ALL BY MYSELF ★
Lockdown has presented a series of challenges, but for dog owners who have spent more time with their faithful friends than ever before, there may be further hurdles to come. Alison Gallagher-Hughes investigates.
Lockdown life isn’t the norm, and adapting to being without their owners may be tough for some dogs. Alison Gallagher-Hughes finds out more.
“...a generation of new dogs don’t yet understand that lockdown life isn’t the norm...”
How did you feel when the UK was first plunged into lockdown? Did you experience a sense of panic or anxiety at being ordered to stay at home to save lives, constantly wash your hands, stay socially distanced, and only venture out for essential food?
Our new dystopian reality was a shock to the system, but now the new normal means that, once again, we are allowed to venture out, socialise, and return to the workplace — meaning less time at home.
So, how might your dog react to this turn of events? After almost 18 months of having you around, his human is suddenly disappearing.
It’s not hard to put yourself in his place. Within his world, this step change is as momentous as lockdown was for us. Some dogs may naturally adapt, but others, perhaps those of a nervous or anxious disposition, or the pandemic puppies who have known only constant companionship and had little socialisation, may need a more considered approach.
BE PREPARED
An increase in separation anxiety has been predicted by many animal behaviourists, trainers, and animal welfare charities, and early indications suggest it is well-founded. The puppy panacea, as an antidote to lockdown, led to an increasing demand for our four-legged friends, but the reality of pet ownership and the expected changes to lifestyles may result in inevitable consequences.
Dogs will have to learn to live without us all of the time, as our lives encompass travel, work, and social activity again, and we will need to ensure that this doesn’t come in stark contrast to the lives they have experienced with us in recent times.
The UK’s largest dog welfare charity,
Dogs Trust, has published a Roadmap for Rovers — a three-stage programme to prepare dogs for different environments, greater social interaction, and modifying behaviours — including being left alone. It highlights the importance of planning to ensure your dog has time to readjust and that changes are introduced gradually.
“During lockdown, dogs will have had fewer interactions with other dogs, fewer visitors coming to their homes, and probably haven’t spent much time alone. A return to normal could be confusing, especially for puppies who’ve never known anything different,” it states.
Battersea Dogs and Cats Home too has been preparing for the impact. The charity’s canine behaviour and training manager, Rob Bays, said: “There’s a whole generation of new dogs who don’t yet understand that lockdown life isn’t the norm, so we’re encouraging owners to do everything they can to get their young pets ready for the big changes that lie ahead. With the right training in place this potentially overwhelming transition can turn into an exciting time for them, as they learn to make new friends and enjoy their own company.”
Both charities are hosting online training courses to help owners.
RECOGNISING A PROBLEM
Jane Williams, who runs her own behaviour counselling service, Athenae, and is a leading member of the Animal Behaviour and Training Council, says that separation anxiety is an umbrella term for a complex range of issues and related behaviours.
“It’s called separation anxiety but that’s modern parlance. There’s a distinction between a dog who can’t cope with being without humans and those who are displaying responses to other stimuli, such as loud noises, or a dog who has become over-attached to one person and then can’t cope with them not being there. Every dog is different and their problem should be properly assessed to fully identify the nature of the distress,” she explained.
So what clues might alert us to the fact that a dog is suffering from separation anxiety?
“Confident dogs and well-socialised puppies are generally the ones who can cope. Those who display signs may already have a degree of anxiety, as a consequence of past experience or simply because it is inherent in their character. These anxious dogs may develop something more obvious, like when you leave the house and they trash it, howl for hours while you’re away, or wee or poo inside the home. All these can be indicators that the dog has a level of anxiety and this should be something owners pay attention to,” advised Jane.
The Pet Coach Petrina Firth, spokesperson for the
COAPE Association of Pet Behaviourists and Trainers, says it’s easy to mistake the signs.
“A lot of times when a dog is shut down, people don’t
recognise it. They may think their dogs are being really quiet or well-behaved but actually they have gone into a depressive state. They may not want to play because everything in them is shutting down. Anorexia (not eating) can also be a symptom of anxiety, particularly due to separation. Dogs often don’t eat when their owners have gone, because they’re feeling stressed. Some people will just take it as: ‘Oh, the dog wasn’t hungry’ but a lot of the time, it’s because the dog was so stressed that he couldn’t eat.
“Displacement behaviours may also be evident: chewing corners of rooms, or chewing cupboards. Chewing releases endorphins in the brain that make dogs feel good. Other signs include over-grooming, because it makes them feel better but can result in making their skin sore. Also, frantic behaviours like pacing, racing around the house, and generally not being settled can be a sign,” she said.
ADDRESSING THE PROBLEM
Behaviourists like to observe dogs in their home situation to identify patterns of behaviour or body language which can correlate cause and effect.
Jane Robinson, owner of Dog on the Hill and chairperson of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers said that she recommends placing cameras around the home to allow the trainer/ behaviourist to review the dog’s actions in response to particular stimuli such as the owner leaving the house.
“I take each individual on a case-by-case basis and identify the stage where the dog can cope, not where it can’t. If you can get to your front door and move through it for 30 seconds and the dog is crying, then we start at 20 seconds and we build confidence like that.
“The great thing about home alone training is that it’s all done remotely, so working during the pandemic with separation anxiety clients was not a problem,” she revealed.
Experts agree that the most important juncture for owners is recognising when professional help is needed. Many people attempt to address behavioural problems by working through general advice but sometimes, the problem is so specific that it needs an expert eye.
Commitment to help your dog and embrace a programme is needed along with time, money, and perseverance. It’s vital to develop a training routine if the problem is to be fully addressed. Slowly and surely improvements will be achieved.
“These incremental improvements can feel like a big win,” said Jane. “Initially, a programme to address these sort of problems will be intensive, often involving daily sessions over a number of weeks until the owners feel comfortable to go it alone while maintaining the advised training protocols. However, if they reach an impasse we can pick it up and work on the progress that has been made to take things to the next stage.”
“Dogs often don’t eat when their owners have gone...”
one hour a week via Zoom, which gave them the opportunity to raise any emerging issues that could then be assessed against the time-stamped footage. Jane provided them with a daily training plan involving warm-ups and repetition exercises to desensitise Daisy to expectations of activity and interaction.
Jane initially used Julie Naismith’s door desensitisation protocol called ‘The door is a bore’, which required Daisy’s owner to go to the front door multiple times a day before returning to the dog. This exercise gradually breaks down the process of walking through a front door until the owner is on the other side. Then the owner gradually extends the length of time away from their dog prior to return — sometimes only by seconds.
Daisy can now be left to her own devices for 45 minutes before she starts to display any signs of distress. Her owner intends to continue working with Jane to progress these achievements.
“Inch by inch, we gradually broke down the process: walking towards the door, touching the handle, and going through, until the owner was successfully putting himself on the other side of the door,” said Jane. “We looked at all the variables including time of day and Daisy’s responses before and after the exercise, and we were able to identify the method and times to achieve optimum results.”