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Separation anxiety is one of the very common issues in dogs, after losing their mom and sibling one day all of a sudden, they hardly manage to build up friendship with humans. It’s a kind of stress pups mainly feel when they are alone at home and they miss their owner. Many owners wondering How to Treat Dogs with Separation Anxiety may term it to be very difficult nearly impossible to stabilize an anxious dog. It’s not false, but half true because, this calming process is quite hard, but never impossible. While the only reason for anxiety isn’t separation; in fact, the other two major issues of anxiety in dogs can be fear or aging also.
A New Thing To The New Dog Owners - Dog Separation Anxiety
As mentioned also earlier, separation anxiety is such a condition in which a dog usually feels discomfort which forces him to move around destroying everything. The good is that separation anxiety is a natural reaction in dogs which refers that you have a healthy fur baby with you. But again, excessively increased separation anxiety in dogs may be something denoting an anxiety disorder or other behavioral issues. But in short, the anxiety or unease that dogs feel while missing their parents at home is actually separation anxiety.
Ultimate Reasons Behind Separation Anxiety In Dogs
Separation anxiety appears due to dogs feeling discomfort and missing their parents when they aren’t at home. Dogs are social animals and they are taught to be brought up in society from childhood. But the sudden loss of someone at home makes them worried and tends to feel anxious. The same worries or unpleasant feelings in dogs when left alone at home is separation anxiety. It is all due to his lack of confidence in staying alone at home. That is why; dogs need to be trained to stay at home alone so that they don’t feel anxious even if their parents aren’t with them.
Signs And Symptoms That A Dog Has Separation Anxiety
When you are back at home from your everyday workplace, you might notice your entire home with everything scattered here and there. As said before, excessive anxiety in dogs may tend to have your dog suffering from a dog anxiety disorder. That’s why it’s important on part of dog owners to know all the ins and outs of the most probable symptoms of separation anxiety in dogs. Some of the prominent symptoms are:
- Urinating or expelling waste products at home
- Increased and desperate howling and barking
- Scratches and making holes everywhere at home
- Drooling, panting
- Overstress or depression
- Chewing and damaging the home elements
- Sudden increase of Aggressiveness, restlessness
- Unpleasant and upset behavior
Do's and Dont's To Resist Dog Separation Anxiety
Now as separation anxiety has been a great issue in the present world along with the owners having their dog affected so, it’s also very necessary for the owners to solve this issue. Some steps that are to be followed in handling separation anxiety in dogs are as follows:
- First of all, you need to learn the body language of your dog which will help in discovering when your dog is feeling unpleased or anxious
- Before leaving from home, you can take your dog on a long walk to tire him with extra weight in a dog backpack. After coming home, provide him with some food and water so that he becomes relaxed and sleep for long
- You can also use Pheromones which can a great thing for comforting and easing dogs and no side effects of them are discovered till
- You can also previously socialize your dog with proper training so that he doesn’t get scared if left home alone
- You can also leave your dog alone at home with an audiobook of yours or a dog camera with voice connectivity so that he doesn’t feel alone or anxious
- Rear up your dog with proper training or by going outside for 5 minutes to make him familiar with the experience of staying alone at home
What Not To Do For A Dog With Separation Anxiety?
In this section of this content, we’ll be mainly discussing the don’t or what to not do when you Treat Dogs with Separation Anxiety. In short, the things that shouldn’t be done to a separation anxious dog are as follows:
- If your dog has scattered all around everything when you weren’t at home, don’t punish him for that instead teach or train him not to do such next time
- You shouldn’t be leaving your dog alone at home inside a crate, because it might make him feel the crate as a punishment. Moreover, out of being anxious, he may also urinate or defecate there
- Bringing a new dog at home won’t work in handling his anxiety as he’ll still feel your absence, in such case, you may end up with two anxious dogs together
- Radio or the use of TV over high volume would be equivalent to nothing. It would not only charge you with bills but also will make your dog more nervous and anxious.
- Training obedience to your dog isn’t worth combating against his anxiety. The separation anxiety isn’t because of your dog being untrained. Instead, you can leave your dog with good training and walk before you leave
- When you are back at home, he may get relaxation and relief from anxiety. You shouldn’t be responding to him for some moment so that he can realize his mistake.
How To Treat Dogs With Separation Anxiety?
This portion of our content describes the ways to Treat Dogs with Separation Anxiety, we’ll be dividing this section into mainly 3 portions and the next descriptive details on all of them individually will be mentioned. The three portions are as follows:
- Medication support to treat Separation Anxiety in Dogs
- Effectiveness of CBD oils in treating Dogs with Separation Anxiety
- Prevention of Dog Separation Anxiety by Better Training
1. Medication Support To Treat Separation Anxiety In Dogs
There are some locally available medications that are depicted to be working great to improve the separation anxiety conditions in dogs. It’s always better to take a prescription from your vet of which medications would be safe. Below, we’ll be mentioning a shortlist of all of them. Used by many owners and till now, most of these mentioned medications usually don’t come with any side effects to your fur baby.
- Amitriptyline
- Alprazolam
- Buspirone
- Clomicalm
- Diazepam
- Dexmedetomidine
- Fluoxetine
- Paroxetine
- Lorazepam
- Sertraline
All of these above-mentioned medications or drugs actually don’t require a prescription and are also free from any side effects. But, taking advice from your vet would be the best as he can identify your dog’s adjustability with any certain medication as mentioned above.
2. Effectiveness Of CBD Oils In Treating Dogs With Separation Anxiety
Serotonin is one kind of natural mood stabilizer in a dog’s body and it’s widely effective in soothing and calming down a dog with separation anxiety. The use of CBD oils helps in enhancing the availability of this stabilizer in your dog’s body. If your dog is also facing severe anxiety issues, you may also require purchasing one. While you are choosing the best choice of CBD oil for your fur baby, you need to look for a few qualifications of it like:
- Ensure that the oil is 100 percent organic and safe for your buddy
- You also need to be confirmed that the oil is partially or fully spectrum
- Also confirm that the oils include natural CO2 extracts
- Be sincere that the oil doesn’t include any harmful side effect
About the application of this oil, you should first try the application of this oil minimal in amount. Then you can slightly increase its dosage with increased time. But the recommended amount of usage is 0.05 or 0.25 mg of the application over per pound of weight.
3. Prevention of Dog Separation Anxiety By Better Training
Training is another key to Treat Dogs with Separation Anxiety. If your dog is previously familiar and trained on how to stay alone at home, it would be easier for him to deal the same when you’re not at home. Confidence-building training and independence training are good for rearing up a mentally strong dog that would be sufficient to fight against separation anxiety. But one thing we can recommend is to not over-crate train your dog when you are not at home. It will make him, later on, feel like a punishment.
Bottom Line
It’s obvious for a dog to have separation anxiety. Who doesn’t feel the pain of missing someone dearer? It’s of course unfair to consider this stress of your dog as a mental issue. Instead, you should follow the mentioned 3 steps of How to Treat Dogs with Separation Anxiety. Well, to be honest, it’s always better to solve the issue by training or usage of oil. You can still take the help of medications lastly when it’d become an anxiety disorder for your dog.
