Separation Anxiety
Did you know that separation
anxiety is the second most common reason dogs are euthanized or given up by
their owners?
Separation anxiety can occur in any breed and at any
age.
Dogs are pack animals and it is not natural for a
dog to be left alone. Dogs can react to a lack of exercise and/or the stress of
being separated from their "pack member(s)" by becoming upset,
destructive, barking continuously, or eliminating in the house. The degrees can
vary, and your dog may only do one, or perhaps all, of the behaviors. You may
be mistaking the behaviors as "breed traits" when in reality it is
mental anguish. You may see personality changes in your pet as well. He may
become aggressive or shy. He may become depressed and can even make himself
sick. She may begin to chew parts of her own body
In order to stop our dogs from
having separation anxiety, we first need to understand what is causing it. Two
of the more common reasons this can occur are: (and the cause can be due to
either or both of these)
1.The number one cause of separation anxiety is a
human’s lack of leadership. We humans, more often than not, tend to treat our
canine family members like humans. In a pack, the leader is allowed to leave.
However, the followers never leave the leader. If your dog is instinctually
seeing you as his follower and you leave him, it causes so much mental anguish
that a dog often takes it out on your house or himself. The dog sees himself as
the one who is responsible for the pack and when the pack has left the house he
gets in a panic because he is afraid that something might happen to his pack
members, for whom he is responsible. When a dog accepts you as pack leader
separation anxiety will not exist. If you do not understand the instincts of
the dog and his pack members, the articles on this page Understanding Dog
Behavior will give you a better idea of how your dog instinctively thinks.
However, the issue of separation anxiety is not always solely one of a
leadership issue.
2. Separation anxiety can also be due to a lack of
exercise. A build-up of energy stored within the dog can bring about multiple
behavioral issues. When you leave, it intensifies her stress and she acts out
because she does not know what else to do with this built-up energy. Walk your
dog in the morning before she eats and again at night. For the walk to be
successful, your dog needs to be focused on her owner, the pack leader.
Therefore, the dog should not be pulling in front of you. The dog should be
walking beside or behind you, following YOU, as opposed to you following HER.
If you allow the dog to pull in front, you are once again re-enforcing to your
dog that she is alpha over you. Instinctually, the pack leader goes first. If
you do not make your dog heel beside or behind you, the walk will not
accomplish its intended goal. When a dog walks with her mind focused on her
owner, she releases both physical and mental energy. This works her brain and
fulfills her canine instinct, but also relieves them of the responsibility of
having to provide leadership in a human society, which the dog is really not
equipped to do.
Since it is not natural for a pack animal to be left
alone, this can also occur in a submissive dog that does see you as the leader,
but that is not completely secure within his pack or a dog that has not learned
how to handle being alone.