Separation Anxiety Overview
Separation anxiety is a fear of being left alone. This type of behavior is like a phobia or panic attack. It is a common behavior issue in dogs.
Dogs who can be left with any person without fear, technically have what is termed isolation distress. This is more common than the clinical condition of separation anxiety of dogs who are only comfortable with their immediate owner or two. But generally trainers and the public refer to all of these isolation distress behaviors simply as separation anxiety, so we will continue this practice in this course for simplicity and ease of understanding.
Other terms you may see to describe these behaviors include separation-related problems, isolation anxiety, separation reactions, separation-related distress, and separation anxiety syndrome.
Every case of separation anxiety should be considered severe, because the dog is suffering regardless of how severe their outward symptom behaviors may be - such as destroying the house or jumping out of windows.
Separation anxiety is a common behavior problem in dogs - diagnosed in 20-40% of dogs referred to behavior practices in North America (Flannigan & Dr. Dodman, 2001). Also it’s estimated that 33% of dogs are turned into rescues due to separation anxiety (Blackwell, 2006).
Common behaviors seen in relation to separation anxiety include:
Barking, whining, howling.
Destructive chewing - especially around doors or windows, since the dog is trying to escape and find their people.
Self-harm - from trying to escape (a crate, the house).
Urination/defecation in the house - especially in dogs who are already house-trained in general.
Anxiety before the owners leave.
Each dog is an individual and may exhibit some of these behaviors and not others.
To determine if your dog has separation anxiety we need to rule out other causes of these behaviors. For example, a dog may bark at home when left alone out of boredom, or destroy furniture as a fun activity as opposed to out of fear of being left alone. A dog might urinate in the house, because he’s not completely house trained rather than from panic of being alone.
First, have your veterinarian examine your dog for any potential medical illnesses - especially if the anxiety behavior symptoms appeared suddenly. Separation anxiety/isolation distress are clinical disorders, and therefore must be diagnosed by a veterinarian. They may be caused by, or have contributing factors from a medical issue - for example, a tumor, or gastrointestinal issue (like the dog swallowed a non-food object). If this is the case, then these medical issues must be treated in order to resolve the anxiety. We can’t treat behavior symptoms caused by medical diseases with training techniques.
It’s also important to note that professional dog trainers cannot recommend or prescribe medications; only veterinarians may perform these roles. A dog trainer may recommend a client go to their veterinarian for a medical consult; and general practitioner veterinarians may refer your dog to a veterinary behaviorist (a specialist in behavior and training). Any of these vets may prescribe behavioral medications for anti-anxiety to use in addition to training.
Next, we can perform an initial assessment to observe your dog’s body language and collect information on the individual anxiety behaviors your dog is exhibiting (including baseline behaviors when there is no fear/anxiety present). We have more information on this assessment later.
There are no quick fixes for separation anxiety.
“While it’s true that there are no quick tips or tricks to resolve separation anxiety, the potential for resolution is excellent when a proper behavior modification protocol is followed.”
This process has “…helped an inestimable number of dogs and those who love them, which demonstrates that separation anxiety resolution is indeed possible.” (DeMartini-Price, 2020, p. 12)