Summer Separations: Part 2
Advice from Animal Expert Dr. Grey Stafford
 Last time we discussed how you can prevent yourself from teaching your pets to demonstrate separation anxiety when you leave them home alone. This week we’ll try to help those pets that have already developed severe behavioral problems tied to their separation anxiety. Keep in mind that any solution we develop needs to address the underlying cause(s) of separation anxiety: fear and/or boredom.
It may be no surprise to readers of this column that the solution resembles, in part, last week’s advice about prevention. Prevention of future episodes through regular desensitization training using rewards and praise is a good first step to helping animals with severe behavior problems such as excessive barking, chewing, or self-mutilation. This means we have to eliminate the conditions (for now) that have created the anxiety in the past. Does this mean you can never leave your pet alone? Of course not. We all have lives to lead and paychecks to earn.
Plan to Help Them Succeed
It does mean that we have to preplan how we're going to set up our pets to succeed when we're gone. For example, it's important to have a supply of toys and activities that our pets prefer in order to prevent boredom. Get into the habit of rotating their toys from one day to the next. The best rewards are those the animal hasn’t seen in a while. Also, if your schedule has any flexibility, try to reduce (for now) the duration you must leave your pet unattended—better for them if you can make several short trips away from home rather than one long trip. Plus, even when you are home, try to create some distance between you and them. Do this by rewarding particularly needy pets for being physically away from you. You can also crate them (if you use one) while you are home. This will allow you training opportunities to reward them for calm, restful behaviors while inside a crate or kennel. Until things improve, you need to reinforce them for being on their own and at the same time, limit the amount of fun the two of you have when you're together.
Don’t Reinforce Their Nervousness
Also, how you react to them when you do come home is critically important. Are they panting, scratching at doors or gates, or whining? If so, it's essential that you do NOT change their environment whatsoever, which means, don't approach them yet. In some cases, you may need to wait outside the front door until your pet settles down before you enter the house. Sounds extreme, I know. But for animals with severe problems, the mere sight or sound of you coming home while they are displaying panicked behavior may be all that’s necessary to keep the anxiety going strong. The same logic applies to any sort of unwanted behavior they may display when you enter your home or a room, or just before you enter. In other words, don’t acknowledge or console them (or release them from crates) until they have calmed down, quieted down, and shown some level of relaxation. Again, for some animals you may have to wait a while. In fact, some may never settle down completely. In those cases, owners may have to look for reduced levels of anxiety such as quieter behavior, less frequent rates of scratching, slightly slower breathing, etc. just to get this training going.
Don't Give Up
Admittedly, these are not simple problems to resolve for some severe cases. Do your best to create the conditions that will engage their bodies and brains in useful activities while you are away, like rotating their toys or hiding treats for them to find. And be sure to reward them at every opportunity for showing signs of calm independence.
Dr. Grey
Learn more about Dr. Grey Stafford
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