How to reduce separation anxiety when owners leave home
It’s a story many pet owners are now familiar with: You’ve been home for months and spending more time with dogs, cats and other non-human companions while following orders to social distance. Then, the day comes to go back to the office, or the chance arises to escape for a vacation. Your pet stares back at you as you leave, wondering when or if you’ll ever return again. To some animals, it might feel like the end of the world.
Pups and feline friends have perhaps become more codependent after months of their owners staying home nearly all the time, and their owners leaving the house again can take a toll on them. Take it from Kim Bissing, owner of Beyond The Leash Dog Training.
“We’ve seen about 15 separation-anxiety cases just in two weeks. It’s getting worse because people are starting to pick up and go back to work,” she says. “We have had about 20 new puppy owners in our six-week class and about 17 are already exhibiting some signs of undersocialization.”
It might seem overwhelming to worry about your pet’s
well-being on top of the woes of living through a global pandemic. But fret not, these pet experts are here to help.
Helping panicky pooches
While most canines have a good system for self-soothing, that can be disrupted when their daily circumstances are abruptly changed.
“If you drastically just go back to work one day, dogs are left with no explanation in their minds,” Bissing says. “You can’t just explain to them that, ‘You’re going to be fine, I’ll be back home.’ Communicating to a dog that, ‘Hey, sorry I was home for three months and now I’m leaving you,’ that takes a lot of work.”
Keep an eye on your dog’s behavior, she advised.
“Watch if you start to do things like grab your keys or head toward the door and your dog starts pacing, panting, stress yawning, if they can’t settle down easily when you’re not right there,” Bissing says. “Dogs should be able to settle down within a few minutes of somebody leaving. If they’re up pacing for 30 minutes, that’s stress, that’s anxiety. That’s something that, if it’s not treated, gets worse over time.”
More serious separation anxiety can lead to the dog trying to break through a door or their kennel to get to their owner.
Pooches also have a sensitive “sixth sense” that brings them down when owners are feeling stressed or depressed, Bissing says, especially when dogs feel powerless to help their humans.
“If humans are stressed out and mentally drained, it really takes a way bigger toll on the dogs than we think it does,” she says. “What we’re going through is really hard, but it is hard on them too. Just be really aware of your dog’s emotions.”
One way to help reduce separation anxiety is by slowly desensitizing a dog to the idea that you’re leaving the house again.
“Leave for short periods, maybe put them in a kennel for quiet time on their own, keeping white noise on because they need that distraction,” Bissing says. “Leave the house at least one or two hours a day so the dog has to remember those coping skills.”
For longer trips, the dog trainer suggested taking canines to a boarding and training program. She says that a few weeks of socialization and behavior modification, with a training class or at home, can help quell anxious tendencies and help a pooch find more peace of mind.
Pacifying puppies
Many people spent their time in quarantine enjoying the company of a new puppy. After all, what better time to adopt than while spending countless hours and days around the house?
Bissing says that because of closures and social distancing, a lot of those puppies are now undersocialized.
“Normally you would take a puppy out to dinner, to the dog park or to a friend’s house,” she says. “If no one is coming to your house and you’re not going anywhere, they’re really skittish and head shy toward new strangers ... they’re really reactive toward anybody but their family members.”
“We offer a socialization day where owners can drop off the puppy — they get to play with other dogs and humans. It’s kind of like a puppy kindergarten,” says Bissing, adding that crate training can help provide a safe and positive environment for puppies, and dog park visits can provide safe socializing opportunities.
During these times, it’s particularly important to help new dog owners, she said, especially as she’s seeing more relinquishments.
Calming cats
In some cases, feline friends will experience a certain degree of separation anxiety when their humans leave the house more. But their problem may also be just the opposite.
“From my practice standpoint, I’m still seeing more of the problems that happened when lockdown started — that crowding of territory and changes in operating because of that change and our general stress level,” says Jackson Galaxy, the cat behavior and wellness expert seen in “My Cat From Hell.” “That speaks to what drives cats crazier — really drastic changes to the everyday flow.”
Cats are concerned most with territory and are generally used to enjoying their own space during the day when owners are away. That domain went away with quarantine.
While felines don’t experience the same separation anxiety that dogs do, they may still act out in ways that are related to a change in their routine or environment. (Personally, I returned from a weeklong trip to find one cat hiding not under, but inside the couch.)
“There’s destruction of furniture, there’s more hiding and less social behavior when you are home. There’s litter-box issues that crop up. They’re behaviors that make you scratch your head,” Galaxy says. “Cats are fighting, they’re less tolerant of petting. They’re sleeping in weird places.”
Similar to what Bissing suggests for dogs, Galaxy says that easing cats back into a routine can help lessen their stress.
“Instead of suddenly leaving for 10 hours a day again, start by going through your old morning routine. Leave the house for 20 minutes, go take a walk. Leave the house for an hour and come back,” he says. “Do it in ways where they just get used to you being gone again for a short amount of time before you completely leave.”
As for other ways to help cats cope, Galaxy advises giving cats puzzle toys to amuse themselves, setting up “cat TV” with a bird feeder outside the window and enjoying play therapy with them upon returning to the house.
He also likes to look at the positive side of what’s happened during the pandemic.
“I think that we’re still living in a moment of opportunity to broaden the relationship with our cats and with our dogs,” Galaxy says. “What could be better for our cats? What part of our routine? Why aren’t we playing with our cats more? Why aren’t we thinking about enriching their environment? ... People care and see their pets not just as property, but as family members.”