Back to school, part 3

Today's installment about separation anxiety is going to focus on prevention but before we delve into the heart of the matter I wanted to revisit, briefly, my experience with Boo. It hasn't been twelve hours since the last posting and I have had a number of emails from friends and adopters who said they had no idea he has such an extreme reaction to being left. After about six months of working with him in conjunction with my veterinarian Boo improved remarkably. Today he watches me leave but doesn't pace, drool or vocalize, instead he lays down like most dogs would. He does get overly excited when I come home but he is not destructive and he is totally reliable in the house. Within six months of working with him Boo's symptoms were greatly alleviated and within a year he was essentially normal. He still gets upset if he is in a new environment and I leave him, like when his Auntie Jill babysits when I go out of town, but he settles down within an hour and enjoys himself while I am gone.

There are a number of things you can do that will help to prevent separation anxiety. Many of these suggestions will also help with dogs that have separation anxiety and they are all good habits to develop. First, when you bring your dog into a new environment, be it coming home for the first time, moving or visiting a friend, it is important to allow them time to explore and familiarize themselves with their surroundings. If you permit your dog some level of independence then they will rely on you less for comfort. This is one of the reasons why new owners are discouraged from trying to do too much with their dogs too soon. They should be permitted time to adjust to their new environment and you should be focusing on helping them ease the transition. Just because you act passively doesn't mean it isn't helping and maintaining a home life where you are not actively engaged all the time is essential to a healthy and well adjusted dog.

Second, keep your goodbyes and hellos low-key but affectionate. In a dog prone to anxiety highly emotional displays before leaving and upon returning may get them worked up as well. As much as you miss your dog going to work should not be as dramatic as a loved one being sent on military deployment. You will be home tonight, you will have food on the table, you will spend quality time with your dog walking them or playing a game. Before I leave my dogs I get all of the things I will need together and right before I walk out the door they get a quick scritch behind the ears and I tell them "Be good, I'll be back soon." Not only does this prevent them from getting excited before I leave but it is a queue that lets them know that today is like any other day, I am going to work, I will be home and we will continue our normal routine upon my return.

When I get home from I walk through the door, greet my dogs with a simple "Hi boys!," set down my things (sometimes groceries as well) and grab the leashes for a walk. As much as it is a relief to be home and as exciting as it is to see the dogs I don't feed their excitement with my own, instead I am calm and affectionate and their energy is channeled into a walk. Even if the walk is short by the time we get home the dogs return to their beds and I take care of getting changed, putting away groceries and preparing dinner. Ultimately, this is all to say that dogs are highly intuitive and if you are upset your dog is likely to pick up on that emotion, so calm loving departures and arrivals help dogs to feel safe and secure.

Third, set boundaries. It is essential that you are seen by your dog as the pack leader. Good things come from you; affection, treats, attention are all yours to give or to withhold. That's not to say that you should love your dog less but instead that they should get the things they want when you choose to give them, not when they make demands. Therefore behaviors such as begging, barking, whiing, pawing, and invasion of your space should not be rewarded. The last thing you want is an entitled dog making demands of you after a long day working so you can buy them designer beds, fancy collars, organic and grain free foods and the best treats. A dog that learns to be polite and understands that you give to them on your terms is less likely to have bouts of anxiety brought on by frustration.

All of these suggestions are designed to help create a sane level of independence in your dog. While they rely on you for their material needs they should not rely on you emotionally to the point of panic when you leave, allow your dog some freedom to explore while keeping an eye on them when introduced to a new place. Calm affection around comings and goings help them to know what to expect, especially when you slowly increase the time you are gone so that it isn't a complete shock to them when you're gone for hours. Setting boundaries reinforces that you are the alpha and that they cannot make demands but they may be rewarded for behaving how you expect. These are some of the most simple ways to prevent an over-attachment that may lead to separation anxiety but if you believe your dog may be suffering from separation anxiety these tips should be taken and implements only with the assistence of your veterinarian.

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.

Back to school, part 1

With school starting or just around the corner you've got new clothes for the kids, school supplies and fall sports or activities lined up but have you thought about getting your hound ready for the new fall schedule?

If the kids have been home most of the summer, you've taken time off and had a great vacation. Maybe your summer schedule is going by the wayside but for many of us fall ushers in another change in lifestyle. This can be a tough time for your dog, especially if they are a recent addition and you haven't had to leave them for an entire work or school day before.

Over the next week we're going to be giving you the benefit of our experience to help ease your dog into a new fall routine. Many of these tips are also helpful in trasitioning a new dog into your household. The underriding theme is the prevention of separation anxiety; forty percent of dogs referred to behaviorists are diagnosed with this condition (Overall & Dunham, 2001).

Overall, K. L., Dunham, A. E., & Frank, D. "Frequency of Nonspecific Clinical Signs in Dogs with Separation Anxiety, Thunderstorm Phobia, and Noise Phobia, Alone or in Combination." JAVMA. 2001. Vol 219, pp. 467-473.