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The Dog That Cannot Be Left Alone
Myth: Dogs that misbehave when left alone are being spiteful.
Charlie is a delightful dog in almost every way. He plays gently with the children, barks but never growls at strangers, can shake hands and catch a ball, and graduated at the top of his obedience class. The Andersons consider Charlie a member of the family, and he even sleeps at the foot of his owners' bed. However, whenever Charlie is left alone, he chews up the woodwork and howls; sometimes he urinates and defecates, too. He never behaves this way when someone is home, but the Andersons cannot ensure that someone is always with him. Charlie's owners are worried because they cannot cope with these behaviors much longer and doubt that they can find another home for him.
Attachment and Separation Anxiety
Contrary to what the Andersons believe, Charlie is not being spiteful. He is exhibiting separation anxiety - that is, distress at being left alone.
Dogs are highly social animals. In the wild they live in family groups, as do wolves. When dogs live with people, they become attached to their human families. Attachment is essential to social life; it maintains peer bonds as well as parent-infant bonds. It is not surprising that dogs, like small children left by parents, commonly exhibit separation anxiety responses when their owners leave the house.
Animal behavior studies have shown that individuals generally respond to separation from loved ones with increased activity and vocalization. These behaviors often result in reuniting the individuals. If not, the animal left may become withdrawn, lethargic, and depressed. Dogs left alone may pace and/or dig and chew and scratch at points of exit (doors or windows) in an attempt to find or follow the owner. Howling and crying are attempts to get the owner to return. Urination and defecation commonly accompany anxious behavior, even in well-housebroken dogs.
Separation anxiety is certainly not the only reason a dog might urinate, defecate, vocalize or be destructive in the home. These behaviors could also reflect medical disorders, lack of sufficient exercise or opportunity to be outdoors, "teething," lack of house training, or responses to exciting stimuli, such as neighborhood dogs or pedestrians. Animal behaviorists and veterinarians should be able to help owners determine why their dog engages in specific behaviors when left alone. Such a determination is essential before an appropriate treatment can be initiated.
Characteristics of Separation Anxiety
Most dogs only exhibit separation anxiety when their owners leave the house. However, separation anxiety also can occur while the owner is home if a door or cage separates dog and owner. Typically, dogs show distress responses within a short time (a few minutes or even a few seconds) after the owners leave. They also may whine, look "anxious" or sad, or follow owners as they prepare to leave.
Dogs with separation anxiety often display more intense and prolonged greeting behaviors than other dogs. Dogs with separation anxiety may follow their owners from room to room, sit leaning against them, and even refuse to spend time outdoors by themselves.
Separation anxiety occurs in males and females, purebreds and mixed breeds, and dogs of all ages.
It frequently occurs:
 in dogs that have never or rarely been left alone
following a long interval (e.g., vacation) during which the owner and the dog were constantly together
after a traumatic separation, such as when a dog was lost or perhaps spent time at a shelter or boarding kennel
after moving into a new home.
Separation anxiety behaviors are not related to disobedience or the dog's dominant/subordinate relationship with the owner. Treating Separation Anxiety
The basic goal of treating a dog with separation anxiety is to allow it to experience being alone without becoming anxious. Usually, this goal is best achieved through a gradual approach. The difficult part is to do it correctly.
The treatment plan for separation anxiety involves leaving the dog alone many times for very short intervals without causing the dog distress. Gradually, the length of time left alone is made systematically longer.
The sequence of procedures we generally use is as follows:
Practice sit/stay exercises in an enjoyable manner. Do not use leash corrections, yell, hit or otherwise punish the dog. Your dog should be comfortable not following you when you walk away. Gradually increase your distance from the dog. Within a few days (depending on you and your dog's ability), you should be able to move briefly out of the dog's sight. Eventually, do this exercise periodically during the day, unrelated to structured practice sessions. For example, if you are going to the refrigerator for a snack, get up, tell the dog to stay, and leave the room. When you come back, you might give the dog a tidbit or quietly praise it.
After your dog has demonstrated that it can tolerate you leaving a room without following, practice having the dog sit and stay as you go to and from the door you use to leave the home. Eventually, step outside a few times without closing the door and immediately return. Next, step outside, disappear from view for 1 second, and return. Next, step outside, close the door for 1 second, reopen it, and return to the dog. By doing this exercise, the dog slowly becomes accustomed to sitting alone with the door closed (separating you and the dog) for several seconds. This aspect of the treatment program takes only a few sessions for some dogs and many sessions for others. After the dog demonstrates that it can tolerate your absence from the home for a few seconds without engaging in a distress response (whining, crying, etc.) and does not effusively greet your return, you can begin the next step of the program.
This step involves leaving the home for longer periods without causing the dog anxiety. You cannot easily measure the dog's level of anxiety while you are gone, but you can use the dog's intensity of greeting as an indirect measure of separation anxiety. Therefore, during these exercises (and course of treatment) do not make a fuss over the dog when you return. Exciting the dog when you return ruins your ability to use the dog's intensity of greeting as a measure of separation anxiety. Either ignore the dog or greet it mildly with soft words or a gentle pat. If the dog is relaxed when you return, you can safely repeat another departure and short absence. If the dog shows any signs of anxiety, wait until it relaxes completely before leaving again. If the dog was very excited upon your return, assume that it was very anxious while you were gone. You should therefore make the next several departures shorter. After the dog has tolerated several 1-minute absences, gradually and randomly increase the length of the absences. Leave the dog alone for 2 or 3 minutes, then 2 or 4 minutes, etc. Do many absences that are less than 10 minutes. You can do many departures within one daily session - assuming that the dog relaxes sufficiently between the departures - or you can scatter them throughout the day. For example, you might do a few departures before going to work and some in the evening. On the weekends, you can distribute them throughout the day. There is no need to worry about the dog's attention span; if the dog loses interest and does not pay attention to your departures, so much the better!
We have found that once a dog can tolerate absences of about an hour (30 to 90 minutes), it rapidly adjusts to longer intervals alone (i.e., 1 to 3 hours, then 4 to 6, and then 6 to 10). Dogs do not have to be accustomed minute by minute to being alone all day (8 to 10 hours). These exercises proceed slowly in the beginning but become much easier as you progress.
It is impossible to predict how quickly individual dogs and owners will progress because of factors such as the severity of the problem and the length of time it takes the dog to relax between departures. Although setting a precise planned departure schedule is impossible, there are some rules to follow in developing a program that will work in your situation.
Rules to Follow Regarding Practice Departures
Start with planned absences that the dog can tolerate (e.g., 1 second, 10 seconds).
Repeat each absence duration enough times to ensure that the dog is not anxious.
Slowly increase the length of your absence. If the dog becomes even a little anxious, practice shorter absences.
Increase the length of your absence randomly so the dog cannot learn to anticipate when you will return. Remember, the goal is to gradually accustom the dog to being alone without becoming anxious. The dog should learn to expect that most absences are going to be very short. The chart below lists schedules of planned departures used in some real cases. Notice how each is different.
Examples of Planned Absences (in minutes)
Dog 1: 1, 1, 3, 5, 2, 5, 10, 5, 15, 5, 10, 15, 20
Dog 2: 1, 1, 1, 1, 11/2, 1, 11/2, 1, 2, 1, 11/2, 2, 2, 2, 1, 2, 11/2, 1, 21/2, 2
Dog 3: 1, 1, 2, 1, 4, 2, 5, 3, 10 (dog barked), 1, 1, 2, 4, 3, 5, 6, 7, 3, 7, 4, 6, 8, 2, 9, 7, 10
(no bark or anxiety), 5, 12, 8, 15, 10 Serious Cases
Some dogs have such severe problems that they become extremely distressed even before their owners leave. In these cases, the dog must learn to relax during the predeparture routine of the owner.
One treatment process involves teaching the dog to sit and stay for praise and/or treats while the owner engages in behaviors related to his/her departure - but then does not leave. For example, the owner tells the dog to sit or stay as he/she picks up and puts down the car keys, goes to and from the front door, rattles the knob, puts on a coat, etc. The dog learns that it will receive a reward if it remains seated (or at least does not follow the owner) and remains unanxious when the owner does these things.
An alternative to the above procedure is to repeat predeparture routines numerous times until the dog ignores them. The dog is not required to sit and stay and no rewards are used. The reason a dog reacts to predeparture routines of the owner is that it associates them with being distressed when left alone. Repeating some or all of these routines many times without actually leaving will eventually disassociate them from the unpleasant experience of being alone and anxious, and eventually the dog will reduce its response to them.
An opportune time to practice many of these procedures is during television commercials. Commercials occur several times in an hour and are separated far enough apart for the dog to relax between practice departures.
Safety Signals
Dogs can readily learn to associate specific signals with short, nonanxiety provoking absences by their owners. For example, many dogs are unaffected by being left alone in the car because the car is a signal that their owners will be gone for only a short time. Often, when an owner takes a garbage bag outside, the dog knows the owner will return soon and therefore does not become anxious. Thus, it is sometimes helpful to associate a clear, distinct signal with practice departures and short absences. This can be a safety signal to the dog.
Objects that can serve as safety signals include a playing radio, television, or stereo; a loudly ticking clock; a palatable bone (not one that can be splintered); or an interesting toy. If the dog chews on objects, the owners may want to provide a chewable object. If a safety signal is used during practice sessions, it is important that it never be presented to the dog when owners leave for longer than the dog can tolerate. If this happens, the value of the safety signal could be lost. The common suggestion of leaving the radio on to "provide the dog company" is not particularly successful by itself in solving a separation anxiety problem. A playing radio will only work if the dog has learned that the radio reliably predicts an unanxious time alone.
Long Absences
The ideal in treating separation anxiety is never to allow the dog to engage in the distress behaviors during the course of treatment. It is counterproductive to leave the dog alone for longer than it can safely tolerate. It is difficult for a dog to learn that departures are safe if the dog periodically experiences anxiety when left alone.
Owners who must leave home for longer than they know the dog will tolerate can prevent their dogs from being distressed when home alone by taking the dog with them or leaving it with a friend, dog sitter, or at a kennel.
If the above solutions are not possible, alternatives are as follows:
Proceed with the program despite the possibility of setbacks caused by the longer absences. Sometimes this course of action works. If a safety cue is used, it should only be associated with controlled practice departures and not with absences long enough to cause distress. If it is predicted that the dog is likely to become distressed during the time it is left alone, the safety cue should not be used. If safety cues are not used in a treatment program, it is even more important to do numerous departures that do not cause distress for each one that does result in distress.
When you are away for long intervals, confine the dog in a specific room or crate where it cannot hurt itself. However, there are potentially serious drawbacks and contraindications to confining a dog, which are discussed later. When you practice departures and absences, the dog should not be left where it is confined for long intervals. Ideally, leave it loose in the house. Eventually, the practice departures will be long enough that the dog can safely be left loose alone as long as necessary.
Sometimes people can use a different large crate or room instead of an area of the house for the practice absences. In this case, the dog must first be accustomed to being in the enclosed area with the owner home. Only after the dog is comfortable in the enclosed areas should you start the graduated absences from the home.
The temporary use of anti-anxiety medications may be helpful during the course of treatment of separation anxiety. Sometimes anti-anxiety medication can alleviate a dog's anxiety response when it must be left alone for long periods during the course of treatment. Anti-anxiety medications may also be helpful in treating dogs that cannot tolerate even short practice absences. Occasionally, dogs with mild separation anxiety can be treated with the temporary use of a drug without any behavior modification techniques. A good anti-anxiety drug should reduce the dog's anxiety while the owner is gone without sedating the dog. Ideally, such medication should be used only temporarily. After the dog has been comfortable for several weeks when left alone, the dose usually can be gradually reduced until the dog is in an unmedicated state.
The choice of an appropriate medication must be carefully made with the help of a veterinarian. It is a good idea for owners to first administer the drug when they will be home for several hours to observe their dog for any side effects. If side effects occur, it may not be an appropriate choice of drug.
Punishment - Don't Do It!
Most owners become angry or upset when they find that their dog has been destructive or has urinated and/or defecated while they were gone. People naturally seem to think that the dog should be punished; they yell at or hit the dog, take it to the "spot" and scold it, or isolate it in the bathroom for a while. Most owners eventually realize that these tactics do not work. Neither does waiting outside until the dog barks or becomes destructive and then rushing in and scolding the dog. Punishment, in general, is not an effective way to treat separation anxiety. In fact, punishment delivered by the owner may actually increase the dog's separation anxiety by paradoxically increasing its attempts to maintain contact with the owner. Punishment also makes the dog anxious about the owner's return or departure. Some people mistake the dog's natural submissive behavior in response to punishment as "guilt." Owners frequently tell us that a dog "looks guilty" only when it has done something wrong. Actually, the dog has made an association between the owner's return, the presence of urine, feces, or chewed items, and impending punishment. The dog has not made the connection between its behavior (barking, chewing, etc.) in the morning and the punishment delivered by the owner in the afternoon.
Punishment might work for some behavior problems that are not related to separation anxiety. For example, scolding a dog while it is barking at neighbors may stop the barking, and applying bitter-tasting substances to furniture may reduce "puppy teething." To treat problem behaviors resulting from separation anxiety, however, owners must reduce the dog's anxiety.
The Use of Crates: A Cautionary Note
A common recommendation for controlling disruptive behaviors when the owner is absent is to put the dog in a crate. Whereas crates can be effective in housebreaking puppies and preventing a puppy from chewing on household objects, their use in the treatment of separation anxiety problems is usually counterproductive. The animal is still distressed when alone and will probably engage in anxiety responses in the crate. It may urinate, defecate, howl, or even attempt to escape from the crate and thus injure itself.
A crate can be used for dogs with a separation anxiety problem only if the dog is first gradually accustomed to spending time in the crate and then gradually accustomed to being alone in the crate.
Although dogs sleep many hours during the day and sometimes prefer to sleep in enclosed spaces, they usually change position frequently. Contrary to what many dog "behavior" books state, wolves and dogs are not den-dwelling creatures; they do not naturally spend day after day in small enclosures. It is therefore debatable how comfortable a dog is in a small crate for 8 to 12 hours. Another disadvantage to using crates is that the animal's watchdog capabilities are obviously reduced.
Ancillary Measures
Sometimes, in addition to the techniques discussed above, it is also helpful for owners to implement minor and temporary changes in their daily interactions with an excessively attached dog.
When at home, owners might require the dog to stay in a room by itself for a few minutes before allowing it to accompany them. The dog also might be discouraged from always leaning against its owners, sitting in their laps, following them, etc. The idea is to get the dog to be somewhat less "dependent" on the owner. It is important to understand that these interactions are normal dog social behaviors that are desired by most owners. They do not, in themselves, cause separation anxiety. In fact, if owners try to reduce their dog's social behaviors towards them too much, separation anxiety can increase.
Obedience School
Obedience training does not directly influence separation anxiety. Many dogs with this problem have been to obedience school and have done quite well. Sending the dog away from the home to a training facility for several weeks will not eliminate the problem and may make it worse. Separation anxiety is not the result of disobedience or lack of training. It is an emotional response. Back to top
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