Does Your Pet Have Separation Anxiety?
PET BULLETIN
‘Mews and Yips’ from the Central Aroostook Humane Society
By GloriaTowle
Does this scenario sound familiar? You leave your home and return to find it destroyed by your pet. Furniture is knocked over, contents of closets are pulled out onto the floor, woodwork and linoleum are chewed, doors bear scratch marks, and garbage cans are knocked over.
Carpets, floors, bedding and upholstery are soiled by your usually perfectly housebroken pet. What’s worse, your pet greets you with wagging tail and yelps of happiness celebrating your arrival — as if nothing happened.
What owners fail to understand is that their pet’s bad behavior is not intentional; he simply cannot help himself. A pet’s phobia of being left alone, of seeing his owners leave, is psychologically overwhelming. Dogs can be overcome by a fear for which they have no means of coping, other than to be filled with terror. The resulting damage is only an offshoot of their terror and not the problem itself.
No matter how much correction such pets receive, they will behave in the identical manner each time they are left alone because you’re not getting to the real root of the problem.
Separation anxiety is the inability to cope when loved ones leave and most often occurs when the pet realizes it is alone. Pets that have had more than one home are often afraid that when their owners leave they may never return. After all, this already happened to them before.
This situation is hard enough on the average pet that is transferred from one loving home to another, but is further aggravated when the pet was uprooted from a home, brought to an animal shelter where he spent time in a cage, then adopted and brought into yet another home.
Separation anxiety may also strike at the end of summer vacations. Pets that have become accustomed to having the family around suddenly find themselves alone. A pet who is already fearful of thunderstorms may suffer through a really bad storm alone. As a result, he may associate the negative experience of the storm with the idea of being alone, thereby creating a fear of being by himself.
Whether the symptoms are severe, merely create a nuisance for you, or simply create nervous anxiety for the pet, it’s important to understand that the real problem stems from insecurities and lack of confidence. The best approach to dealing with separation anxiety is prevention — never letting it begin in the first place. However, in most cases this is a pre-existing phobia.
Take heart — separation anxiety attacks can always be helped and the symptoms alleviated with gradual desensitization.
Step 1: Every pet suffering from separation stress should receive a lot of exposure to new and different environments and large amounts of time socializing with strangers. Pets that live out their lives in the same house and yard, never having the opportunity to adjust to the stress of different environments and acquire the social skills of meeting new people, tend to be the ones that develop a wide range of psychological problems, including separation anxiety. Pets should be taken on walks to different neighborhoods, visits to friends and relatives, to shopping areas allowing pets, where they have the opportunity to adjust to the sounds of the real world.
Step 2: Create a very pleasant home environment, emphasizing wonderful things that occur only when your pet is left alone. Leave a radio on a talk station to help comfort the pet and to help drown out disturbing noises from the outside world. Very special items should be left for him when it’s time to leave the house. Favorite toys and treats should be placed around your home. The idea is to have your pet begin to associate pleasant things with your departure.
Step 3: An exercise program is extremely important in helping your pet deal with stress. Exercise is a known stress reducer and, as with human beings, pets may fare remarkably better when exercise is included in their daily routine, particularly when done an hour or two before you leave your home. Remember, a tired pet is more likely to sleep and is less likely to be destructive.
Step 4: When all of the above steps are in place, begin a gradual weaning program. Stand outside a closed door and talk to your pet through the door. Start with a few seconds only, and then open the door and lavish great praise on him. Slowly increase the period of time he is in the other room and the distance away from the door, until he is in the opposite end of the home.
As he adjusts, expand the desensitization program by standing outside the front or back door, again talking to him the entire time. Gradually increase the time and distance as he adjusts. Then it’s time to leave your home entirely, for a minute only, returning with plenty of hugs and kisses and praise. Expand this program a few minutes at a time until he is secure in being left behind.
More tips can be found from pet expert Warren Eckstein.
If you are looking for a friend for life, stop by the Central Aroostook Humane Society, 26 Cross Street, Presque Isle, Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m.-4 p.m., closing for lunch 12-12:30. Visit us on Facebook and petfinders.com.
Please be responsible … spay and neuter your pets!
Gloria Towle is the secretary and a member of the Board of Directors of the Central Aroostook Humane Society.
