The house is empty, the kids have gone back to school after the summer break. Call it a sort of empty-nest syndrome, except that the remaining occupant of the home is busy chewing the remote control and the couch.
Itâs not an uncommon scenario as dogs across the country are âabandonedâ by their best human friends come any back-to-school season. âYouâve got to think of it from the dogâs point of view. One day everybodyâs there, and then the next, everybodyâs gone and it happens that fast,â said Judi Halliburton, a companion animal behaviorist and author of the book Raising Rover: Breed-By-Breed Training from Afghans to Yorkies. âThen people start coming home from school, from work and finding the living room all torn up.â
Your first thought will probably be that the dog is angry. But, according to Halliburton, your petâs not mad â itâs a case of separation anxiety.âFor all they know, these humans got sucked up into a black hole,â she said. âThey have no idea what happened to them.â
âBack to school can cause separation anxiety in some dogs,â agreed Adam Goldfarb, director of the Pets at Risk program for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). âTheyâre used to playing all day with their best friend, then theyâre alone for six to eight hours a day. It can be hard for some dogs.â
âIt can manifest as barking, whining, scratching at the door, chewing inappropriate items, or more medical symptoms such as lethargy or not eating well,â he added. âAnd it can happen to any breed.â
Now then , does âany breedâ include Homo Sapiens? I rather think so. Lethargy, whining and chewing inappropriate items certainly covers the range of my behaviour when my wifeâs away.
But maybe thereâs a spiritual aspect too. You know that old tag about a âGod-shaped holeâ in the heart? Maybe a lot of the whining, bitching and barking we see in contemporary life is just a form of seperation anxiety. Weâre missing our master and canât put our finger on what precisely is wrong. Every society in every age has manifested a spirituality of yearning, of reaching out.
Maybe weâre all just scratching at the door?
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