Separation Anxiety
By Benah Stiewing
Separation Anxiety is a brutal behavior to experience for both you and your dog. Separation anxiety refers to a group of behaviors a dog will exhibit when left alone, from panting and pacing to ripping holes in the walls. For some dogs, their stress is relatively mild and you may not even realize your dog has anxiety around you leaving. But for others, separation anxiety can make everyday practices extremely difficult, like grocery shopping and going to work.
From the mildest case to the most severe, separation anxiety as a disorder has one underlying commonality: Panic. Your dog isn’t acting out of spite, they aren’t annoyed about your absence, and they aren't trying to punish you for going shopping without them. They are so panicked about being left alone that they can't control themself.
Imagine this scenario. You are driving through a green light, as casually as you like, minding your own business. Suddenly a car comes flying through the opposing red light, right at you. You slam on your brakes. The car swerves, misses you by a hair's breadth, and then proceeds to speed away. Sitting there, gasping, you notice your heart racing; your hands shake a little. Now ask yourself this: In the moment the car hurled toward you, could you have willed yourself to relax? Could you have ordered your heart not to pound? Of course not. You don’t have control over the panic that overtakes your body in a situation like that, nobody does. The brain floods the body with adrenaline to trigger its emergency response.
If you have a dog with separation anxiety, this is what they go through each and every time they are left alone. However illogical, excessive and disconnected from the reality of the situation that response is. Like us, dogs form strong social bonds, which is why the typical symptoms displayed with separation anxiety are those a dog would use to avoid being separated from their family: vocalizing, pacing, scratching, and Houdini-type escape attempts. These symptoms can bring about numerous problems, like complaints from neighbors, costly bills for destroyed property and frightening phone calls about your dog being loose in the neighborhood.
Your dog can’t just “get a grip” on their separation anxiety, but they can get better. How? In time, through a type of training called desensitization, your dog will learn that absences need not be a reason to panic. Desensitization refers to the act of changing a learner’s emotional response to one stimulus by pairing it with the emotional response of a different stimulus. In order to do this, we need to break down the behavior of your dog being alone into much smaller steps. We call these steps the Pre-Departure Routine. We systematically change your dog’s emotional response to these behaviors and then slowly build them together to create the entire behavior chain of leaving your dog alone. This process takes lots of time and dedication, but most dogs are able to make a full recovery from their separation anxiety.
While we’ve provided a light introduction into separation anxiety training, there is so much more to learn! If you have a dog who doesn’t have separation anxiety but you want to be proactive, consider watching Separation Anxiety Prevention Training Starts Now! This pre-recorded webinar follows our CEO, Amber, as she raises her puppy with separation anxiety prevention in mind. If you want additional support for you and your dog, consider working with a Certified Separation Anxiety Trainer (CSAT). Trainers with the CSAT credential are highly trained to support your dog recover from separation anxiety. This training generally occurs virtually, since there is no added benefit to in-person work when focusing on separation anxiety. Our top CSAT referrals are Beth Friedman with Canine Companion Consulting & Jackie Johnston with Believe in Your Dog. If your dog is suffering from separation anxiety, we strongly recommend reaching out to one of these excellent professionals for private training. We don’t currently have a CSAT trainer on our training team, but if you’d like to meet with us first to get our perspective on your dog’s case before seeing a specialist, we’d be happy to support you in a virtual consultation - just email us at admin@summitdogtraining.com to set up!
Summit Dog Training offers group dog training classes & private lessons in Fort Collins, Colorado, as well as online self-study courses & online private lessons for education on how to live the best life with your dog! If you are looking for more training support, please don’t hesitate to contact us! We’d love to help you and your dog get ready for any adventure.