Barking of the Dogs When Left Alone Related to Separation Anxiety

 

The grounds and aim:

The living conditions today demand silence especially in the city apartments. For the sake of neighbor peace and for the well being of the dog, the reasons and solutions for barking related to separation anxiety should be clarified and solved.

The questions are asked to the owners of miniature schnauzers. This will gain a bit of information about how the problem occurs among the breed.

 

Materials and methods:

Questionnaire was sent to a Finnish miniature schnauzer discussion site, from were I got five answers via e-mail. The following questions were asked:

 

Background of the dog:

Breed?

Sex?

Age?

Do you have several dogs?

Do you have other animals?

How old was the dog when you bought it?

How long time per day and how many times a day you walk out with the dog?

Do you have any hobbies with the dog?

What kind of hobbies?

How long time does it take to practice that per week?

Problem:

When did the problem occur or when or how did you notice the problem?

In what kind of situations problem occur?

How old was the dog when the problem started?

Did you get the problem solved somehow?

If yes, how did you solve the problem?

Other comments?

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Background

Dogs have an inherited predisposition to bark. Barking occurs when other dogs or people approach their territory. They might also bark with different vocal tone and pattern when they are playing. They also have a tendency to join in with other barking dogs (Hart 1978).

We are concentrating to the barking when they are left alone in an isolated place, like the house, car or enclosure for instance due to separation anxiety. The reasons for the barking might be also other reasons like guarding behavior that might also occur in owner's presence. Most likely separation anxiety is one of the main reasons for the barking.

 

 

 

 

 

Separation anxiety is defined as excessive vocalization, inappropriate elimination and destruction associated with the owner's absence (Takeuchi et al., 2000). Barking is the most common behaviour, in Bradshaw's it was 15% (Bradshaw et al., 2002).

 

When does separation anxiety occur?

The median age of dogs at onset of separation anxiety was older than 1.5 years (Appleby & Pluijmakers, 2004).

 

What kind of dog gets separation anxiety?

Separation anxiety is more common among mixed breeds (Takeuchi et al., 2001), but this might be more due to environmental than genetic reasons. For example most rescue dogs are no pedigree dogs, so being a rescue might be a more convincing reason for separation anxiety rather than breed. It is also possible that owners of mixed-breed dogs might leave their dogs alone for longer times (Bradshaw et al., 2002). Some studies presented the sexes in equal numbers whereas males were overrepresented in some (Takeuchi et al., 2001). Therefore it is possible that the males have the symptoms more often or the symptoms are stronger and more noticeable than the corresponding symptoms with females.

 

What causes the separation anxiety?

Separation anxiety is product of dog-owner relationship. It is commonly thought to develop as a result of the strong attachment between a dog and its owner. (Bradshaw et al., 2002)

Causes for separation anxiety might be prolonged period without separation from the owner or the person the dog is attached to, periods of kennelling and a house move with the owner (Appleby & Pluijmakers, 2004).

 

How could separation anxiety be prevented?

Fear and bad confidence of the dog are one of the reasons why separation anxiety might occur.

Often wide range of experiences is introduced to a newly homed puppy, and these experiences might be reduced adversely by the time. This pattern might bring out separation-relation problems because puppies have gained expectations that interactions with people would be both frequent and varied (Bradshaw et al., 2002). This is why it is recommendable to make sure that the newly homed puppy has the opportunity to learn to cope with short periods of isolation that are prolonged gradually. And on the other hand confidence should be built up by giving the dog a wide variety of experiences between about five to ten months of age (Bradshaw et al., 2002).

 

How could separation anxiety be treated?

Training

Separation anxiety can be treated with training where dog is gradually introduced to be alone relaxed. During the training period dog should be avoided to be left alone for real.

 

 

 

Training is started with sit stay practice. Owner can gradually leave the room and even the house and prolong the periods of absence. There are some important rules in this kind of training. The owner should start with absence duration that the dog can tolerate, for instance for couple of seconds or minutes. Absence duration should be repeated enough times; failure will slow down the learning. The length of the absence should be slowly increased randomly, so that the dog cannot learn to anticipate the return. (Voith & Borchelt, 1985)

 

 "Short cuts – or not?"

Man has come up with many more or less ethical ways of preventing the barking when left alone by punishments and prevention. When using these kinds of methods it should be considered that the vocalisation, not the anxiety experienced by the dog is reduced if the method is working.

Citronella spray collars and anti-barking muzzles are some of the devices used. De-barking surgery has also been used.

Anti-barking muzzle imposes pressure on the jaws of a barking dog and inhibits the barking by tiring the jaw muscles (Cronin et al., 2003). However, the effects to the drinking and panting behaviour during the hot weather might get inhibited as well.

Dogs habituate to the citronella spray collars irrespective of how the animal is exposed to the device (Wells, 2001). Therefore citronella spray collar can only be a temporary prevention method.

De-barking surgery has been used to prevent the vocalisation. However some voice may still remain and complications are possible (Lane et al., 1989), and it should be considered as the very last option, if as option at all.

 

Results

Background of the dog

Questionnaire was answered by five owners. Three of the owners had two dogs, and two had one. They had generally got the dog when it was from seven to eight weeks; one had got the dog when it was older. Dogs' current age was ranging from 3 months to a bit over 3 years. Dogs were home alone ranging from three hours to nine hours, on average around seven hours. Dogs were taken out from two to four times a day with total duration from two to four hours. Four of five dog owners had some hobbies with the dog, like obedience training. The duration of the training was around ten minutes per day.

 

Problem

All the dogs had occasional barking when left alone, especially if noises were heard from outside. One of the dogs had separation anxiety and another one had shown symptoms of separation anxiety like whining and barking when it was smaller. The problem occurred for the first time around three to four months on three of the five cases.

Solution for the first dog with the separation anxiety was the company of another dog. The other one was taken with when it was possible, radio was left on and enrichments were provided, but it had not solved the problem.

 

 

 

In the homes where the barking was occasional barking did not apparently do so much harm that the solution possibilities were considered. In one case the space had to be limited to the bathroom to avoid the barks stimulated from noises and sights.

 

Conclusions

Separation anxiety should be tried to be prevented in advance. Homed puppies should be gradually customized to isolation. Social interactions should not been reduced suddenly but gradually after first weeks in the new home. Self confidence should be built in a long run with new experiences and training with a stable schedule.

There seemed to more occasional barking among miniature schnauzers than anxious barking but the problem was still evident in the breed. The symptoms seemed to come during early age, from three to four months. Therefore problem prevention should be considered from the first days puppy is introduced to its new home.

 

References:

Appleby, D., Pluijmakers, A.S., 2004. Separation anxiety in dogs: The function of homeostasis in its development and treatment. Clinical Techniques in Small Animal Practice 19 (4) 205-215.­

 

Bradshaw, J.W.S., McPherson, J.A., Casey, R.A., Larter, I.S., 2002. Aetiology of separation-related behaviour in domestic dogs. The Veterinary Record 151, 43-46.

Cronin, G.M., Hemsworth, P.H., Barnett, J.L., Jongman, E.C., Newman, E.A., McCauley, I., 2003. An anti-barking muzzle for dogs and its short-term effects on behaviour and saliva cortisol concentrations. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 83, 215-226.

 

Hart, B. L., 1978. Problems With the Barking Dog. Canine Practice 5 (1), 8-12.

Wells, Deborah L., 2001. The effectiveness of a citronella spray collar in reducing certain forms of barking in dogs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 73, 299-309.

 

Lane G., Harvey C., Turner T., Bedford P., 1989. De-barking dogs. Journal of Small Animal Practice 30 (9) 529

 

Takeuchi, Y., Houpt, K.A., Scarlett, J.M., 2000. Evaluation of treatments for separation anxiety in dogs. Journal of American Veterinary Medical Association 217, 342-345.

 

Takeuchi, Y., Ogata, N., Houpt, K.A., Scarlett, J.M., 2001. Differences in background and outcome of three behavior problems of dogs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 70 297-308.

 

 

 

 

 

Wells, L., 2001. The effectiveness of a citronella spray collar in reducing certain forms of barking in dogs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 73, 299-309.

 

Voith V., Borchelt P.L., 1985. The dog that cannot be left alone. Veterinary technician 6 (2) 95-97.