Dog Separation Anxiety - Understanding Why It Happens

Dog separation anxiety is a condition where your dog displays destructive behaviour when left alone in your house. This kind of condition ranges from a simple case of separation anxiety to extreme case. When we say separation anxiety, it simply means that your dog is missing you and to let you know of his feelings, your dog started to exhibit undesirable and sometimes dangerous behaviour.

However, there are some dog owners who thought that their dog was just showing tantrums and failed to determine that their dog is already suffering from separation anxiety. Thus, to avoid escalating simple cases of separation anxiety to a destructible scenario, dog owners need to early determine whether their dog suffers from such a problem or not.

The best way to know if your dog is suffering from dog separation anxiety, you have to closely observed its behaviour. In fact, there are a lot of problematic behaviours that is associated with separation anxiety. The first symptom is that your dog would get overly excited or worked up when you are preparing to leave. In fact, they might follow you from room to room, whimpering whenever you pick up your car keys and whenever you wear your jacket. When you try to leave, your dog would want to leave with you. When you can successfully close the door, you could still hear him barking, whining and even scratching the door. And when you came back, you can see that your house is in shambles. Household furniture was being chewed, your dog urinates and defecates anywhere, dog scratches were on your furniture, or even worse, your dog would chew upon himself. These are the common scenarios of dog separation anxiety. Thus, if your dog started to behave this way, it is about time that you research on how to cure this problem and save you and your dog from too much stress.

First and foremost, you need to understand why your dog behaves this way. Different dogs of different breeds react differently. Thus, you need to research further on how your dog's breed thinks and reacts. In this way, you could localize your dog's problem. There are dogs that tend to be submissive and this kind of dog tends to become upset when their pack leader leaves. However, if your dog is of the Alpha breed, then he would be upset if one member of his pack leaves without his permission.

Moreover, aside from the traits inherent in your dog's breed, you also need to check the background of your dog. Those dogs from pet shops tends to be upset when you leave, thinking you will abandon him the same way his past owners abandon him. Additionally, a dog that has a traumatic experience has an increased likelihood of developing strong attachments to the owner. Mores instances such as deprivation of early attachment early in their life, if they got separated from the bitch very early in their life, if there is a sudden change of environment, a long-term absence of a family member, and change in the owner's lifetime, which would abruptly end their contact, should also be considered. If your dog has experienced all of the above indications, then they have a high probability of him having dog separation anxiety.


Copyright (c) 2011 Joe Maldonado