Tips for dogs with separation anxiety

Our schedules are changing just like the seasons.

Family activities of the summer, which included our dogs, are being replaced with everyone going their separate ways for the fall. The kids are heading off to school and you head off to work.

Everyone piles into the car and, as you pull out of the driveway, you take one last look back at the house. There he sits, all by himself, looking out the window, watching you all drive away.

Some dogs experience distress over being left alone. They may suffer from separation anxiety or isolation distress, which is the severe anxiety or stress your animal might experience when left home alone.

Pat Miller, CPDT, Whole Dog Journal, describes the most common signs of separation anxiety as "destructive behavior, house soiling and excessive vocalization. Dogs may also refuse to eat or drink when left alone, don't tolerate crating, pant and salivate excessively when distressed and go to great lengths to try to escape from confinement, with apparent total disregard for injury to themselves or damage to their surroundings".

Miller suggests the anxiety of separation is natural for young mammals when they are separated from their mothers and siblings and describes it as an adaptive survival mechanism.

"A pup who gets separated from his family cries in distress, enabling mom to easily find him and rescue him. In the wild, even an adult canine who is left alone is more likely to die - either from starvation, since he has no pack to hunt with, or from attack, since he has no pack mates for mutual protection."

These days, more dogs are left home alone, resulting in an increased number of dogs suffering from some degree of a separation distress disorder.

The HSUS reports separation anxiety may occur:

• When a dog accustomed to constant human companionship is left alone for the first time.

• Following a long interval, such as a vacation, during which the owner and dog are constantly together.

• After a traumatic event (from the dog's point of view) such as a period of time spent at a shelter or boarding kennel.

• After a change in the family's routine or structure, such as a child leaving for college, a change in work schedule, a move to a new home, or a new pet or person in the home.

Miller points out there is a continuum of separation distress. She notes stress over being left alone is not always a full-blown separation anxiety problem. Rather, "distress" indicates a lower intensity of stress behaviors when the dog is alone, while "anxiety" is an extreme panic attack.

The HSUS suggests a dog suffering from separation anxiety will typically have a dramatic response within a short time of (20-45 minutes) after their owners leave them.

Also important is the difference between isolation distress and separation distress. Miller describes isolation distress as meaning the dog doesn't want to be left alone. Any human will do for company, and sometimes even another dog will fit the bill.

True separation or anxiety means the dog is hyper-bonded to one specific person and continues to show stress behaviors if that person is absent, even if other humans or dogs are present.

Both Miller and the HSUS suggest ways to modify your dog's isolation distress or separation distress. These include the following:

• Exercise your dog well ahead of the time you leave. A tired dog has less energy with which to be anxious and destructive. End the exercise 20-30 minutes before you go so he has some time to settle down.

• Five minutes before you leave, give him a well stuffed Kong to take his mind off your imminent departure.

• Keep arrival and departures low-key. No huggy-kissy scenes. If he gets excited and jumps all over you when you arrive home, ignore him for the first few minutes, then calmly pet him.

• Diffuse your departure routine by doing the same things when you are not leaving.

• Mix up the steps of your departure routine.

• Practice as many absences as possible that last less than 10 minutes.

• Remove as many other stressors from your dog's world as possible to help him maintain his equilibrium: No choke chains, no shock collars, and no physical nor harsh verbal punishment. (That would be never).

• Work with a behavior professional to modify your dog's isolation or separation anxiety behaviors.

Our dogs aren't showing us these behaviors because he is angry or "paying you back," Miller notes.

"Remember that he's not choosing to do it out of spite or malice - he is panicked about his own survival without you, his pack, there to protect him. … He lives in the moment, and the moments that you are gone are long and terrifying."

The modification of your dog's isolation distress or separation anxiety takes a commitment. But, then again, having a dog is a commitment. We can do no less for them.

• The Buddy Foundation, 65 W. Seegers Road, Arlington Heights, is a nonprofit (501c3), all volunteer, no-kill animal shelter. For information, call (847) 290-5806 or visit www.thebuddyfoundation.