Helping pets avoid separation anxiety

Tonight’s webinar is Dr Kersti Seksel. Kersti is a recognised behavioural medicine specialist and is recognised by the Australian American and European colleges Kersti is also an adjunct associate professor at Charles Sturt University Wagga Wagga and a fear free Certified Professional. She’s fascinated by animals and why they do what they do. She’s passionate about helping people understand animals better so she can improve the life of people and their pets. Cassie pioneered puppy preschool and kitten candy classes, teaches the distance education course in behavioural Medicine at the University of Sydney. She also presents at conferences nationally and internationally ranked webinars, writes textbook chapters and has written a book training academy and he’s also a regular presenter on radio and TV. So without any further delay, I would like to hand you over to Dr. Sexual

Hi, everybody. Thanks for joining us tonight. Yeah I agree. Talk to you about separation anxiety. And hopefully by the end of it, you will have some tips on helping you and your pets manage. But I’m not particularly always sure that we’re gonna be able to prevent it. But let’s go through and have a look at what is separation anxiety, because it’s a word that gets bandied around all the time people recognise it we know that separation anxiety happens in children and some of your pet kids going back to school after this break with COVID will know that they’re quite anxious about it. And certainly we see it in dogs and cats and probably a lot of other species as well. So, separation anxiety. We’re gonna talk about dogs and we’ll talk a little about cats today too. So dogs are separation anxiety I described as being overly attached to their owners or people in general. Sometimes it’s labelled hypertext, but but but generally in Australia, we just call it over attached. Sometimes it’s to humans in general, and sometimes it’s to their owners. And what happens is these dogs they experience real districts when their owners or their people leave, because for them, they want that company, preferably 24/7. What we know in some households, they may be more attached to one specific person but maybe people in general, and there is a difference in that. So those of you who have dogs or separation anxiety may tell you things like really attached to one family member the others are okay with that member leaves, the whole world falls apart for the dog. Other cases, as long as you’ve got to lead you’re fine. And so some of these dogs, and we don’t notice it so much because it could be anybody looking after the dog they think of it and have a good time. Or you can also have a good time because they dislike people. One question that often comes up is can they be overly bonded or overly attached to other animals? Yes, we sometimes see animals that are really bonded to the other dog in the household or the other cat in the household. And that can be a problem sometimes as well. So I’m going to answer a question before it comes up. Some people say I have a dog with separation anxiety, we’re getting a second dog help. The simple answer is not necessarily so we can talk about more than the Christian time if it comes up. So separation anxiety is also seen in cats, but it’s less common. It’s less commonly diagnosed. I think that’s because the cat behaves very differently. Dogs when they have separation anxiety is really hard to this 90% of the time cats. You might miss it 50% of the time and that is an issue. I feel sorry for cats because sometimes they just miss out on being treated when they could be treated. So separation anxiety, political science that we see. And I’m gonna talk about dogs first and then cats, we see excessive vocalisation so these are the dogs about about about all that interesting. Most people can recognise when there’s a distress mark as opposed to an alarm. But there’s been some interesting studies just listening to the vocalisations of dogs and even with very little experience or training, most people can say yeah, that’s a dog that’s really distressed. That’s a dog with separation. Anxiety, how? Partly because it’s a very different noise that they make. They make a noise where it’s like, oh, and then there’s a cause where they wait to see, it’s almost like you’re saying, is anybody? Is anybody out there? Am I alone in the world? Or is this somebody else out there? So it’s a different kind of vocalisation that we see. Usually, we see in some of the dogs what we call unacceptable elimination. So they start to urinate or defecate inside or in places where owners don’t like them to do that. It’s socially unacceptable to pee on your bed for most people. Certainly it is for me, we see dogs that can be very destructive in their behaviour. Most of the distraction generally is around points of entry or exit. So they’ll leave doors. They’ll try and get through windows, because that’s where the humans leave or they can see them leaving. So that’s the most common place we see destructive behaviour. It’s not the only place we see it. If they do destroy the door that window and get out they will escape. There’s no doubt about that, that we see that quite commonly with dogs with separation anxiety. And the other thing that’s really interesting about these dogs with separation anxiety, or anxiety in general, they often do a lot of celebration. The problem is you might miss that if your dog’s been celebrating all day. They might be quite wet, and I’ll show you some photos of what it looks like. But it might all dried up by the time you come home. So you don’t even know that you’d have been panicking all day. You’ll know you’d also be panicking all day if it’s destroyed the house but if it’s just been celebrated, you might miss it entirely. And we often describe these dogs as velcro dogs they follow you around everywhere you go the bathroom, the dogs, the kitchen the dogs, they go outside the dogs there. And what we also have to remember is lot of these dogs have separation anxiety also have a noise phobia. So if you have a dog that’s anxious about being left without people, the odds are that it’s probably you’re also worried about noises they often go hand in hand. And when we see the signs of separation anxiety only in the absence or we call virtual essence of the day, so we may see all these behaviours when the owner actually leaves physically to go to work or go to school or go shopping. But we may also see if the owner goes into another room and shuts the door and that dog just doesn’t have access to them. And I’ve certainly seen patients where, you know, somebody goes into another room and the dog gets really panicky and falls the door down even though realistically they’re in the same house but the dog doesn’t see it that way.

So let me just show you some photos of what we see with colours and separation anxiety. This was a laundry that belonged to one of my staff members. She went out and when she came home that was what was lifted the laundry so you can see that can be quite disruptive trying to get out. This next photo is what you can see there is a door where the dog has tried to escape those brown marks or blood unfortunately because this dog actually broke some of his nails and ripped out some of its from one of his front teeth. So they’re pretty distressing photos. I’m sorry to show you this, but that’s the kind of thing we see with severe cases of separation anxiety. The next photo is another one where the person rang me up and said My dog is trying to dig and when we started talking about remote if the dog was actually trying to dig into the house because it didn’t want to be outside and again, there’s the blood that you might see. And it’s very very traumatising, obviously, if you’re the owner of one of these dogs, but also for the dog itself to do that much damage. This is a dog that’s been celebrating. It looks like it might have been for a paddle in the pool. But in fact, it’s a saliva and the dog was so distressed from being left alone, that it just celebrated and celebrated and celebrated. This doesn’t dry up so fast but sometimes people come home and say I don’t think that that’s been doing anything but the skip the furs are sticky and that’s also an indication that you might have an animal that salivating an awful lot. That’s just another view. You can see how much saliva there is because you can see it’s actually dropping in the ground on the ground underneath it. So these animals are very distressed they can do quite a lot of damage not only to themselves, but to their environment. And this is why we really need help. Dogs just painting when I say just painting. When we see these dogs and separation anxiety, they may paint and paint all day. They’re going to lose a lot of moisture. A lot of these dogs when they live by themselves will not eat or drink when people are out. So being by themselves is quite distressing. Again when you come home you may not see anything at all. If it salivating and panting and saliva has dried up the dog is no longer Paddy, but you’ve had a dog that’s been really really distressed a long part of the day. And often people will tell me, yeah, leave some treats out for the dog that dog doesn’t need it until I come home and then as soon as I come home because feed drink or water even though there’s water available all the time. That’s what happens when you get a really distressed animal that panting they’re going to lose a lot of moisture, but they’re not going to be able to drink because they don’t worry. When do we see it? Interestingly, anxiety in general can be picked up very early, whether it’s separation anxiety, or whether it’s any other type of anxiety disorder we might see. In puppies. It’s it’s common people often told me they’ll go to puppy preschool classes and the puppy is just not comfortable being left behind. It’s really really important. We don’t ignore it. But one of my good friends from Canada did a paper a few years ago looking at this. And basically he looked at these puppies at their first vaccination and they looked at the puppies again a year later, two years later, three years later, and they still had that same time for anxiety. So if your puppies worried and some people I know people have got new puppies during this period of COVID-19. If you’re worried about the puppy, don’t ignore the signs. It’s really a shame but people think, Oh, well, they’ll just grow out of it. They do not grow out of it. Anxiety is a medical problem. You don’t grow out of diabetes, you’re not going to grow out of anxiety either. So it’s really important if you’re noticing the signs in your new puppy or even in an older dog, that you do something about it and they can’t be trained out of anxiety just like you can’t train them out of diabetes doesn’t mean you can’t do a lot to help them that training is not going to be the only answer for these these pets who are really suffering from being alone. The other time that we see separation anxiety develop is in older dogs and often their owners will tell me that it was fine. It was fine. And suddenly when it got to be a senior almost geriatric dog, that’s when we found these signs of anxiety. Again, it’s to do with your chemical changes in the brain. As we get older, all of us we get more worried about different things. I know when I was in my teens, I didn’t think many things were going to happen to me I travelled the world and my 20s and 30s. And then as I start to get older, I started to worry about lots of lots of things that I didn’t, wouldn’t have worried about earlier. I was once at a ski conference and I was supposed to be speaking and normally I would go skiing during the day. And I suddenly thought, well, what if I told myself it’s gonna give the lecture so it didn’t go. It’s really the whole idea of doing the ski conference. So I can have a bit of a holiday and don’t work at the same time, but things just different. And, you know, I know with my grandmother’s place by the time she was in her 90s It became a bit like Fort Knox. She was worried about a whole pile of things that she didn’t when she was younger. It’s certainly a thing we see in older dogs too. So don’t be surprised that a dog that didn’t mind being left alone when it was younger, suddenly does mind being left alone and sometimes I think it’s got to do with this census changing. You know, if your hearings going and your site’s going, then maybe you know you need to check that people are really there because you can’t hear them as well as you used to and you can’t see them as well as he used to either. So just to think about it can happen really at any age. So let’s let’s just touch on cats for a little while. What we see in cats a little bit different. We see cats that over groom, you know this is one of those things that people say when when I see cats that have stress they will usually start to bring themselves in groomers doesn’t breed the normal behaviour of pets. They’re supposed to groom they’re supposed to groom to clean themselves to get me many parasites, but some of these cats go to obsess about that. The other thing that people really notice is when they start to remove your own spraying or not using its litter tray is nothing like coming home to a house. It’s not like Pepe, that you know that your cat’s not very happy about things when I’m using a linen tray. So that is again another sign of separation anxiety we see in cats and the other thing interestingly, we do see pets that vocalise excessively and I know how councils always have complaints about dogs barking, but now we’re seeing councils getting complaints about cats meowing and some of the Oriental breeds can make a lot of noise and I guess if you live in an apartment complex and cats meowing all day when you’re out and somebody else is not out. It can be very annoying. So then probably the most common signs that we would see in cats. So this is a cat that’s really starting to over groom. He’s only doing the tail but he’s actually taken most of the fur off his tail. And that’s because he was getting really stressed. This is another common presentation we see a pets with stress that they will lick the fur on the abdomen. Interestingly enough that you don’t always get damage to the skin. Sometimes we do. But some of these cats will overeat on their tummy. They’ll be grim on their legs. Generally, it’s always a good idea. If you’ve got a cat that’s over grooming or a dog that’s doing any of those signs, take it to the vet, get them to have a look make sure there’s nothing else. But these cats often there’s nothing else going on but stress and that can cause it this is one of my patients from way back when it was part of a study that we were doing. This cat had been to a board certified dermatologist like Doctor Who had and had been checked for everything and this was a stress response and a cat that helps plucking it out. And once we managed that cat space, then all the hair grew back really really nicely. But it was a matter of dealing with the cats anxiety had been left that caused these issues in this particular pussycat. And there’s another one of my patients from way back when this cat was grooming himself so much that he made all his back legs, totally bald. He actually loved him so much that he got ulcers in his mouth from Virginia as well which was a bit of a shame. And when this cat got really really stressed not only was he bored but he also started to urine spray so he was absolutely delighted was a pet you can understand and it was very frustrated. But in fact again when once we manage his anxieties Hebrew, and he didn’t spray around the house, which is always a bonus I think. So I just put this picture up there there’s a cat that’s spraying a statute kind of interesting how it worked out. But the only thing that you sometimes see with taxes is scratching behaviour. You can see in fact the cat that scratching the poster is the cat that was bald before. And scratching is something that is a normal behaviour of pets. It’s a way of communicating but sometimes you’ll find that they’ll start scratching too much as well. furniture or other things when they start to get really distressed he’s actually being quite normal there. Because you can see when he’s first grade. So separation anxiety. It’s generally associated with changes in the environment. And I guess we’re all going through changes in the environment at the moment. Sometimes we’ve seen this when people have gone on holidays, or on holiday or on holidays. With the dog or cat at home and the owner spent lots and lots of time together. So you might often see people over Christmas or school holidays or go and get a dog or a cat they spend all this time and then everybody has to go back to work or back to school. And that changes the environment. can be really problematic for some dogs and cats. We also see this if someone’s been unwell. If people have been ill, they’re often at home more and again the dog kind of spent more time with them. But sometimes it can be unwell and they only spend more time with them nursing them and again then there’s that change in environment. And that can be problematic when things go back to normal for the animals. It’s good that everyone got healthy, but it can be difficult for some of those animals to cope. We see it sometimes it’s been a traumatic event in the animal’s life. They’ve spent time in shelter or in kennels and shelters and hills aren’t always traumatic in the true sense because people who work in shelters and kennels really liked looking after the animals they do it because they have a passion for helping. But from the animals perspective, it can be quite difficult and a few studies have shown that dogs that come from shelters are more likely to have separation anxiety. Well, I think it’s the chicken or the egg. You know if you’ve got a dog as destructive as escaping who’s barking causing a nuisance, and maybe that’s why that dog gets surrendered to the shelter in the first place. So they’ve actually got away with the problem of being rehome. So that again can be a change in the environment and can be traumatic for the animal at that time because they’ve had so many changes and change in household routine, you know, children go back to school and returns to work and I think COVID-19 We’re certainly seeing some increase in anxiety in our pets. Sometimes I think we see them because the honest at home more and more to see that. And other times I think you know, you’ve been at home with a pet for such a long time, then you go out shopping all day and all of a sudden, it’s like, I’m not used to going out and that is going to be problematic. There are some studies being done now looking at that. You know what sort of impact it might have on our patients but seeing as we’re still at COVID-19 It’s too early to say what the results of that study might be.

So what’s the incidence of separation anxiety? When we talk about anxiety in general, we know that about 20% of dogs and 20% of cats probably have some sort of anxiety disorder and anxiety can be perfectly normal. We should be worried about things but there was one survey done on Australian dogs and they found that almost 9% of these dogs had moderate to severe separation anxiety. So not just mildly upset, but you know, the disruptive behaviours that we saw escaping behaviours, the self mutilating behaviours. So that’s a real worry that you know, almost 9% of our dogs have signs of moderate to severe anxiety. The next study I think, is even more worrying for me is that I did this in the United States and found that about 60% of these dogs remained untreated. So even though these dogs had moderate to severe separation anxiety, the owners didn’t think to treat them or didn’t know how to treat them, you know, they didn’t know where to go for help. And that’s why I said when you’ve got an animal with a medical problem, you that should always be your first port of call, but some of these dogs just didn’t get treated because I think people didn’t know what to do about them. And unfortunately, that’s where they might have got surrendered to. So this is a serious welfare issue if we really are here to look after the best interest of the animals.

Think COVID-19 We may see some different things I you know, as I said, there’s a study going on now. And I think we might see that the incidence might be different, but I guess we won’t know until we get there so they don’t and we see what’s happening in the world. I don’t think all animals are going to be problematic when we go back to work. I think some of these animals, to be honest, I think we’re gonna go a few hallelujah now I can go back to my normal routine, whatever normal is, I don’t have to deal with people 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but I do think some of them are going to be you know, find it very difficult to be left alone. So a couple of words about behaviour and where it all comes from. When we talk about behaviour. There’s three things that determine the behaviour going to see in your dog or cat, people person for that. There’s a genetic predisposition, you can inherit certain characteristics from your parents and your grandparents. And we know now there’s genes that are involved with anxiety and probably as that study is done, we’ll find that there are genetic predisposition for separation anxiety as well. We know the second thing that affects behaviour is learning what you’ve learned from previous experiences, experiences, bad experiences are different experiences. We all take that on board and it does affect the way that we’re going to behave in situations later on. And the third thing that affects behaviour is the environment. We already touched on the fact that separation anxiety changes in the environment can trigger an animal to show signs of separation anxiety. When we talk about these three things. It’s it’s easy to think that they’re three separate scenarios, but in fact, they’re not. They’re intricately linked. So it’s not that it’s just genetics or just learning or just environment. I always find it interesting when people say oh, he does that because he’s a Jack Russell or he does that because he’s a German shepherd or she’s a greyhound. That’s why she behaves that way. It’s not that simple. There’s many, many factors that influence the behaviour that an animal’s going to show at any particular time. One way that I like to look at anxiety and certainly separation anxiety is look at behaviour and emotions. And I think of these as a traffic light system. So what we really like is animals that are nice, cool calm collected, we like to be nice. So when you’re in what I call the Green Zone, it’s you’re relaxed, you’re able to learn you’re able to take in the environment make very rational decisions about things because it’s easy for you to take in that information and your emotions at a lower level of arousal. When you go to that orange state. We call amber or yellow wherever country should come from. When you get to that stage, things aren’t so calm anymore. It’s your a little bit more rouse a bit more worried about things. This is when you might see the dog or the cat being a little bit hyper vigilant, looking around. I don’t know what to happen. There’s more unsure of what’s going on. And the big problem is if you go into the red zone and that’s not a happy place to be when in the red side, it’s all about I’m really worried I’m really distressed and it’s when people often talk about the flight or flight response and we’ll touch on that in a minute. But in that red zone is when you see these animals that are panicking that they’re literally trying to break down doors and walls they damage themselves, where their captors can’t stop grooming itself because it’s in that heightened state of arousal and distress. So traffic lights are an easy way to remember where your pet is. Also for us. I think it’s helpful, but I like to think of traffic lights, like I’m gonna get into the red zone. Maybe I’m getting too worried about something. Maybe I need to try and calm down and that’s one of the things that we can do to help animals not become so distressed and hopefully not get to all the facets of separation anxiety that we might see. We talk about defence, if any of your bits of paper recertified, they will probably have posters all around the place talking about FAS, and FAS really stands for fear, anxiety and stress. So for you can be quite normal. We should be worried about some things, but it’s very situational. I might be worried going to the dentist that’s over and done with. Whereas when it goes to anxiety again, I might be anxious about my exams coming up. But again, it should pass. But when you get all three together fear, anxiety and stress. That’s when we’re really having problems and I think this is what we’re seeing with these dogs and cats with separation anxiety. They’re really stressed. They’re really worried about things and it’s our job is public welfare to help them be less stress, less people less anxious.

So I was talking about the forest. I like to have things simple for me to remember in the forest. That’s how I remember if you’re in the green zone, if you’re in the orange zone or if you’re in the red zone. So when you’re in the green zone, you don’t have any of these when you’re in the red zone. That’s when you see the fight or flight response. That’s when everybody’s familiar with the adrenaline rush again, you’re really worried these are the dogs that want to run away they want to hide behind you that goes and hides under the cupboard and doesn’t come out or the cat that might whistle speed or the dog that tries to growl but they’re really really worried. They’re very stressed and anxious, and that’s why they’re behaving that way. So that’s the red zone. When you see animals that do it that are doing the other two F’s, that’s when they’re in the yellow orange. So the freeze response is commonly seen. We call that the rabbit in the headlights but sometimes we’ll have pets that come into the bed and we’re examining the dog or the cat is so good just sitting there letting us do everything, but they’re not always relaxed to actually frozen because they’ve worried about what’s going on. So there’s a big difference in that tenseness in the in the musculature, that facial expressions, the way these are healed so they might not actually be relaxed when they’re being examined. They may actually be frozen. And again, this is important for us to recognise when we’re dealing with animals with anxiety. And you’re going to see this with dogs and cats with separation anxiety as well. And the other thing that we’re going to see when we have animals in that orange, so an early stages of separation anxiety, you might see this in your pets as well. They have what we call the foetal response or the Fidget response. They’re perfectly normal behaviours, but not in the context in which they occurred. So the kinds of things that we see a really, really critical displacement behaviours, but because I like the forest I couldn’t get through yesterday to deal with it. So that’s why I’ve always called them the forests. And the fiddle behaviours are the ones that are really important to recognise. These are the displacement behaviours, they’re normal behaviours, but they are out of context. So they indicate internal conflict or stress that the animals feeling. And the common ones you might see is yawning or lip licking, grooming, think about the cats that overgrown sleeping or sleeping. So it’s perfectly normal for dogs and cats to yawn. You wake up in the morning, you have a bit of a yawn, but if they’re yawning when you’re just leaving the house, but they haven’t just woken up for a sleep, that’s not that’s not normal, that’s when they’re you’re telling that they’re telling you that I’m in that yellow zone orange and I’m getting worried looking when you haven’t just finished a meal, grooming when you’re hurt when there’s really nothing there that you often see the dog’s scratch or the Cadillac and there really isn’t a flea there, there’s nothing to be seen. That’s an indication. Sleeping is a perfectly normal behaviour. We see that dogs doing that a lot when they go for a walk and all dogs should be sleeping when they go on a walk. But if they don’t keep stuffing and stuffing and stuffing everything in the same environment, no matter what we’re changing from one tree to the next to there’s always email messages to pick up I’m talking about it’s in an environment it just goes around sniffing the same thing all the time. That tells you it’s getting worried and sleeping sleeping people think is normal and it is normal. Don’t get me wrong. Animals like us need sleep. But excessive sleep can also indicate signs of anxiety or depression where they just like I’m really worried maybe if I just lie here, the world won’t be as bad as I think. So this yawning is a classic sign that we see that lip licking is another classic sign of a dog that’s particularly worried about what’s going to be happening to it. So you see these signs out of context. As my dog gets up in the morning has a big stretch. It has big yawn and then it does what we call a shake off as if she’s been in water and she hasn’t. That’s perfectly normal. But if I see her shaping up and other times during the day, I think she’s not feeling comfortable about what’s going on at all. So signs of fear and anxiety. And these are very similar to the what we’ve talked about with signs of separation anxiety. We’re going to see painting we’re going to see shaking, trembling, often these animals will grab food as if there’s something like they’ve been starved forever, and the animals don’t take root but also to do that they’re getting fearful and anxious. Lower body posture crouching is about they’ve got a wrinkled brow. You can see the whites of their eyes. They’re all signs that tell you that this dog is getting worried and you’ll see some of these in cats as well. That vigilance, scanning the environment. What’s going to happen I was talking about these animals with separation anxiety, sort of sleeping with one ear open and when I opened because my goodness, you might even leave me by myself that will be problematic. I’m dilated pupils. That’s also a sign of stress or anxiety. Again, we’ve talked about the grooming the snipping the lip licking and the warning. They’re really the most common ones you’re gonna see with animals. We’re starting to get worried. Are you going to leave me Is this the end of World and animals that sleep too much? Now what the animal does when it gets worried that it’s going to hit left? Flight fight freeze or final response really depends on the genetic predisposition, what its previous experiences are and the environment that it is in at the time so a dog may exhibit all or none of those behaviours a cat may exhibit two or three of those behaviours, but it’s all about the individual animal. Just a quick word about panic attacks because I think that’s really important when we see animals with separation anxiety. Not every anxious animal has a panic attack, but they’re relatively common. They usually come without warning and the fear is generally irrational, but the perceived danger is very real. I know people who’ve had panic attacks tell me that they can’t breathe they’re really upset. They sometimes think they’re gonna die. And I think this is how these animals feel because if you think about it, how else could a dog do so much damage to itself that it break its front teeth or rip its nails out? It’s got to be having a panic attack. It’s not thinking rationally, but the perceived danger to the animal itself is very, very real. So separation anxiety. Again, there’s the things that worry me about it, but there’s some signs of other owners or others or than other signs, but all of these are distressing for the dog so the dog that’s barking all the time and eating at the front door taking you know when the curtains off the windows and the blinds are coming down. It’s really distressing for you if you have one of these doors that’s really distressing for the doctor because it’s really not a natural or ecologically normal behaviour. Certainly urination and defecation in unacceptable places. We don’t like that very much but the animals have their house trained they don’t do it to get back at you. They’re not doing it because you know they’ve been left alone per se because they feel like they need to get back at you. They’re doing it because they’re stressed. And most of us would have experienced that stress of having to go to the bathroom when you’re really worried about something. And you know, sometimes I think the sad thing is that if you don’t have this vocalisation and destruction, you’ve just got a dog that’s panting you may not be aware that the dog has even got separation anxiety. And sometimes I think as I said to look at that study that was done in the US, a lot of people don’t go to the veterinarian to seek help because they don’t think that there could help and yet vets can help a lot of these animals. One of the things that people sometimes say to me is Oh, yeah, he has a panic attack occasionally. Well, I don’t know if I was having a panic attack and I thought I was gonna die occasionally. I certainly wanted to have help for that. I don’t think that’s a nice or pleasant way to live. So my concerns and certainly with COVID and what’s happening now with all the changes in environment is we’re going to over diagnose separation anxiety that any dog that showing certain signs, we’re going to say, oh, it’s got dead separation. Anxiety, and there’s gonna have consequences to that because some of these animals are going to be treated when they probably don’t need that or the other problem I have is it’s going to be under diagnosed. So you know, if you have a dog that is just panting or celebrating, there’s no visible consequences of the distress, how how much effect is that going to have on that animal long term and that is a real concern if we’re not looking at these animals if we can’t see these signs of distress. So we’re going to talk about prevention. Well, one of the kinds of things that you can do to help your pet not get separation anxiety or not develop a full blown attack that you might get. I think if you’ve got an anxious animal, the predisposition is there but there’s still lots of things that you can help the dog or the cat. So identify the signs of fear, anxiety and stress, look for those. Fight, bike freeze and feel responses and if you think about doing something about it, recognise that there may be a genetic predisposition in some of these animals. That’s something that we need to take into consideration and that it’s not people often feel like it’s their fault or the dogs been in the shelter. That’s why it’s happened. But maybe it’s just the fact that this is the way they’ve got that genetic predisposition. And because of the changes in the environment, that is what tipped the dog or pan over, intervene early. If you see the signs and you’re worried see a veterinarian, there’s lots of things that they can do to help you and if your veterinarian feels that they need to be referred on to a specialist, I will do that for you as well. So this is my dog. I don’t have her anymore. I have to give her her wings last year. She was 13 and a bit and she had very, very severe separation anxiety. When I got her I inherited her because my best friend died and unfortunately she had to be in the shelter until the lawyers sorted out where she could go what could happen, but she also had an always phobia, but I can tell you with treatment, she lived a very long and happy and healthy life until she was 13 and a bit and it wasn’t the separation anxiety or it wasn’t for sure, but she did pretty well. But the whole idea was to was to aim I told her that being alone that wasn’t the worst thing in the world. We were gonna come back she could tolerate that. And certainly it was really nice to be able to go out know that the house wasn’t going to be destroyed that she wasn’t going to jump off for me to balcony that she wasn’t trying to escape, which is what she tried to do when I first saw her. She didn’t need to vocalise and get stressed and we could really help her with that. And she also had an West phobia and I still remember when when she got to tolerate noise, she can sit there and the fireworks on TV and look at them outside the window, and it was all good. And that’s why we manage these animals with separation anxiety. So how do we manage them? We have to manage their environment, we have to modify their behaviour and usually if there’s cases of severe or even moderate, we might need medication as well. So we have to look after the genetics we have to modify what they’ve learned, behaviour modification, and look at their environment. But we also need to monitor monitor the response if things aren’t helping, then you need to talk to your veterinarian and see how we can help those pets when they are getting really distressed being by themselves. So, what do we do with the environment? I think it’s really important if your dog is really distressed about being left alone, don’t leave it alone. Initially, it doesn’t have any coping strategies at all. People will often tell you they need some treats and toys with it. But if you really dismiss treats and toys are going to help. This is where sometimes you can get a dumpster doggy daycare, or it was just in the early stages while we’re doing the other things just don’t leave the dog alone because the more you practice being distressed when you’re alone, that worse it’s gonna get added Richmond and I think with caution, I think it is good to have toys and treats and things to do. But sometimes too many choices can be just as difficult as not enough choices. So they always need something to chew on if they’re a disruptive kind of dog and this dog has got a chew toy there. But if you gave this little puppy five or six or 10 or 20 toys, and that just might be too overwhelming for it. So it’s really important that we give them things to do but not too much. And years ago people used to talk about ignoring your dog before you leave and ignoring the dog when you come home. You know the some of the old textbooks I’ve read is that 20 minutes before you go don’t have anything to do with the dog 20 minutes after you come home. But

I don’t think that’s going to be helpful at all. If I’ve had a bad day at work and my husband ignores me for 20 minutes after I come home. I don’t think it’s going to make my stress or anxiety any better. I’m wanting to acknowledge that and I think it’s really important that we say it’s okay I’m home now I’m just gonna get another cup of tea and then I’ll come and talk to you but always talk to them. Always acknowledge the presence. Remember, if you’re anxious, you actually need information. And if you ignore them, you’re actually getting no information and no information is very very distressing to a lot of these animals. So how do we manage the environment we want to avoid the stimuli triggers if possible. Sometimes these dogs have separation anxiety gets a separation anxiety are very good at knowing if you’re going to leave. Years ago we used to do things like if one of the attributes, pick up the keys, put them down, open the door, shut the door, pick up your bag, put it down, put your coat on, take it off, but those students learned very quickly when it was really our guy as opposed to maybe just playing a game and that what happens is what we call that chaining, they learned that you know sometimes that’s the alarm going off in the morning means someone’s going to work or brushing your teeth means you’re going to leave so avoid them if you can, but sometimes this is not possible. And certainly I don’t believe in picking up pieces and putting them down and doing that because I think you’re just trained to go by Okay, now that’d be really alert as to when you really got to go. Do like dogs and cats having a safe place to be that they feel that’s home. I think crates can be really good for some dogs. They can feel very comfortable in there that’s, you know like it’s me going to bed at night but the bedroom door nothing. I feel nice and safe and relaxed in there. Having a bed. It doesn’t have to be locked up. But if you’ve got a dog it’s distracting. Maybe a credit is better laundry, but somebody with the animals was comfortable. Never put them in there. When when you think they’re being naughty. It’s not a punishment. It’s always a safe place a comfortable place to relax places that that dog or cat can go to because cats really appreciate places that are theirs and safe and nobody can get to them. behaviour modification what we try and do is teach calm on cue. So wherever the dog or the cat and I do this with both for being happy that’s really important. We’re so busy trying to teach them to come in and sit dropped, we forget that they’re just lying around resting. That’s what you really want them to do. So I always reward them, whisper to them telling them what to do or that you’re not just learning about what’s perfect. That’s exactly what I want you to do. So this teaches them to relax on cue, and we want to reward that relaxed behaviour. I tend not to use treats for this because that can be arousing for some dogs and you can imagine some beagles who are just going to be very arousing, but I use my voice and whisper I tell them they’re a good kid. Because whispering helps decrease the arousal and fitness certainly decreases my arousal like if I’m whispering about calm with them when I’m using my normal voice. Certainly if I’m raising my voice, really important that we don’t punish them. These animals are scared they’re scared, they’re terrified. They’re frightened. And getting into trouble for being scared or frightened does not make that anxiety go away. So it’s really important that we actually teach them what we want to do. Lie on your mat be calm. Here’s some rewards with my with my voice. I’m gonna tell you a good kid, but never punish or reprimand them or throw them in the crate as a punishment because that is not going to help medication. In the severe cases. They certainly need medication but medication is not a quick fix or a silver bullet. It’s not an overnight cure. We don’t have a magic pill yet. Because if we did, we wouldn’t be in the state we’re in now we wouldn’t have COVID-19 and we wouldn’t be able to dismiss about it but medication can certainly help. It’s an adjunctive therapy. So we use it with behaviour modification and managing their environment. Because we need to do both at the same time. It can certainly be life saving. There’s no doubt about that. My German Shepherd when she tried to jump out of a second story window, I knew she wasn’t going to survive unless I did something with more than just managing her environment. So it certainly was life saving for her event might prescribe medications for situationally, we’ve got to go out for a short period of time. They might prescribe medication that’s more long term. If you’ve got a really severe anxiety, they might prescribe a combination of both and the kind of things that I find really helpful in the early stages. Certainly if you’ve got a new puppy or you’ve got a new kitten and it’s coming to your house, and things are going to change using the Syndic they’re about analogues like adaptable silhouette that was a dog’s feeling away for cats can be really helpful. They come in different forms. Sometimes diffusers sometimes raise but for mild anxieties, new pets, they’re just fabulous. In just decreasing that anxiety for some animals. It’s certainly not the magic bullet but it can be very, very helpful. zylkene is another product it’s a milk byproduct. It works on receptors that might be a bit likely to have belly and been hammered out. Again, these are production by over the counter from a bit they can be really helpful for some animals, not so much for the severe anxieties, depression, anxiety for the mild ones, and certainly getting adjusted to do things that can be really helpful. And if it goes to the case then they usually are going to need psychotropic medications. They’re not designed to sedate them. They’re not designed to change your personality. They’re actually really to help take away the anxiety and remember if you’re anxious, you can’t learn so we need to take that anxiety away so that they can actually do that thing by itself is not the end of the world by any any stretch of the imagination. So for me, the top tips that I would give you is what I call the three R’s to prevent separation anxiety and help gets back to get back to the new normal, whatever that is, I be interested to see what happens it is routine routines are really really, really important. And it doesn’t mean you have to do everything at the same time. 6am 10am 4pm But routines make us feel comfortable and routines make the animal’s life predictable. They know what might happen. They know that they’re gonna get better at a certain time. They get watered in a certain time they get walked at a certain time and having routines and doing those routines now even if you’re not back at work, getting that pet ready for you to go okay I might have to go back to work. Now’s a good time to do it. Even if it’s just a matter of saying okay, you’re gonna get walked in, I’m gonna go and work in my office at home, but I’m gonna shut the door so you can’t be with me all the time. And routines that are predictable, that are clear and consistent can really help animals and people become less anxious. The other thing that I think is really important is rewarding, relaxed behaviour. I think so often we focus on that on the frantic behaviour, the upset behaviour, just rewarding the relaxed behaviour, quietly whispering tiny little treats eating and being a great kids does exactly what I want you to do. That’s really, really important. And I think we really, really need to focus on that. And the other thing that I’ve seen a bit of problems with this request as well. Dogs and cats may sleep up to 16 or 18 hours a day they need rest. You’re either at risk. I don’t think I could sleep at but it sounds pretty good, but think about it. But rest is really really important. And sometimes when we’re with the animals all the time, which is you know if you’re working from home and studying the animals don’t have a chance to rest and that can increase their anxiety because they’re with you all the time. They’re watching you all the time, then you want to take them for a walk then you want to do something else. So time to rest is really, really important. It’s if you think about routines, rewarding, relaxed behaviour, and having the ability to rest safely comfortably. You’re going to go a long way to help these animals. Perhaps not totally permitted separation anxiety, but to minimise the effects of it helped that animal cope with when things go back to whatever the new normal is. So with that, I’m going to open it up for questions if they if you have any and thank you for your attention. And hopefully we’ll it’s been have helped you in some way what we’ve talked about tonight.

That was great. Thank you so much, Dr. Brooks. Also we do have quite a few questions that have come through. So the first one isn’t. One of our attendees has just moved to a new house. And since the move her 10 year old dog will not stop howling when he’s left alone. They have a pet camera so they’ve observed that behaviour and it goes on for hours on end.

Yep, that’s the change in routine it’s, it’s a new house, a new environment, things are different. And I did mentioned before that older animals sometimes are very susceptible to these changes. If that dog is really not resting at all, and it’s helping all day. It sounds like a dog that’s gonna need a little bit more help. This is probably the time to go and see you that talk about if they if you’re a first of all, check out that there’s nothing physically wrong because sometimes signs of stress and anxiety can look like signs of pain. So as an older dog, I would always want a little bit to do a really good health check. Make sure there’s no arthritis or anything else that’s causing pain that may cause that dog to be howling. And then I guess if that has been all rolled out in the blood tests are all clear. I’d be thinking of asking you a bit about some help with some anti anxiety medication to help that dog cope. Meanwhile, this might be a dog that you know if you have a friend look after it or a dog sitter or take it somewhere so it isn’t alone until it adjust to the new environment. Things about new environments are very interesting because you think you’re moving all the furniture and stuff but what’s going on outside can be quite distressing. If there’s dogs barking next door cats moving past so keep reading noise. They can all be distressing to dogs. I think it helps trick would be the first thing to do. Maybe some anti anxiety medication and certainly some behaviour modification as well would be really useful and we’d like to

well barking seems to be a popular topic tonight. But we also have an attendee that needs some advice about a seven month old, many ducks into bonds when left alone inside the

house. Lucky is probably the most common complaint that councils actually have because nothing is normal and I think we should say that right up front. Barking is as normal for dogs as speaking is for us. And we actually bred dogs to be our early warning system when dogs and people first started to become a co investigator many many 1000s of years ago. We wanted dogs to bark but we wanted them to be our early warning system and do that and my dog certainly if someone comes to the door, I’m really happy that she bats. But I’m also happy she’s got an off switch so that we’re not used to I thank you that’s great. That’s fabulous. That’s great. If the barking is excessive, then it needs investigation and there is no one simple answer to that. Dogs when they bark are communicating. They are often looking for information and so trying to stop the barking and it was just just as we went people want to put any bark collars on the dog to suppress the behaviour. The dogs are barking for a reason and we need to look into that. So my advice is a seven month old puppy you’ve probably got a puppy that’s just starting to get into its teenage years. So it’s going to be a little bit more wanting information. demanding of Okay, so what are we going to do now? What are we going to do now? Videos of that dog and seeing when it’s barking what the circumstances it can give veterinarians and very behaviourist a truckload of information. That’s what the underlying cause would be. But again, always make sure there’s nothing physically wrong with the dog. When the dog is barking, I think it’s always good to acknowledge it because I always tell my dog Well, thank you. That’s really good. Thanks, but that’s enough. I don’t need to know any more. And if that dog is showing signs of anxiety, that’s the reason it’s barking then you are probably going to need I would probably start with trying pheromone colour on it first or diffuser, but if it’s quite severe that it probably needs further investigation with your veterinarian or veterinary behaviourist

Okay, thanks Christy and here’s one I can sympathise with. We just bought a new house and my favourite feature was the backyard and within 24 hours, my three Labradors gave that backyard not so nice renovation. So this attendee is worried about their dog digging in the backyard, particularly when they’re not at home.

Yeah, digging is part of that escaping behaviour and it’s again, let me say but a digging is perfectly normal behaviour of dogs to do. We bred them to go down rabbit holes, we bred them to do things for us and some of them are naturally bigger than others. I think some of them actually. You know, like designing your new garden doctor by hand so you’re gonna be grateful for that may not be what you wanted, but it’s probably working for them but digging. The problem is, is where you dig. I’ve had dogs that dig because they can hear the water in the pipes underneath and so they’re actually listening to something they dig if they’re buried by and they’ll dig that up. We see dogs with obsessive compulsive disorders that just have to dig and dig and dig and showmanship had had an element of that too until we settle down with their anxiety. There are dogs who are so distressed that being and I guess this is where your participant has to be ready if they’re deeply offensive, they can dig themselves out. And that can be a real problem because obviously then they can escape they can get run over and again, this would be a really good idea to have a video camera and collect some information on when the dog needs where it digs. You know, is it is it trying to dig out is it at certain times of day it does that is it only when the owners are out or does the ticket other times because it can be just a normal play behaviour, but it’s it’s doing it at other times, then it probably needs more investigation. People think behave is really simple. And I’m just going to do this and that’s it. It’s actually very complex. If you think about why you do things. There’s a lot of reasons why you might be chewing your fingernails or tapping your fingers on the table or you know why you’re reading that book over another book. So it needs a bit of investigation but some videos with detailed diaries you’ve been there and we’re able to help you a lot with that. But I would be concerned with adoptees when you’re not home, because then it may escape them and that’s when all sorts of trouble can happen. And they can damage themselves as well. That’s that’s certainly something that we see if they if they’re doing that I have had a patient the other day that had been D in the river somewhere in blocked or something and it’s floating and end up with a nasty infection in its foot. So dealing although it’s normal can have its consequences as well.

Thank you so much for those tips. So we have another attendee who’s recently adopted a six year old Greyhound and it’s great and follows them around the house constantly. When they leave to have to go for work is created. We’ll pick and choose the blind and it wouldn’t

be good for you taking a greyhound I think it’s but I think all dogs and cats are wonderful. Just that I used to do some work for Greyhound rescue so I’ve always lucky and lovely to hear when greyhounds make get adopted. But yeah, I think your dog sounds like it has separation anxiety because it’s doing with other dogs that really made it your outside vote garden to start renovating your inside garden inside of your house. Again, that sort of destructive behaviour when it’s left alone probably does indicate separation anxiety. This is a dog I would probably say first off, let’s not leave it alone until we teach it some coping strategies. Let’s work on rewarding that dog for being calm and quiet. I would probably thinking about giving this dog crate or a laundry room where it could be where it’s safe places where it has toys and it has food and water. But again, this may be an adult that’s going to need some extra help with some synthetic pheromones or maybe some more anti anxiety medication. Because if they’re getting to the point of destroying your house, and I can tell you they can do $10,000 worth of damage in a heartbeat. It’s going to be worthwhile seeking some professional help. So you’re not renovating your house all the time. But that’s a distress behaviour doing those renovations unfortunately. So start with keeping it safe, teaching it to be calm, rewarding it to be calm, get some routines going, maybe some pheromones and then also maybe we’re going to need some more help with some anti anxiety medication. Maybe just situationally just before you go out. Not sedatives, that’s not what we want. We don’t want to go to the dog out. We don’t want it lying around but it’s over, you’re falling over. It’s just to help the dog be more chilled. So that going out isn’t the disaster that the dog sees that he’s

do we also have a parent who just want some privacy. They have one router that the velcro dog is little shadow follows into the toilet into the yard into the bedroom. Is there any way they can address this behaviour?

Sounds like a toddler again really doesn’t. And those of you who had toddlers you know how that works. No privacy at all allowed because everything has to be investigated. Oh my dogs does a bit of that. No, not every time but I always joke that she’s making sure that we’re not gonna have a shower that I don’t drown in the shower. So she comes down and fix something she says okay, you seem to be fine. I don’t have to be with you. But again, that’s a sign of you know, anxiety and stress in that dog that the dog that has to be kind of mixed up all the time. And that is not normal. You know all dogs and people have kept some kids eventually learned to be independent. And that independence trying to calm the storm. Okay, I’m gonna reward you when you’re lying on your bed or in your bed and you’re relaxed and I’m just gonna go in the kitchen and you don’t have to come with me. You have to treat have something else to do. I can still talk to you. I can still reward you for being calm and quiet. But you don’t have to be with me all the time. If that dog is constantly following and I do see a lot of patients like that, then that usually means that we have to do something to help normalise that neuro chemistry in the brain because that is the anxious dog that just for them. It’s the end of the world if you’re out of sight. And we touched on this earlier in the presentation where you know you don’t you can just shut the door and the dog goes no, no, you can’t be on the other side of that door. That is just too hard to me. If you put them outside, they’ll go from window to window looking inside. And that tells you that dogs are really distressed. So again, this might be a good thing to go to your vet, have a talk to them have a look at some options. But if they’ve got severe anxiety like this dog sounds like it has the previous he’s only getting on when that dog can learn that being by itself. It’s not the end of the world because at the moment that dog being separated from you is Oh no, the world’s going to end it’s going to be grateful. As I said, I’ve got my dog she just comes out checks now you’ve survived the shell fine, that’s what I know better. And that’s fine by me but being followed all the time. There is no privacy with it. And you certainly need that dog needs a little bit of help to feel more confident that the world is not going to come to an end when when you go outside to the bathroom wherever else you go. So good luck with that.

And our last question for this evening. We have an attendee who has recently adopted a one year old dog into a multi pet household and it was handy having lots of trouble with toilet training, despite the fact that it had doggy door deployed. acceptable and provide access to the outdoors.

In a multi dog household, I mean sometimes the dogs can integrate into the really well because the other dogs sit the example that we go outside to eliminate dogs are very, they learned to eliminate on certain substrates. So if you have a dog because it be brought up on concrete for whatever reason if it came from such a, you know, I guess establishment and they’ll only gonna go on concrete if they’ve never paid or picked on grass that can be quite difficult for them to learn. It may actually be the doggie door I guess you know, I don’t know how heavily this dog goes in and out of the doggie door. But there were some dogs were actually frightened of going through the doggie door. If everybody goes at the same time they’ll follow but they certainly wouldn’t initiate going out to the doggie door. Not a great time of year to do it. But sometimes it might be worthwhile propping that doggie door open so that the dog doesn’t have to push through it because you do have to teach them to go through the doggie door. I know we might always I’ve always been on one side rewarded them for coming through rewards coming through without having to push the doggie door and then over time get used to it some dogs are better when they can see what’s through the dog door so you can get the clear plastic ones that will do that. But I think the first thing I would do the training that don’t make sure that dog knows how to go through the doggie door is not frightened. I have had some patients where they’ve gone through the door that don’t bend on their back or back on their back legs and that’s given them a ride but if your dog’s happy going in and out through the doggie door that would be the first step. The other thing is with toilet training. It takes time to do that. So every time I would probably say I would go out with the dog. Make sure it’s on a lead so it can’t go too far away. Make sure he’s or pips or whatever it supposed to do and then you reward it give it a nice little food treat quiet praise up to the stick bring it inside, take it out frequently pretended to puppy you know like you were doing an eight week old puppy and just keep rewarding, rewarding, rewarding the behaviour that you’re doing. And I guess the other thing is I keep saying is make sure that dog there’s no physical problem with it and that may be in the realm of you know the urination or defecation. It may be maybe it’s all going in and out the door but rewarding the behaviour being with the dog when it does it. Not just making sure the dog knows this is the place I want you to pay this hour where I want you to be rewarded every time making that doggie door not threatening for the dog. And I think you’ll probably get there but it does take a little bit of time and patience and lots of treats and no punishment. That’s really really important. You make a mistake, just clean it up. Not great to have pee or poop in the house. But it’s most dogs learned fairly fairly quickly that that’s that’s what they need to do is outside is where our preferred toilet for them is.

Good luck. Thank you very much. So thanks once again for all those questions. Unfortunately, we’re out of time today. Thank you all again for attending the webinar. We hope you enjoyed this session. A very special thanks to Dr. Sexsel for putting together today’s presentation and for giving up your time to share her knowledge and experience with us. Thanks so much again for joining us.