When dealing with separation-related behaviors in dogs, the goal is to determine the underlying cause before designing an environment and training protocol that sets the dog up for success.

There has never been a time when the terms “separation-related behaviors” and separation anxiety” were as widely used as they are now. Sixteen years ago, when I was starting to learn about dog behavior, I remember reading about these issues in only a handful of books available at the time. The term “separation-related behaviors” wasn’t even on my radar, or those of any of the dog guardians.

Nowadays, thanks to globalization, the internet, and highly accessible resources and education, this term is commonly used and applied to dogs by both professionals and dog guardians alike. However, since dog behavior and training is a somewhat recent field of study, large areas remain unregulated and lack an entity that unifies terminologies and labels, not only at an international scale, but also within the same country. This also applies to behaviors related to dogs left home alone and/or separated from other humans and dogs. Understanding these behaviors and what causes them, before implementing an approach to deal with them, offers the best chances of a successful outcome.

WHAT ARE SEPARATION-RELATED BEHAVIORS?

Separation-related behaviors are defined as those a dog displays when left home alone — behaviors that are undesirable to the dog and/or the humans. The term “home alone” is usually used in the context of a house without any humans present, and less commonly to denote dogs separated from other dogs living in the same household.

These undesirable behaviors can be multiple; however, they commonly refer to vocalizing, inappropriate urinating and/or defecating, and destroying household objects. Lesser-known examples can include pacing, panting, vomiting, hyper-salivating, and pupil dilation, among others.

As we can conclude from the above, these behaviors are nonspecific, which means they can be displayed in a great variety of situations; and more importantly, due to many underlying motivations. Therefore, the term “separation related behaviors” is used as an umbrella to encompass behaviors with a negative connotation that could be triggered by multiple causes, including medical problems.

With this in mind, we can start observing behaviors as symptoms of something deeper. An underlying cause or motivation that is triggering for a particular dog, if not addressed, will continue to promote behaviors that are undesirable to the dog and/or the humans involved. As in the medical field, the first step in successfully developing a particular treatment is to determine what is causing the undesirable outcome when the dog is left home alone.

UNDERLYING MOTIVATIONS FOR SEPARATION-RELATED BEHAVIORS

Environment

There are multiple ways in which the environment could be impacting a dog’s behavior:

• The house might be in a busy neighborhood where the dog can see people and other dogs walking by throughout the day while home alone, which could trigger vocalizations at those times.
• The dog could be left alone for too many hours every day, triggering destructive behaviors or even vocalization out of boredom.
• The house could also lack spaces specifically designed for the dog to urinate and/or defecate, and when left alone for too long, the dog might not be able to wait to relieve themselves.
• The size of the house or space also matters. Dogs of different energy levels, ages, and breeds might need a bigger space than the one assigned to them in order to be successful when left alone.

In these cases, the behaviors likely won’t last for the whole duration of the humans’ absence, nor will they be associated with a body language that suggests panic or fear. Although a stress response might exist in some of those situations, the common denominator will be the capacity of the dog to eventually cope with the situation that elicited discomfort, and to successfully self-regulate, getting back to their normal behavior baseline after the stimuli has been removed from the environment.

Individual challenges

When a dog has just been adopted, we need to not only consider a normal adjustment period, but also the baggage the dog might be bringing to the table. Unfortunately, we can only explain to the dog through repetitive actions and routines that this is home, that we will always return after we leave, and that this new life is safe. Many dogs experience a stress response when left alone in a new home for the first time, which might translate into stressed body language and behaviors such as vocalizing and pacing. However, if the underlying motivation is a temporary lack of adaptation to the situation, you will see a decrease in these behaviors over time, as the dog gradually learns that the event isn’t life-threatening.

A lack of training about what’s expected of them and what objects aren’t meant as toys, along with the age and genetics of the dog, might also cause undesirable behaviors, although in these cases, the behaviors might be displayed without body language that suggests distress.

Medical

When the onset of a behavior is sudden, the root can often be medical. Ruling out both medical and environmental causes when observing separation-related behaviors is always a priority. To achieve this, a thorough anamnesis and alone time assessment (online or by videos) are needed.

Among the medical issues that could cause these behaviors are:

• Pain
• Conditions that cause discomfort and could lower the threshold for tolerance to certain situations and environments
• Conditions that alter the dog’s perception of the environment
• Urinary and/or digestive issues that could promote signs such as vomiting, urinating and/or defecating in undesirable areas.

The dog’s body language might vary depending on the medical condition and how they are feeling, which creates the need for thorough examination prior to concluding that the signs have a behavioral root.

Other behavior conditions

Several additional behavior challenges can elicit a stress response, both when humans are and are not in sight. Some of these challenges have a high correlation with separation anxiety, and will require an integrative approach if that’s the case. However, they can also exist separately, and will have to be ruled out before setting up a training and management plan.

Among these challenges are noise sensitivity to storms, trucks, construction, fireworks, or fire alarms, to name just a few, as well as reactivity to certain outside stimuli like other dogs, cats, and strangers. In these cases, dogs will show a stress response, and sometimes even body language that suggests fear and anxiety, which is a response to the specific aversive stimuli. If the dog happens to be alone when exposed to these stimuli, it might look as if they are responding to being left on their own. However, if the dog is fine when left alone but not exposed to these stimuli, we can think of the underlying cause as being only these other behavior challenges.

Confinement issues, which are connected to the environment where the dog is left alone, means the dog finds being confined to a small area, crate, or room to be aversive, eliciting a stress response that doesn’t necessarily improve with subsequent exposures. Although this can be experienced in conjunction with a fear of being left alone, it can also happen on its own, which will translate into a dog able to stay relaxed while alone as long as they have free range to roam the house, or at least a large part of it.

Separation anxiety

Hopefully by now, it is clear that the term “separation-related behaviors” isn’t the same as “separation anxiety”, but rather encompasses it. A dog with separation anxiety suffers from a stress response when left alone, which doesn’t improve with subsequent exposures. Instead, it escalates over time, triggering more fear and anxiety when exposed to the event. Separation anxiety is a condition in which the dog is unable to determine that the situation isn’t a threat anymore, thereby causing them to display a fight or flight response that doesn’t subside until the exposure ends. The corresponding body language shows that dog is in discomfort and unable to cope with the stimulus.

IMPLEMENTING A SUCCESSFUL BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION PLAN

For most cases, the training plan will include two main aspects: management and training. The reason why we spend so much time analyzing definitions and terminologies is because both the management and training plan portions will vary and depend solely on the root of the behavior. Once you address the underlying motivation feeding the behavior, the signs or “symptoms”, such as vocalizing, destroying, and eliminating, will naturally decrease and/or disappear.

How the approach matches the cause

For example, if the underlying motivation for barking when alone is living in a busy neighborhood, management at times when training isn’t possible might include closing blinds, blocking access to certain windows, or adding noise blocking sounds such as white noise, TV or music. Training might look like short, supervised sessions when the dog is exposed to the triggering stimuli at an intensity (visual, audial) that is still somewhat easy to handle, while pairing it with something the dog really enjoys (food, toys) to eventually create a positive association to the exposure. The goal is to always keep the dog below threshold (below the intensity at which the stimulus becomes aversive and/or triggers an overt behavior response) so learning is more likely to happen, and a good association with the situation is eventually possible.

If the dog suffers from confinement issues but not separation anxiety, leaving them alone with full range of the house might be enough to solve the issue. If the root is medical, addressing the cause first will provide a better understanding of what we are dealing with, and if addressing the behaviors in themselves is really needed after the medical issue has been resolved.

The strategy behind separation anxiety training

For separation anxiety, management will involve suspending real absences while the training protocol is implemented. This means the dog won’t be left home alone without humans, unless a training session is being performed. Training will include daily desensitization sessions in which the humans leave and stay outside for progressively longer durations. These sessions are designed strategically and performed in a supervised, controlled manner to keep the dog safe and under threshold, so over time, they are able to develop tolerance to absences, and self-regulating mechanisms to cope with the situation.

THE IMPORTANCE OF DEVELOPING A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE

The first step in designing a successful modification plan for a specific behavior would be to create standardized terms and labels. By doing so, professionals will be able to speak the same language, which will increase the likelihood of success when seeking to implement an integrative approach developed by a multidisciplinary team, which is often needed in this line of work.

Unifying the meaning of these concepts will allow us to give specific characteristics to each label, which can include differences in body language, environment, individual learning experiences and challenges, but most importantly, underlying motivations or causes for a particular behavior in the first place. In this context, we can appreciate how one of the current, most widely used terms — “separation-related behaviors” — is one of the most misunderstood and mislabeled, which can easily translate into mistakes when choosing the best approach for helping a dog.

Ultimately, when dealing with separation-related behaviors, the goal is to determine the underlying cause and correspondingly design an environment and training protocol that sets the dog up for success, allowing them to feel safe and stay below threshold. Complying with these conditions will increase the likelihood of learning to occur, and over time, as the primary cause is addressed, the undesirable behaviors will subside.