Hounded by loneliness at home

Student seeks dogs for research into separation anxiety

Curing the whimpering, the urinating and just plain anxiousness in dogs is the aim of a Waikato University master’s study. Ocean Babington, 21, is seeking 10 dog owners and their pets to take part in her study to look at separation anxiety in their beloved pooch.

Babington wants to help fix the problem in the animals, not only for their sanity but also their owners.

It was not unusual for owners to give up on their dogs, neglecting them, handing them around family members or to the SPCA or even having them put down as they struggled to deal with their troubling behaviours, she said.

Some owners even used shock collars, something Babington disapproved of as she is a dog lover.

Dogs in the study would need to be left alone for periods and display anxiety symptoms, including excessive barking, destruction and urinating.

“These behaviours that occur should only occur when the owners are absent, not when they are home.”

However, there were also the unseen signs such as excessive pacing and other repetitive behaviours.

The participants will be set up into two groups.

“We’ve got two behavioural treatments that we are looking to apply, so the owners will have to apply these treatments themselves,” Babington said.

“The first is systematic desensitisation, that is when we are trained to desensitise the dog to the owner’s absence. The owner could first leave for one minute, then come back, over a couple of days and the time will increase.”

In the second treatment owners would give the pets a treat before

Hthey left the house and once arriving back home.

“Giving the dog a treat will hopefully make them happy, so that when you leave they should be feeling the happiness of receiving a treat rather than feeling anxious when the owner leaves.”

Babington hopes to start the observation phase by the end of April, if not sooner. The threshold for the study is for dogs aged over 6 months