Separation Anxiety Did you know that separation anxiety is the second most common reason dogs are PTS or given up by their owners? Separation anxiety can occur in any breed at any age. Dogs are pack animals and it is not natural for them to be left alone. Dogs can react to a lack of exercise and/ or stress of being separated from their “ pack members “ by becoming upset, destructive, barking continuously. The degrees may 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, its mental anguish. You may see personality changes in your pet as well. He may become aggressive or shy. He may become depressed and even make himself sick. She may even begin to chew parts of her own body. In order to stop our dogs from having separation anxiety, we first need to understand what’s causing it. Two of the more common reasons this can occur are: (and the cause can be due to either 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 dog-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 a follower and you leave him, it cause so much mental anguish that he takes it out on your house or himself. The dog sees himself as the one who is responsible for the pack 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. 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 the stress and the dog acts out because it 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 the owner, the pack leader. The dog should not be pulling in front of you. The dog should be walking behind you or next to you, following YOU, as opposed to YOU following her. If you allow the dog to pull in front, you are once again reinforcing 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 accomplish nothing. When a dog walks with its 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 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 sees 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. Tomorrow I will post some basic things that might help in readdressing the problem. As always, if your dog suffers from any severe issue, then please seek help from a professional behaviorist.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 07:39:46 +0000
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