What’s the Difference?
You’ve heard the term ‘Separation Anxiety’ but what about Isolation Distress? Having accurate understanding of your dog’s behavior is important in regards to treatment. True separation anxiety is much harder to treat because it is associated with attachment to one specific person. If the dog is separated from that person, panic ensues, regardless of whether anyone else is present.
Often, dogs are misidentified as suffering from Separation Anxiety when they are actually experiencing Isolation Distress. While both are panic disorders, dogs experiencing Isolation Distress are often fine so long as someone is present. Often this must be a human but occasionally another pet will suffice. Isolation Distress is much more common and thankfully much easier to treat as it doesn’t require that the single person of attachment be present. Either way, both of these conditions warrant a discussion with your vet both for diagnosis, as well as the potential for pharmaceutical intervention.
Symptoms of Separation Anxiety and Isolation Distress
When owners reach out for help leaving their dog home alone, they are typically experience 1 or more of 3 main symptoms. Their dog’s crying or barking when they leave their home or apartment may have resulted in complaints from neighbors. Sometimes owners return home to find destroyed kennels, blinds, or doors which may or may not have resulted in injury to their dog. For others their dogs seem unable to control their bowels or bladder, even if they were kenneled, even when the dog is adequately house trained in other regards. There may, of course, be other reasons your dog destroys items or goes potty in the house, the main contextual clue for Isolation Distress or Separation Anxiety is that these symptoms only occur when you leave your dog alone.
In addition to these 3 main complaints, the chance of self-injury. Is a significant problem for many dogs in distress. They may hurt themselves escaping from their kennel, scratching their faces or breaking teeth. Other dogs may scratch the door or trim until their nails are bloody pulps. It’s important to appreciate that in these moments your dog is a complete state of panic. They are not thinking rationally and this behavior you cannot correct this behavior with punishment after the fact.
When is Distress Worth Treating?
Owners often reach out for help with Separation Anxiety or Isolation Distress when the symptoms cause frustration or distress to the humans in the home. Coming home to complaints, destruction, or inappropriate elimination certainly warrants treatment. While your dog may only pace or drool, this does’t imply that the degree of anxiety he or she is feeling is less relevant than a dog that causes more significant disturbance. Any level of stress is worth reducing. Quality of life for everyone is important, including your dog!
How Long will it take My Dog to Improve?
Now that many homes have cameras inside it’s easier to identify distress in your dog that previously flew under the radar. That means more owners are reaching out for help with their dog’s anxiety than before. While many owners believe that their dog is experiencing high levels of anxiety, it’s worth noting that the intensity of the symptoms doesn’t directly correlate with the dog’s recoverability. Dogs that display seemingly low levels of anxiety many take longer to improve than dog that appear significantly more distressed. Each dog is an individual and the treatment plan and recovery time will reflect this.
Once your dog’s anxiety patterns are determined and accommodations are made to ensure your dog never enters a state of panic due to being alone, treatment can begin. The earliest sign of increasing anxiety must be accounted in order to know how to properly structure desensitization exercises. Recognizing increasing levels of anxiety such as lip licking, whining, drooling, or alert behavior will help you work within your dog’s threshold. In order for treatment to work your dog must remain below threshold at all times. Desensitization and counter conditioning exercises will gradually increase what your dog can handle while remaining under threshold.
Is There Any Guarantee that My Dog Will Improve?
It’s important to understand that your dog will take as much time as they need in order to improve. There is no scale or time frame because every dog is unique in their experience. You may see some improvement in your dog in as little as 4 weeks or it could take a longer stretch like 4 months OR MORE! These time frames are arbitrary and hugely reliant on the commitment to keeping your dog under threshold. It cannot be over stressed that in order for your dog to improve they must never enter into a state of panic again. Avoiding panic inducing absences is the only way to ensure that your dog has the opportunity to improve. Because of these variables it is safe to say that if you do not halt absences there is little to no chance that your dog’s separation anxiety will totally resolve, even with medications.
We can help!
Is your dog experiencing Separation Anxiety or Isolation Distress? Call us at 913.712.8742 to set up a virtual Separation Anxiety consultation. We’ll give you step by step exercises designed to systematically desensitize your dog to feel more comfortable with being alone. In the meantime, start exploring technology to help you visualize what your dog does when you leave the house.
Canine Solutions is based in Spring Hill, KS and provides in person services to all of Johnson County, KS (Leawood, Lenexa, Gardner, Bucyrus, Overland Park, etc.) as well as parts of Miami Co, Douglas Co, and Kansas City, MO. We also offer online consultations and virtual courses!