Most dogs usually chew or play with their toys, sleep or barks from time to time when left at home. However, dogs with separation anxiety can make leaving the house or even the room an emotional and difficult problem to solve. Separation anxiety can cause them to whine or bark excessively, rush about the house, chew furniture, destroy blinds, rip up carpeting and etc.

When it is not separation anxiety?

Sometimes tearing the drywall, chewing your shoes or scratching the windows and doors is not separation anxiety, it is simply bad behavior or your dog has learned that it can spend a delightful time when you are not at home and can’t correct it.

In order to find out if your dog suffers from separation anxiety you may set up a video camera and see your dog being relaxed and doing the listed thing just for fun or whining, grinning and looking frustrated. If you don’t have a camera, quietly return to the house and simply look through the window. Dog with separation anxiety will have a dramatic anxiety response within a short time (20–45 minutes) after you leave it. But much of what is called “separation anxiety” is really boredom.

Does My Dog Have Separation Anxiety?

• The dog only chews these items when you’re gone. (If your dog chews a few goodies, like the couch, or chews on things even when you’re around, you have a house-proofing problem – see the other training tips for advice).
• The dog pees or poops inappropriately, sometimes in many locations.
• The dog barks continuously during the day by turns with whining.
• The dog always shows these behaviors when left alone, even for short periods (30 minutes or less).
• The dog is wild to greet you and is still stressed, anxious and clingy when you first arrive home.
• Destruction begins soon after you leave; or possibly again shortly before you come home.
• The dog cannot be isolated from you at any time, even in a different room with the door closed.
• The dog sleeps with you. (This does not mean that all dogs that sleep with their owners will get separation anxiety. It does mean that dogs that survive being apart from you at night can survive it during the day, too).
• The dog gets increasingly distressed as you prepare to leave.
• The dog is constantly following you and demanding your attention when you are home.

Why Dogs Have Separation Anxiety

There are no particular points to understand why some dogs are liable to separation anxiety and some don’t. It’s important to realize, however, that the destruction and house soiling that often occur with separation anxiety are not the dog’s willing to “punish” you for leaving him alone. In reality, they are actually part of a panic response.

Separation anxiety can appear

• in dogs that are not properly socialized (the dog may be afraid not to see you again and is worried about how it will survive)
• dogs that have been shuttled from one home to another (it may be afraid of being left alone in the house)
• dogs that have a more dominant relationship with you (she may be mad at you, her pack member, having gone away without her permission)
• dogs that are naturally nervous (a dog that has been through a burglary, earthquake, thunderstorm, fire or other traumatic event may be afraid of being without you just in case it happens again).

What To Do

The following tips can be used for the minor separation anxiety problem, but if it’s more serious they have to be mixed with desensitization techniques listed below.

• Keep arrivals and departures reserved. Try not to make a fuss of leaving or coming home. For example, when you arrive home, ignore your dog’s crazy antics for the first few minutes and then calmly pet him. It must be hard for you to do, but training your pet you’ve got to train yourself firstly.
• Leave the radio on. Your dog feels alone and abandoned, so soon after your leaving it starts paying attention to every sound outside hoping it’s you. Leaving the radio on will bring down his loneliness and distract his attention to what’s going on behind the door. Try to switch on classical music. Disputable radio station with loud opinion assertion can make the situation worse.

• Give your dog something that smells like you e.g. an old T-shirt that you’ve slept in recently or an old shoe.

• Establish a “safety cue”—a word or action that you use every time you leave that tells your dog you’ll be back. Dogs usually learn to associate certain cues with short absences by their owners. For example, when you take out the garbage, your dog knows you come right back and doesn’t become anxious. Therefore, it’s helpful to associate a safety cue with your short-duration absences. Be sure to avoid presenting your dog with the safety cue when you leave for a period of time longer than he can tolerate; if you do, the value of it will be lost.

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Desensitization Techniques

The primary treatment for more severe cases of separation anxiety is a systematic process of getting your dog used to being alone.

• Begin by engaging in your normal departure activities. If you do the same things before leaving such as put on your shoes and take the keys, vary this – pick up your keys and put on your shoes – but do not leave. Go to the couch and read a book. Repeat this step until your dog shows no distress in response to your activities.

• Do the written above and go to the door and open it, then sit back down.
• Step outside the door but leave the door open, then return.
• Finally, step outside, close the door, then immediately return. Slowly get your dog accustomed to being alone with the door closed between you for several seconds.
• Keep on repeating these steps until your dog no longer reacts to them. Continuance of this training will vary and depend on the seriousness of the problem. If at any time in this process your actions produce an anxiety response in your dog, you’ve proceeded too fast. Return to an earlier step in the process and practice this step until the dog shows no distress response, then proceed to the next step.
• As soon as your dog is tolerate to you being outside the door for a few moments, begin short-duration absences. This step involves giving the dog a verbal cue (for example, “I’ll be back”), leaving, and then returning within a minute. Your return must be low-key – no fuss or joyful exclamations! If he shows no signs of distress, repeat the exercise. If he appears anxious, wait until he relaxes to repeat the exercise. Gradually increase the length of time you’re gone.
• Once your dog can handle short absences (30 to 90 minutes), he’ll usually be able to handle longer intervals alone and you won’t have to repeat this process every time you are planning a longer absence.

What Won’t Help

• Punishing your dog. Especially after coming home. It may actually increase his separation anxiety.
• Crating your dog. It won’t stop him from urinating, defecating, howling and moreover he can injure himself in an attempt to escape from the crate.

If you have serious separation anxiety

Serious separation anxiety is indicated by a dog that does major property damage (chews holes through walls), injures himself in his anxiety (scratches or rubs paws or nose raw in digging or chewing), or stresses himself to the point of exhaustion during your absence. You will need to spend a lot of time teaching this type of dog so that he can survive being alone. In this case you might need the professional interference and hire a veterinarian.

Note: if you’re going to use some medications, such as the tricyclic antidepressants, buspirone and benzodiazepines (possibly clomipramine hydrochloride, “Clomicalm” or amitryptalline), they MUST be prescribed by a knowledgeable veterinarian. The medications will not work in the long-term without the desensitization.

Separation anxiety is not the result of disobedience or lack of training; it’s a panic response.

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