essential pets
SEPARATION
Anxiety
by Dr. Lori Scarlett, DVM
There’s a book and many websites devoted to dog-shaming pictures. Many of these are hilarious, but the behavior of the dogs is often rooted in anxiety, which is definitely not funny to the dog. Dogs and cats are creatures of habit, and they like routine. Having owners home more often during the pandemic was initially tough on the pets, but dogs became accustomed to having their owners around more. Many people adopted new pets, and these animals never knew a time when their humans weren’t around all day. But as owners started going back to work and spending more time away from home, anxious behaviors started showing up or recurred. Separation anxiety is not boredom. It’s akin to a person having a panic attack. Some signs of separation anxiety in dogs can include urinating or defecating in the house when left alone; destruction 30 | m a d i s o n e s s e n t i a l s
of furniture, doors, cages, floors, etc.; and vocalization. These dogs are often very attached to the owner and follow them around the house. The difficulty is that these behaviors can occur due to other things: boredom, incomplete house training, underlying bladder infection, or other anxieties. Some signs of separation anxiety are more subtle. Anxiety suppresses the appetite, so dogs that only eat when the owner is home may have covert separation anxiety. An anxious dog may pace and pant all day, so the owner might notice excessive thirst when they get home. Some dogs will try to block an owner’s departure, potentially with aggression. Cats can have covert separation anxiety too. The primary behavior is urination outside the litter box. Defecation, destruction, and vocalization are much less common. I heard of one dog
that would physically try to keep the owners from leaving the house, actually attacking their feet. They thought the dog had separation anxiety and set up a video camera to help with the diagnosis. What they found was that it was the cat that had the anxiety! As soon as the owner left, the cat would start yowling for the entire day, which made the dog try to stop the owner from leaving. If you suspect your dog has separation anxiety, getting videos is very important for the diagnosis. You want a video of a routine departure as well as a nonroutine departure. This would be coming home at the end of the day then going back out to dinner. Some pets may be fine for a regular leaving, but being left again can increase the anxiety. “Velcro” dogs may just have hyperattachment and not separation anxiety, which is treated differently. Some dogs have confinement anxiety, and will be destructive if caged. If they don’t have separation anxiety,
