Separation anxiety in dogs

I wanted to talk about Separation anxiety today, all dogs can suffer from it, but Samoyeds are particularly bad for it.

Separation anxiety

Separation related behaviours are unwanted behaviours when dogs are left alone. Most common are destroying things, weeing and pooing in places they shouldn't, barking or howling. There are different reasons for dogs to show these behaviours when left alone, but the most common is where they have never learnt that being alone is a normal and okay part of life. For these dogs, the problem is known as separation anxiety.

What are the signs of separation anxiety?

As well as barking, howling, destruction, munching on things or toileting in unwanted places, dogs with separation anxiety can sometimes injure themselves, for example by scrabbling at a door, or even drool excessively when alone. These are behaviours that owners may be aware of because they either see the evidence when they get home, or maybe neighbours tell them if their dog has been making a noise.

But because separation anxiety by definition only occurs when owners are out, many anxious dogs go unnoticed. The only way to really know if your dog reacts to being alone is to do what we do, set up a camera and watch them. We started by using an iPad and connecting a Skype call to it before leaving home, so we are essentially Skype'ing the dog. Now we have a Canary, which we bought from Currys and we can just login in to that from the App on our iPhones.

Dogs’ responses to owners leaving the house

How a dog behaves as owners leave also gives clues about separation anxiety. Dogs are great at learning about events which reliably predict when they are going to be left. For our Solomon it's when the drawer which holds the car keys in gets opened, he goes wild.

Most of us are creatures of habit, and have a particular routine that we follow before going out, such as putting on a particular pair of shoes, or picking up keys before heading for the door. The earliest indicator which differentiates between “my owner is going out without me – oh no!” and “my owner is taking me with them – yayness!” might be quite subtle and early in the morning routine. Dogs will start to react as soon as they spot these signs – they might follow you around, pant, seek attention or even lie across the doorway to try and stop you leaving. Our Solomon will follow us around the house and start huffing and puffing when we start the process of leaving for work.

Response to owners coming home

An excited greeting when owners return home is not necessarily an indicator that a dog has separation anxiety. Most dogs love their owners and are pleased to see them, even if they are not worried about being left. Dogs with separation anxiety might only start to eat treats that were left when owners went out, once owners come home again. This might be an indication of a dog being too worried to eat when left alone.
Having a video camera set up is a good idea, so you can see how they react after you leave and find out how long it takes for your dog to settle.

Bit of a different post today, but I hope it has been informative. I want to share information rather than just use this blog to post pretty pictures of Solomon, my Samoyed :-)

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