Back to school, part 2

The focus of this series is separation anxiety. Before addressing how to recognize, prevent, cope and treat separation anxiety it is important to remember that I, the author of this blog posting, am not an animal behaviorist. If you believe your dog has separation anxiety this series should help your recognize it and give you tips for treating, mollifying, and coping with it but you should consult your veterinarian for further assistence.

Separation anxiety is an evolutionary adaptation that encourages young animals to stay close to their social group for protection and care during development into adulthood. Most dogs will grow out of their need for the constant reassurance of their social group but some do not. Dogs may develop separation anxiety as the result of changes in their home environment such as moving, changes in schedule or routine, and alterations in the household composition (Burns). The longer the lifestyle disruption continues the greater the complexity of the dog's anxiety becomes making it essential to address the problem as soon as it is recognized (Flannigan, 2001).

All this leads to the question "How do I recognize separation anxiety?" Separation anxiety is akin to a panic attack in a person and often leads to frantic behavior. You dog misses you so much, is so frightened that they typically exhibit some of the following behaviors:

* Agitation while you prepare to leave that continues after you are gone (pacing and whining are typical examples)

* Panting and drooling

* Trembing

* Continuous barking or howling

* Dialated pupils

* House soiling

* Destructive chewing or digging (most frequently around doors or windows)

* An intense or exaggerated greeting, often frantic in nature

* Escape attempts in which they have been or are likely to injure themselves

* Self mutilation (usually from excessive licking or chewing)

* Depression

One study found that 72% of dogs with separtion anxiety displayed destructive behavior, 62% barked or howled to excess and 28% soiled the home (Flannigan, 2001). In most cases the dog's anxiety builds to a peak within thirty minutes of being left and may decrease with time but outside stimulus may trigger another escalation.

This is not to say that all dogs who are destructive, who vocalize or who have soil the house have anxiety. In most cases these dogs are merely misbehaving. Most of the damage a dog does to your home is born boredom; chewing on the legs of the coffee table is fun and if you aren't around to say it isn't allow then it must be just fine to taste that aged maple flavor. Furthermore, vocalization can be caused by a variety of stimuli such as squirrels, people passing, other dogs barking or any number of causes outside of anxiety. There are a number of potential causes for undesirable behavior and separation anxiety is not often the culprit.

Let me finish this description of separation anxiety with my own experience. One of my greyhounds is a posterchild for anxiety. He joined my life in late November and withing a couple of months I moved to a new house with a bigger yard thinking that he and my other two hounds would enjoy the space. I only had a little time with the dogs in the new space before I had to start a new job. All of my dogs are crated trained, I believe it is a fantastic tool and that, when employed properly, the crate becomes a place of security. Unfortunately, that was not the case with Boo.

As I got ready for work Boo became restless, he could not settle down in one spot and would follow me so closely that he was often touching me. When I crated the other two he would panic and I would have to walk him to his crate. As soon as the door closed he would begin to howl and by the time got home from work there would he spittle surrounding his crate. My new job was just shy of fulltime and on the days when I worked more than four hours Boo would have had terrible stress diarrhea and often I would spend over an hour scubbing the walls, the floor, the crate, shampooing the carpet, washing the bedding and bathing Boo before I could even get changed. As if that wasn't enough, Boo would shed his bedding and chew on the walls of his wire crate until gums bled and one had to be disposed because the wiring was bent and there were sharp gouges in the metal.

Ultimately I decided to leave him out of his crate because he was less likely to hurt himself and it was easier to clean up diarrhea that was only on the floor, not on the walls, the bedding and Boo himself. Once freed from his crate I muzzled Boo so he wasn't able to chew on anything but he did dig a hole in the carpeting by the front door and scratched the door and door frame where they met. This all took place beginning in 2003 and I am happy to say that after working with him for years I can safely leave the house for about four and a half hours without incident. It has taken a lot of time and patience but Boo still thinks the sun rises and sets because of me and I adore him completely. It has been a long road wrought with frustration but it has been totally worth it. Boo's separation anxiety was at the more extreme end of the spectrum and he still suffers from it today but we have both learned how to live with it and it has decreased in intensity but will never be completely gone.

Burns, Jessica "Canine Separation Anxiety and the Correlation and Impact to Shelters and Relenquishment"

Flannigan, G. & Nicholas, D. H. "Risk Factors and Behaviors Associated with Separation Anxiety in Dogs." JAVMA. 2001. Vol 219, pp. 460-466.