What is Dog Separation Anxiety?
In some ways, dogs are like humans.
Like us, dogs like routine and often get stressed over large changes in their schedule. This is especially true for negative changes that they do not expect, and do not understand.
Dog separation anxiety usually occurs when our own schedule shifts, thereby disrupting the amount of time we are able to spend with our dogs. When faced with such disruptions, dogs may get stressed and become destructive.
A dog with separation anxiety may chew up household items, and urinate or defecate in the house.
Note that these are displacement behaviors, that occur as a result of stress. They are NOT the result of dominance, vengeance, or maliciousness.
To fix separation anxiety issues, we want to target and reduce our dog’s stress, and not punish him with physical corrections. Pain or dominance based punishment, will often increase stress, and thereby worsen our dog’s anxiety problems.
Dealing With Dog Separation Anxiety
Sadly, we will sometimes get busy, need to travel, or work long hours to meet a deadline. After all, we must go out in the wild world, so that we may put kibble on the table.
Therefore, how do we deal with separation anxiety, and make things better for our dogs?
Dog Separation Anxiety 1 – Daycare
One of the best ways to deal with schedule changes, is to put our dog in daycare. In this way, he gets the company of humans and dogs, while we are away. He also gets to brush up on his dog-to-dog, and dog-to-human socialization skills.
Before committing to a daycare center, it is important to drop by for a tour of the facilities. Ensure that the place is clean, well supervised, and suited to our dog’s temperament. However, even a well-run daycare center may sometimes fail to detect dogs that carry common ailments, such as kennel cough, puppy warts, demodectic mange, and fleas.
Therefore, make sure that our dog is up to date on his vaccinations, before putting him in daycare or boarding.
A dog who is up to date on shots, may still catch something from playing all day long with so many different dogs. This is especially true for puppies and younger dogs, who still have developing immune systems. Unfortunately, this is a risk we must accept, if we decide to put our dog in daycare.
Dog Separation Anxiety 2 – Pet sitter
If we are uncomfortable with sending our dog to a public daycare, we can also hire a pet sitter to keep his separation anxiety issues at bay. The sitter can walk him, and keep him company at home.
Make sure our pet sitter is insured, qualified, has good references, and most importantly, gets along well with our dog.
Although they may be more expensive, I try to find sitters who are also dog trainers. This means they have more experience with dog behavioral issues, and can better deal with a misbehaving, stressed, or fearful canine.
Make sure to give the pet sitter our cellphone number, the location of our vet, as well as special instructions for our dog, including allergies and important house rules.
Dog Separation Anxiety 3 – Try to keep to a schedule
Another way to alleviate separation anxiety issues, is to try and keep to a fixed schedule.
During holidays, go out and visit some friends, so that our dog has his usual alone time. If we have to be away unexpectedly, have a familiar friend come over to fill in for us.
If the change in routine is temporary, we can also have our dog stay over at a friend’s house. First, try bringing our dog over for several short visits. In this way, we are around to make introductions, and help him with the transition to a new environment.
If all goes well, do short stay-overs, then slowly lengthen the time.
Dog Separation Anxiety 4 – Exercise our dog
I take my dog out for a long walk before leaving. This will give him an opportunity to fully relieve himself outside, and also put him in a more restful state of mind.
I take my dog out for another walk, after I get home. Exercise helps to relieve stress, and gives our dog important mental and physical stimulation. Neighborhood walks also help to socialize our dog to a variety of people, objects, other dogs, and other animals.
If we had to stay cooped up in the house all day, we would get cabin fever as well.
Dog Separation Anxiety 5 – Desensitize our dog
Get our dog accustomed to us leaving the house.
First, I start with the ritual of getting my handbag and keys, as well as wearing my shoes. I walk to the door, then sit back down. I repeat this many times throughout the day, so that my dog gets comfortable with my “leaving the house” ritual.
Once this occurs, I walk to the door, leave, and come back to the room. I repeat this until he is relaxed again, then slowly lengthen the time that I am away.
When I achieve an away-time of about 15 minutes, I get in my car, circle the block, and come back.
Make leaving and coming home as low-key as possible.
When I return home, I ignore my dog until he is calm and resting. In this way, he does not spend all day anticipating my return. I also leave him with many interactive, chew-safe food toys, so that he has something interesting to do when home alone.
Dog Separation Anxiety 6 – Dog Medication
There are a variety of medications available, to help treat dog separation anxiety symptoms. However, to be effective, these medications must be used together with a behavior modification program, which includes a rigorous exercise and desensitization routine.
The medication alone will not solve our dog’s anxiety issues. However, it can help mute the symptoms, so that our dog can benefit from the accompanying retraining process.
Dog medication should only be used under the direction of a vet, and only for the short-term.
Dog Separation Anxiety
Dealing with dog separation anxiety will take time, and a lot of patience.
In general, prevention is better than cure. Therefore, we want to start desensitization exercises as early as possible, before any anxiety problems develop.
If we have a very busy lifestyle, consider volunteering at our local shelter or SPCA instead of buying a puppy.
Only get a dog when our schedule becomes more regular, so that there is less danger of separation anxiety, and other behavioral issues.
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Hey I have a 1.5 yr old beagle who has bad seperation anxiety we are not sure how to deal with as he is much older now my problem is that we just got a 8 week old shiba and I worry that he will try to follow the beagles actions is that a correct assumption? Anything I can do to help? Also my shiba will not go to the bathroom on any puppy pads or fake grass just goes inside and outside when we take him, when he makes a mistake I tell him no an place him on the pad then take him outside is there something I’m doing wrong? Lastly he loves to play with our beagle but I worry if we let him play too roughly he will be aggressive towards other dogs as well. Anything to do so he don’t become aggressive but can still play with his buddy?
Hello Gordana,
In terms of separation anxiety, desensitization exercises can be helpful. I did that with Shiba Sephy when he was young, and he is now pretty good being home alone. Sephy also really likes a fixed routine and consistent rules. He is less stressed when he knows what to expect from everyone in the family – in terms of both schedule and behavior.
http://shibashake.com/dog/separation-anxiety-dog-why-how-reduce-dog-stress#desensitize
In terms of potty training, what has helped with my dogs is not only to ‘correct’ mistakes, but also to reward them really well for doing their business outside. As soon as they are done with potty outside, I mark the behavior (Good) and reward them with attention, food, and a fun game. Here is more on puppy potty training.
In terms of playing, I always supervise play sessions and have many play breaks. This keeps everyone from getting over-excited. I do not allow any kind of bullying. I also do group obedience training sessions, so that they learn it is most rewarding when they are calm and working together. Here is more on what I do to introduce a new dog.
Hugs to your dogs and congratulations on your new Shiba puppy!
Hi, we have a 4 year old Cavashon. For the most part he’s absolutely the best dog ever! However, he has gotten into the habit of becoming agitated and stress when ANYONE leaves the house. If we’re home on a Saturday morning and I need to run an errand, but my husband is home, the dog can sense at leat 10-15 minutes before I leave and starts barking and running around, trying to nip at you to stay. It happens if either of us goes out alone, or when we leave together. It also happens when we have company and the company is leaving, he starts going crazy. I also mention, that when we are in the park and someone stops to pet him, when that person starts to leave, he gets very surly, growling, etc.
This behavior has developed over the last year, but it’s getting worse. Please help.
Thanks
Hello Joyce,
How does he react when he is led away by a leash before the person leaves?
Yeah, dogs are extremely observant and they know all the little things we do when we get ready to leave. Desensitization exercises can be helpful in these situations.
http://shibashake.com/dog/separation-anxiety-dog-why-how-reduce-dog-stress#desensitize
A variation on people desensitization exercises can also help get a dog accustomed to people coming and leaving. The key is to only expose the dog to a little of the stimulus at a time, so that he can remain calm for the duration. At the same time, we engage the dog in doing something else together with us, so that he focuses on us, instead of on the stressful external stimulus.
In the meantime, we want to set our dog up for success and carefully manage him so that he does not get exposed to stressful situations that will trigger his reactive behavior. The more a dog practices a behavior, the more it will become a habit.
hello. yeah. my dog keeps on trying to get over to my neighbors fence. ever scince they moved in she has been digging and trying to get over. i spend lots of time with her but she still is so devoted to get over there. why? please help
Hello Julie,
There are many reasons why dogs dig. My Sibes love to dig to hunt for mice and other earth critters. My puppy once dug and chased a mouse all the way to my neighbor’s yard. Now I place concrete blocks on my fence line so that she cannot dig over there.
Some things that can help with fence digging-
1. I let my dog’s dig in a large area at the back of my yard. Then I train them as to where it is ok to dig, and where it is not ok. In this way, they can still engage in fun digging, but not cause any damage.
2. Exercise helps a lot. The time my puppy dug over to my neighbor’s yard, was during vet-visit day and I only took her for a shorter daily walk. Now I make sure to take her for longer walks every day (1-2 hours).
3. I also take my dogs to the hill trails around my neighborhood, where there are many interesting smells and they can also dig for mice and such.
Hello! I hope someone still checks this and can help. My dog has this problem, but not at home, its in the daycare. I don’t want to place the whole blame on the daycare, since it would not be fair. My 7 month husky/mal is used to stay at home by himself for max 5 hours. However, today we decided to try daycare bc we would be gone more than the typical time. Now, when he is home he shows no sign of separation anxiety-he gets his snacks, we dont even overly say goodbye, we just simply leave. we have felt that by doing this, it has helped him get used to staying home by himself. when we come back he is quietly waiting in the kitchen, happy to see us, but never to the point where he shows anxiety.
However, today, we got a call a few hours later from the daycare stating that he is showing separation anxiety, but that he was playing well with all the dogs in the daycare when its play time. They suggested sedatives when he goes into kennels (which we do not want to do, seeing that he has never showed this problem at home alone). We then get a call again stating that we should pick him up because he starting howling and showing signs of anxiety, and they were afraid he might hurt himself. Now, I was becoming worried and upset because as professionals they should know how to handle situations like this especially if its his first day. Also, we specifically chose this daycare bc they featured all day play with a few rest breaks. Knowing that he loves to play with dogs, as long as his breaks (basically putting him in his kennel) wont go over an hour, he would be ok. However, it seemed as if they kept the dogs longer than that. Well in the end of the day, he showed separation anxiety. I would love for him to not have this at any daycare facility, but how do i fix this if he is absolutely fine at home? Should we just find daycare with all day play and no kennel boarding? the only reason we placed him in the daycare center is so he would have company, being that we would be away for more than 5 hours? any suggestions!?
thank you in advance!
Hello Stefania,
My Shiba Inu had a similar experience with daycare. In his case, he really likes his routine, and does not like sleeping in strange places, especially when we are not there. The other thing about daycare that did not suit Sephy is that he really likes energetic wrestling and high speed chase games, which most daycare places do not allow (for good reason).
An alternative to daycare that I tried is hiring a dog walker. She takes out a group of around 5 dogs to walk off-leash at a nearby park. Shiba Sephy does not have good recall, but he really loves other dogs, so that was how the dog walker got him to come back. I would not do off-leash walking with my Sibes because they have much higher prey drive and there is a greater chance that they would bolt after deer. However, most dog walkers also offer on-leash walking services.
The nice thing about group walking is that Shiba gets to play with other dogs, gets to go to the park, and after that he comes home to the house pretty tired out. The weakness with hiring a dog walker is that most of them use aversive techniques, which was the key reason we stopped this activity. Also, there are a wide range of dog walkers with different levels of skill. I made sure to get one with a lot of experience, supervised the dogs well, and who is insured. We met the dog walker at our house first, evaluated how she interacted with Sephy, and we also followed her on a couple of her walks.
In terms of all day daycare, I am not sure how that would go for a puppy. Puppies are not very good at monitoring their own activity level, and may just play, play, play and forget to rest.
I did visit one all-day play daycare when I was looking for places for Sephy. They told me that they supervise the dogs closely so that the dogs that were resting, did not get bothered by the other dogs. They also only accepted more calm or submissive dogs. In essence, they want to make sure that when a dog who does not want to play makes his/her wishes known, the other dog will back away. Sephy was not a good candidate.
Another possibility is to get a pet sitter to come over to the house.
Thank you for all your suggestions and help! I have just realized that my dog just loves the company, and that he loves spacious places. He knows how to stay at home alone, but not longer than 5 hours. We have just figured out to come home during lunch time and then leave again. As long as he has some interaction in the middle of the day he will be a-ok. I just was worried when they told me separation anxiety, but have never seen the signs of that even when we left him at home. I will def. look into pet sitters as well.
I must say your blog has helped me so much with the growth of my pup Lobo, from when Lobo was going through his puppy biting phases (around last October) and still find myself going to your blogs. thanks again!!
Thanks UnkCoothd. You make a very good point. Dogs can sometimes be forced into an alpha position when there are no rules or consistency in the household. Many dogs get stressed from this because situations arise in the human world that they are unequipped to handle. Many behavioral issues may ensue including not eating, guarding food, marking objects inside the house, etc. These behaviors usually persist even when people are home because such dogs feel stress all of the time. As you described, exercise, rules, and consistency are important to keep this from happening.
Hey shibashake great hub. I especially think number 3 is important. Another thing to mention is that only the alpha role in a pack is allowed to leave without the others. If a dog assumes the alpha role in its human pack the subordinates leaving can tend to cause separation anxiety and frustration that combined with a lack of exercise can lead to massive damage, defecation and other mayhem while the owners are away.