known as Separation Anxiety. When exhibiting this type of behavior, it's important to remember that your dog is not being spiteful or trying to make you feel guilty. She is actually suffering from a panic attack. This is not just a figurative statement, in fact, cortisol levels in the blood and saliva increase in a dog suffering from anxiety. Many times, they are actually feeling panicked.

Separation anxiety is believed to affect 20% - 40% of all dogs presented to veterinary behavior specialists and has become even more common as we experience the effects of our second year of a global pandemic. Even dogs that had not previously suffered from alone time issues are beginning to have anxiety when their humans leave. Many of my clients rescued their dog during the last two years and due to the increased ability to work from home, have groceries and packages delivered, have rarely left their homes. Due to this unique set of circumstances, many fur babies spent ALL of their time with their guardians and now are having problems adjusting to any absence let alone a prolonged 8 hour work day absence. If you are finding that your dog is exhibiting any of these anxious behaviors, I recommend you seek a professional to help you develop a training program that allows your dog to gradually become desensitized to your leaving.

Throughout my training career I have often been asked how long it will take to help a dog with alone time issues and unfortunately, the answer is not a simple one. Behavior modification to gradually desensitize your pup to alone time is a process that is unique to each canine. Those of us in the CSAT community (Certified Separation Anxiety Training) like to refer to the training protocol as a “study of one”. There are so many different factors that can play into alone time issues. It is impossible to determine exactly how long the training will take and whether your dog is suffering from the more common isolation distress or the more specific separation anxiety. Timing will also affect how your training protocol is designed and executed. Even though there is no way to determine exactly how long the training will take, we are certain that this positive reinforcement protocol works. We are also aware that left unchecked, isolation distress does not go away. In fact, if not addressed, it will typically get worse and become more pronounced as your dog becomes more and more anxious.

So if you are considering going back to work and you think your dog might be suffering from being left alone then don’t hesitate. Reach out to a CSAT soon to get you and your furry best friend some relief.

Toni Woods, ABCDT, CSAT, CGC Evaluator
Owner
Spot On Training