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.

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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.