What is causing Separation Anxiety in my Dog?
By Vanessa
So, what are the causes of separation anxiety? To be honest, the science is still evolving. It could be part genetic, part environment, or both. Puppies, older dogs, shelter dogs, pure breeds and everything in between can suffer from separation anxiety.
In terms of genetics, we can look at breeding techniques. Responsible breeders of pure breeds and mixed breeds – yes, there are mixed breed dog breeders too! – will do genetic testing on their dogs. Additionally, they will only breed individuals with healthy behavioral characteristics.
We do know that the environment can play a huge role in the behavior problems that a dog can have. The environmental impacts on a dog start when the mother dog is carrying her puppies in-utero. If a mother dog is undergoing stress while pregnant or nursing, she will release stress hormones that can transfer to the developing puppies. The in-utero stress impacts their physical and mental well-being when born, while maturing, and into adulthood.
Dogs are always learning through a process called classical conditioning, or Pavlovian conditioning. Experiences during a puppy’s critical developmental stage, until approximately 20 weeks of age, are especially important. However, it should be noted that experiences beyond this critical stage can also play a role in how a dog responds to alone time.
It has been found that dogs with confinement anxiety, putting them in a crate could also make their anxiety and panic being home alone worse. In this situation, when you arrive home, you may find that your dog destroyed their crate, and in extreme cases, even injuring themselves when trying to get out.
A Certified Separation Anxiety Trainer (CSAT), such as myself, can help you determine if your dog has confinement anxiety and if they would be better suited to training outside of a crate. Separation Anxiety training sessions are very controlled and your CSAT will be watching your dog during separations to make sure that the dog does not get overly stressed. This means that your house and belongings won’t get wrecked.
As a point of correlation, but not causation, I would still like to mention noise sensitivity. Studies have revealed that dogs who have separation anxiety often suffer from noise sensitivity as well. It does not mean that every dog that has separation anxiety is going to be afraid of noises, it just means that there is a higher incidence rate of dogs that do suffer from separation anxiety also suffer from noise sensitivity.
A skilled CSAT will be able to work with you and help you and your dog through both the separation anxiety and the noise sensitivity. If you are worried that your dog may be suffering from separation anxiety, you can either set up an appointment with a veterinarian or a veterinary behaviorist for a formal diagnosis or you can set up a meet and greet with a CSAT like me.
In this blog article we introduced a number of causes of separation anxiety. Be sure to check out our article on the myths of separation anxiety.