Understanding Separation Anxiety, SA-7

In the last blog, I talked about how the “I’ll be Back” training does and has helped so any dogs with separation anxiety. But, there is no one technique that does it all, including this one. Although I have a second technique in section five on the video, “Separation Anxiety, a Weekend Technique,” those are not the only ways I have solved separation anxiety in dogs. I am in the process of developing a course on solving separation anxiety for e-trainingfordogs.com that talks more in depth about how to deal with problem dogs that may need more help than the “I’ll be Back” technique, including mill dog rescues. 
    The more dogs a person works with when dealing with separation anxiety, the more tools they will need for solving this issues. Sometimes, before separation anxiety in a dog can be solved, we need to work though some of the relationship issues between owner and dog that can contribute to creating separation anxiety issues. I recently met a woman whose dog had separation anxiety issues at a pet expo. The woman was very interested in using my video, but before she walked away with it in her hands, I gave here some additional coaching. I told her that before she could solve her separation anxiety issues, she had two other things to do first. One was to change her behavior towards the dog before she left and when she came home. I told her that was covered in the first section of my video. The second was that she had to resolve the “shadow dog” pattern in her dog. I told her if the dog is unwilling to let her out of his sight when she is at home, then that dog is set up for separation anxiety the moment the owner leaves the house. How to resolve shadow dog issues is covered in the third section of my video. I instructed the dog owner to work on sections one and three before she did the “I’ll be Back” technique in the second section of the video. By changing the dog and owner relationship to a more healthy relationship where the dog could become more secure, the issue with separation anxiety would easily resolve by using the “I’ll be Back” technique. Without that change in relationship, then the dog would get a mixed message about feeling secure when left alone. That mixed signal could lead to mixed success.
    There are a total of five section of information on my DVD. For people who are having issues with the dog getting anxious even before they leave, Section 4 gives the traditional way of desensitizing the leaving protocol. But, it also gives a second way to help diffuse the anxiousness that some dogs can experience when you pick up a jacket or keys or other items they associate with your departure. That second way is by far my favorite because for some of the more tenacious dogs,  it works well.

This is copyrighted material.

Peggy Swager is a behaviorist and dog trainer. She has authored several books and many dog training articles. Two of her articles won awards. More information is available on Separation Anxiety and her other works at her website www.peggyswager.com.

Please note: I will be taking the month of September off from this blog.

Understanding Separation Anxiety SA1

Understanding Separation Anxiety
SA1
In this blog series, I will talk about separation anxiety.

Dogs with separation anxiety show distress when left alone. That distress may result in a dog barking excessively, having house training accidents, doing destruction to property, or being destructive to themselves. There are several degrees of separation anxiety, and several ways dogs end up with this problem. There are also a lot of human behaviors that can feed into creating the problem in dogs, as well as dog traits that create a predisposition or perpetuate the problem. What that means is that separation anxiety is an issue which can have a variety of triggers and can create different degrees of distress in different dogs. Some dogs have mild separation anxiety and may only chew something up on occasion when left alone. Dogs with moderate separation anxiety are more consistent about showing distress when left alone. While dogs with severe separation anxiety may destroy parts of the house and sometimes injure themselves in a frantic effort to escape being along. Because dogs can have a diversity of ways they act when suffering from separation anxiety, there needs to be more than one way to help dogs learn to cope with being left alone. In this blog, I’d like to review a few ways to deal with separation anxiety, as well as look at causative factors for this issue.
    Since leaving the dog alone leads to separation anxiety events, it is important to realize what defines alone for one dog is not the same for another dog. For example, a rescue German Shepherd that I worked with was fine as long as she had a companion dog with her. But, if you removed the companion dog, this Shepherd displayed severe separation anxiety. She didn’t care if there were people around, she didn’t want to be the only dog. Another case involved a Boxer who had three other companion dogs with him. The presents of other dogs didn’t matter to this dog. If his owner left, he’d display separation anxiety. I’ve also known of two dogs who had some separation anxiety when their owner left. But, if the dogs could be with each other, they were less likely to react to their owner’s absence. Yet another dog didn’t care how many people were present in the household. If his primary owner left, that dog had an anxiety episode. What all this means is that what can trigger a separation anxiety event can be different for different dogs.

Note: This is copyrighted material.

Peggy Swager is a behaviorist and dog trainer. She has authored several books and many dog training articles. Two of her articles won awards. More information is available on Separation Anxiety and her other works at her website www.peggyswager.com.

Understanding Separation Anxiety, SA-5

I hear a common complaint from dog owners who have dogs showing intermittent separation anxiety. They tell me how one time the dog will be fine and the next time the owner comes home to find the dog chewed up a sock or shoe. Often when this happens, I discover that the dog is cueing off of the owner’s departure and arrival habits.
    When we show excitement or stress just before we leave, some dogs pick up on that emotional change. If the dog finds that kind of behavior stressful to cope with, then the dog may have a separation anxiety event. Other times when the owner leaves in a more calm manner, the dog may not react.
    In my video, I give a specific example in the first section of how ramped up behaviors in dog owners can set a dog up for separation anxiety events. I illustrate how an owner set the dog up for a separation anxiety episode by using the wrong cues before leaving the house. But, departures are not the only time that the dog can become too keyed up. An overly excited arrival home can plant the seeds for dogs to wait anxiously the next time for their owner’s return. That anxiousness can build and the dog may channel their anxious energy into destructive behavior.
    One thing you want to avoid when your dog has a separation anxiety episode is to think the dog is acting vengefully. I had dog owners tell me that was the situation, that the dog was mad about them leaving and got revenge by chewing up a very important possession of the dog owners.
    In these situations, I feel the dog is attempting to find comfort by finding something that smells like the missing owner. When the dog locates that item, the dog, still feeling stressed, chews to relieve that stress. In one case, the dog owner was recording tapes from his work which he hoped to develop into a book. One of the days that he left the dog home alone, the dog got a hold of those tapes and chewed them. Of course the dog owner was asking me how to handle a dog being jealous (the dog owner hypothesized the dog was jealous he spent so much time doing those tapes earlier that day). I told the owner my hypothesis was that the dog associated attention with those tapes and now seeking comfort when the owner was gone, went to something the dog watched the owner give the attention (and comfort) the dog now wanted. What I was sure of was that the dog had not acted out of vengeance.
    Although my training called the “I’ll be Back” technique can help dogs learn to not stress out when their owners are gone, if the dog is seeking comfort by chewing items, then the dog may need some confidence building in addition to the “I’ll be Back” technique. I discuss that on the tape. As well, I talk about how to reform “shadow dogs” who cling to their owners when the owner is home. The tape-chewing dog was a shadow dog. To help this dog become more confident when left alone, the owner needed to follow the training on the tape to resolve shadow dog issues.

Note: This is copyrighted material.

Peggy Swager is a behaviorist and dog trainer. She has authored several books and many dog training articles. Two of her articles won awards. More information is available on Separation Anxiety and her other works at her website www.peggyswager.com.

Understanding Separation Anxiety, SA-6

Another thing that can trigger separation anxiety is a change in household events, especially if the dog owner has reacted stressfully to that event. All dogs pick up on our moods and emotions. However, some dogs have more difficult time handling our unsettled moods and emotions. If these dogs already have a fragile sense of security the dog may begin to show separation anxiety issues when changes happen. It isn’t unusual that once the issue that triggered the first separation anxiety event is resolved, the dog often takes training to reverse the separation anxiety the dog took up as a result of the changes and stresses in the household.
    If you see separation anxiety crop up in a dog who previously didn’t have issues, ask yourself what may have changed in your household. Was a new member added to the family? Even new pets count. Did something happen that caused tension in the household? One family I worked with had behavior issues with their dog after the husband was deployed. The husband had been absent for periods of time before without incident. What made this event different was that the wife was stressed out because her husband was in a more dangerous location than before. Even after the husband returned and the household settled down, the dog still had issues. For the dog to settle down, the dog needed to go through some training to change those unwanted behaviors that cropped up during that time. The “I’ll be Back” training is just the right kind to solve separation anxiety that crops up in a dog who previously didn’t have issues.
    It may seem like I suggest this kind of training a lot. I do so because I have found that it has by far given me the greatest results. Just a few days ago I got a card from a Maltese owner who used the “I’ll be Back” technique on her 10 year old Maltese. She reported, “It really helped Joey.”

Note: This is copyrighted material.

Peggy Swager is a behaviorist and dog trainer. She has authored several books and many dog training articles. Two of her articles won awards. More information is available on Separation Anxiety and her other works at her website www.peggyswager.com.

Understanding Separation Anxiety, SA-2

Spot nervously panted when she first came over. Notice the cupped tongue.

Based on my observations, I believe that fear is the root of separation anxiety. The dog is afraid of being alone. When that fear is perpetuated the dog develops anxiety. What I also have observed is that insecurity can feed a dog’s fear. One might ask if dogs are born insecure or if they learn how to become insecure. What I have observed is that some dogs are more prone to becoming insecure, and without the correct handling, will develop a fear of being alone which grows into anxiety we term as separation anxiety. An example is seen from a recent client I worked with. The client came to me with two major issues with her three-year-old rescue, Spot. Spot had recently began to show leash aggression which the dog learned from a foster dog in the household. When the foster dog left to go to another home, Spot developed separation anxiety when the owner left for the day. Prior to the arrival of the foster dog, neither separation anxiety or leash aggression were an issue.
    I believe that Spot was a less secure dog by nature. I observed Spot showing a lot of anxiety in general. The dog tended to whine with uncertainty when she first came into my house. This was not a steady whine, but several whines which cropped up depending on what we were doing with the dog. I suspect Spot’s owner didn’t realize this dog was insecure and needed some confidence building because the dog had a pushy nature. Dogs with a pushy nature tend to be willful about doing what is on their mind. They have a hard time responding to commands from their owner when they decide they want to do something. If the dog is less secure by nature, a pushy dog can learn to doubt his owner when the dog is worried. This kind of dog typically needs specialized training to learn to follow guidance from their owners. 
    With Spot, her pushy nature meant once she decided to do something, she’d ignore any commands from her owner. When Spot felt insecure, she’d jump up on me or the owner. Spot would not listen to the “off” command, even though the dog knew what that command meant. Since Spot had learned she didn’t need to follow her owner’s commands, that created a lack of confidence in Spot with her owner. After all, if Spot didn’t need to do what she was told, how could this owner do anything to protect Spot from frightening dogs or other frightening things? A pushy natured dog can easily develop a lack of confidence in an owner.

Spot would jump up, even though she knew the command to stop. She was pushy by nature and didn’t not readily follow commands. Her nervousness made her not want to stop.

    Dogs who are very insecure, even when their owners are around, need to learn to find a sense of security in the presence of their owners before they can learn to feel secure when alone. To help out this dog, the owner needed to teach the dog to follow her guidance, even when the dog doesn’t want to. Training is used to achieve this, not force or punishment. Once the dog learns to follow guidance, the dog becomes more secure. That allows the dog to learn how to feel secure when alone. Insecurity and fearfulness in dogs make a dog prime candidates for separation anxiety.
     Spot’s owner also made mistakes when she came home to greet Spot. Those mistakes fed into creating separation anxiety in this dog. I coached the owner on not getting excited when she greeted Spot upon arrivals home. I discuss how that kind of human behavior can cause unwanted separation anxiety problems in the first segment of my video “Separation Anxiety, a Weekend Technique.” A technique called the “I’ll be Back” technique on the video tells how to teach a dog to accept being alone without getting anxious. The video talks about building confidence in a dog to help dogs who suffer from separation anxiety. The confidence training we did with Spot that day helped this dog feel less stressed. With the dog more secure, the owner saw a great improvement by changing her leaving protocol. She was told that if the dog were to regress, she could use the “I’ll be Back” technique to create a more secure reform in the dog’s separation anxiety issues. 

Note: This is copyrighted material.

Peggy Swager is a behaviorist and dog trainer. She has authored several books and many dog training articles. Two of her articles won awards. More information is available on Separation Anxiety and her other works at her website www.peggyswager.com.