When one dog has pet anxiety and the other doesn’t
Six lessons learned for handling dog separation anxiety
I knew I needed to go to the grocery store — three actually — but I sat at my laptop pondering my next decision. My dog had just been walked. She’d been fed. She had chew toys to play with. But I knew exactly what was going to happen when I got ready to leave. I took off my footies and adjusted my socks. I finger-combed my ponytail. I already knew my coat and keys were on a key holder by the door. Still, I needed my purse. And my purse may as well be the equivalent of the way a belt sounds when you’re about to get a spanking. My dog has a mild case of separation anxiety, and I’d never had this experience with my two other dogs.
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What is pet separation anxiety?
You’ll likely be able to recognize separation anxiety from a pet destroying items in a room, eliminating on the floor, and/or constant barking or whining. According to Purina, the behaviors that result from pet separation anxiety “are not malicious and … are likely panic or other coping behaviors. Punishing your puppy will not eliminate separation anxiety. Gradually adjusting your puppy to being alone is the best approach.”
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But boy is it something to hear the loud howling and barking and screeching at the top of a dog’s lungs whenever you walk out of the door. When I first adopted my dog, I made a point of leaving at least a couple of times per week, so my dog was aware that I’m not going to be at home all the time. (For people with 9-to-5 jobs who didn’t end up working from home during the worldwide health pandemic, this is probably much easier and nonnegotiable. But for the past three years, I’ve been a full-time freelancer who does 99% of her work from home — minus a few cool projects like hanging out in Starbucks Reserve Roastery.) So I’m home when I’m on the work grind.
Imagine how embarrassing it is to explain to a fellow freelancing colleague that your dog called her a “ho,” not you.
I’m not new to dog ownership. I’ve owned two dogs — a purebred German Shepherd for nine years (although I was away at my second college for most of it) and a Labrador Retriever/German Shepherd mix for 13 years from elementary school to my first college. I really thought I had pet ownership down. I’ve dog sat and dog boarded five dogs multiple times, in addition to walking a wide assortment of dog breeds.
None of them (all adult dogs that were at least 3–4 years of age) reacted like this when I walked out of the door — not even one time. But the one thing experienced pet owners do is something I often find human parents do: We romanticize the puppy year(s) and forget how tough it really is. I often wonder if I’ve forgotten the puppy years with my first two dogs, or have I just blocked it out because I got so used to their adult personalities.