Two-WayCommunication

HusbandryTraining

TRAININGWorking with a “Difficult” Dog

© C

an

Stoc

k Ph

oto

Inc.

/Lop

olo

Issue No. 23 / March 2017

from the Guildwww.BARKSmagazine.com

POCKET PETS

EQUINE

The Effects of Declawing

Rethinking Rejection

BUSINESSThe Rates ConundrumCANINEFELINE

A Force-Free Publication from the Pet Professional Guild

BARKS

PPG Gear Swap ProgramProject Trade:

Strategic Discounts to Generate New Business, Build Market Share and Offer Better

Alternatives for Dogs and their Owners

Learning to Conquer FearDr. Kang Nee relates a tale of the empathy, commitment and resilience that are helping

rescue dog Princess overcome her separation anxiety

Yvonne Chia was unaware of her adoptedmixed breed Princess’separation anxiety untilshe came home one dayto find blood stains onthe floor by the door

This is the story of a brave woman, Yvonne Chia, and herequally brave dog, Princess. Yvonne had adopted 2-year-oldmixed breed, Princess, from the Society for the Preventionof Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) Singapore in April 2014. Awarethat Princess was noise-sensitive and dog-reactive, Yvonne em-barked on a behavior modification program with me to addressthese challenges. Little did she expect that she would end uphaving to rise to extraordinary heights to help Princess over-come an even greater and more distressing challenge.

In Chia’s own words: “It is odd to recall life before separationanxiety. The training program was straightforward on paper, butconsumed life so swiftly and in such unexpected ways, it felt like Iwas suddenly plunged into a different life.

“The first year was filled with a sense of entrapment in myown home: canceled appointments, shirked obligations and per-petual juggling of dog-sitting schedules. Without exaggeration, theone thing that made it possible was the humbling extent of gen-erosity, support and encouragement I received, for which I amtruly thankful.

“On occasion I was asked if all this was worth it, and it was asurprisingly easy answer when I imagined the life of a dog withseparation anxiety: imagine your worst phobia, your absoluteworst, one you would jump through a glass window or teardown a door to escape from, one that could make you screamfor hours or throw up in fear, and then imagine facing it for 10hours daily. It is hard to compare any of my inconveniences tothat. It has been a rough road, but I got a chance to return a frac-tion of the love and loyalty that Princess shows me all day, everysingle day.”

What Separation Anxiety Is NotTo understand what separation anxiety is, one has to know whatit is not. A dog who is suffering from separation anxiety is notbeing angry, spiteful or disobedient to get back at his guardiansfor leaving him alone. He is not acting out to seek attention, andit is not a condition he can “get over” on his own.

What is Separation Anxiety?Separation anxiety (SA) is one of the most common behavioralconditions in pet dogs (Overall, Dunham and Frank, 2001). It hasbeen estimated that at least 14 percent of dogs examined at typi-cal veterinary practices in the US show signs of separation anxi-ety (Novartis, 1997 (cited in Overall, 2001)). The AmericanVeterinary Medical Association estimates that 15 percent of the72 million dogs in the US suffer from some level of separationanxiety (DeMartini, 2017). Dogs with seemingly “milder” symp-toms, such as pacing, whining, or intermittent barking (DeMartini,2014) are often untreated, and continue to go through a daily or-

deal of heightened anxiety. Those who display severe symptoms,such as self-mutilation, escapism, significant destructive chewingof property, prolonged barking and howling (DeMartini, 2014)are not always so lucky as to remain in their current homes andmay be relinquished to a shelter to face an uncertain future. Forothers, euthanasia is a potential and, sadly, common outcome.

Separation anxiety is a disorder whereby a dog is terrified ofbeing left alone, and it is not something he is able to control. Theexact cause(s) of the disorder is not defined but, like many be-havior disorders, genetic, physiological and environmental factorsmay play a role. The onset of separation anxiety may be triggeredby, for example, a frightening experience when the dog had beenleft alone, relocation, changes in the family, a traumatic incident,or because the dog had been regularly left alone for excessivelylong periods of time. In addition, dogs who are particularly anx-ious, noise-sensitive or have been rehomed multiple times maybe predisposed to developing separation anxiety.

Separation anxiety dogs display a range of external behaviors,and the specific behaviors shown vary from individual to individ-ual. Dogs may be hypervigilant and watch their guardians care-fully for signs of their departure. When left alone, they may bark,whine or howl incessantly, drool and pant excessively, and elimi-nate when they are usually reliable in their housetraining. Theymay damage doors and windows as they scrabble or gnaw at thestructures to escape, or injure themselves in the attempt, rippingout nails or breaking teeth. Internally, an SA dog is in a constant

C A S E S T U D Y

BARKS from the Guild/March 201738

Photo: Yvonne Chia

C A S E S T U D Y

state of panic – his body becomes flooded with stress-inducingchemicals, and he becomes incapable of coping with being homealone.

Imagine if you were mortally afraid of water and you werethrown into the deep end of a pool. That utter terror of drown-ing is analogous to the panic that an SA dog experiences, everytime he is left alone at home.

What about the Human?Resentment, anger, frustration, incomprehension, distress, heart-break are feelings that may swirl endlessly in the minds andhearts of guardians of SA dogs. Incomprehension - after all, theyalways come home, so why is Fido so anxious? Anger and frustra-tion – when they return to a scene of costly destruction andangry complaints from neighbors. Heartbreak – when they finallyunderstand what their dog is going through daily, and tough deci-sions have to be made.

In the case of Chia, she was initially unaware of Princess’ sep-aration anxiety. There were no complaints from the neighbors,Princess appeared to be happy when Yvonne returned fromwork, and all seemed normal. One day, however, she noticed rawpatches of skin on Princess’ front paws, and found bloodstains onthe floor by the front door. A videocam proceeded to capturethe full extent of Princess’ panic in the 8-10 hours she was homealone each day. Within one minute of Yvonne’s departure,Princess whined and paced between the front door and a bed-room. She stood or laid by the front door and scrabbled franti-cally at the door for minutes at a time. Panting heavily, she pacedagain, rarely settling for more than a few seconds before the en-tire scene repeated itself until Yvonne returned, like a videocaught in an infinite loop. When Yvonne returned, Princessgreeted her with wild delirium. Her body language indicated thatshe was not just excited, she was highly stressed.

Empathy, Commitment, ResilienceThe path to resolving separation anxiety is a journey that seldommarches along in a straight line to success. It dips, climbs, twistsand turns like a rollercoaster track. This is a natural part of thelearning process for any dog, and even more so for an SA dog. Itcalls for Herculean levels of empathy, commitment and resiliencefrom the dog’s guardian.

Evaluating a dog for separation anxiety begins with ruling outother possible causes for the behaviors shown. For example, arethe potty accidents due to incomplete house training? Is the dogbarking in a crate because of confinement distress or because hehas not been crate trained appropriately? Does the dog receivesufficient and appropriate physical exercise and mental enrich-ment to rule out boredom-related behaviors? For senior dogs,could canine cognitive dysfunction be a contributing factor?

Once separation anxiety is identified, each training session iscrafted to set the dog up to succeed as his guardian(s) executeplanned departures and absences. This is done through a processof systematic desensitization designed to keep the dog below hisanxiety threshold as the guardian(s) leaves the house. If the dogis kept below anxiety threshold, he will not panic and therefore,will not exhibit the undesired behaviors. Over time, he begins to

relax during the guardian’s absence. In Princess’ case, when I started working with her last July,

her initial anxiety threshold was below one minute. We thereforestarted with Yvonne making extremely short absences of a fewseconds. We also identified those actions (known as pre-depar-ture cues) which indicated to Princess that Chia was about toleave, e.g. picking up her bag and keys, opening and closing thefront door, locking it, putting on shoes, the sound of her depart-ing footsteps, the sound of the elevator, etc. We then mixed themup by weaving these salient pre-departure cues into the trainingsessions. Based on Princess’ responses, the next session was de-signed to increase, decrease or maintain the duration of Yvonne’snext absence. The entire process was extremely dynamic, withChia, Princess and I working closely as a team, almost on a dailybasis. Our barometer of progress was always Princess; her bodylanguage would tell us if we were setting goals at an achievablelevel and pace for her. The goal was always to keep her underthreshold and in a positive emotional state.

To start with then, if an SA dog can only manage one minutebeing left alone at home without panicking, her guardian mustnot leave her alone for more than one minute at the absolutemaximum. Over time, as the dog is able to consistently relax, theduration of the guardian’s absences is systematically increased ina way that ensures they do not trigger an anxious reaction fromthe dog. Guardians must never take a huge leap in the training

BARKS from the Guild/March 2017 39

Princess (above left) in panic mode, scrabbles frantically at the door,injuring her paws and leaving blood stains on the floor (above right). Intime, by setting goals that matched her pace of learning, Princess(below) is relaxed enough to nap during a training session, instead of scratching at the door when her owner leaves.

Photo

s: Yv

onn

e C

hia

Princess in Panic Mode

C A S E S T U D Y

process, i.e. assuming that, if their dog isable to cope with being alone for 30minutes, that she will be “fine” if left forone hour. When guardians take leaps inthe training that are beyond what theirSA dog can handle, they risk causingtheir dog to regress and start panickingagain.

The requirement to suspend ab-sences understandably causes conster-nation for many a dog guardian – whatabout those times when they have toleave the home to go to work, run er-rands, go to the gym, collect mail, meetfriends for dinner, etc.? How wouldthey live their lives, if they were neverto leave their dog alone at home?

This brings us full circle to Chia’sheartfelt sense of “entrapment in her own home.” This emotionaland financial toll could have driven many dog guardians to aban-don the training altogether. But despite ups and downs, Chia, andcountless other SA dog guardians from around the world havefound it in themselves to dig deeper and, because of their com-passion, empathy and love for their dog, rise above and beyondthe usual level of duty of care. They find ways to galvanize a sup-port network that is akin to the best crowdsourcing effort – avillage of empathetic friends, family members, pet care profes-sionals and volunteers to keep their SA dog company for thosehours when they must be absent from home. As a certified sepa-ration anxiety trainer, I am part of this village for Chia andPrincess – as trainer, strategist, personal coach and cheerleader.Together we ride out the rough bits and cheer when we cruisealong.

At the time of writing, Princess could be left for up to 25minutes without displaying signs of anxiety during that time. Foran SA dog like Princess, we do not yet know where the journeyto resolving her separation anxiety will end. Some dogs over-come it faster than others and never look back. Other dogs needthe help of medication to kick-start the learning process. Somedogs may need someone to be there to break up a long day. Butas long as we work within the anxiety thresholds of each SA dog,we will see accumulative progress, resilience and improvement inthe quality of life for both dog and guardian. Every success is cel-ebrated because every tiny second or minute that becomes anxi-ety-free for an SA dog, means that the guardian is no longercompletely housebound. A 30-minute anxiety-free absence meansthe guardian can grab a quick meal at the coffee shop downstairs,or take a short walk. A 1 hour anxiety-free absence – a small

40 BARKS from the Guild/March 2017

References DeMartini Price, M. (2014). Treating Separation Anxiety inDogs. Wenatchee, WA: Dogwise Publishing Overall, K.L., Dunham, A.E, & Frank, D. (2001). Frequency ofnon-specific clinical signs in dogs with separation anxiety, thun-derstorm phobia, and noise phobia, alone or in combination.Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 219 (4)467 - 473. Retrieved January 13, 2017, from www.researchgate.net/publication/11827861_Frequency_of_nonspecific_clinical_signs_in_dogs_with_separation_anxiety _thunderstorm_phobia_and_noise_phobia_alone_or_in_combinationNovartis. (1997, April). Roundtable on Separation Anxiety.Birmingham, England. Greensboro, NC: Novartis AH, 1999

ResourcesHayward, T. (2016, May). Home Alone: The Painful Puzzle.BARKS from the Guild (18) 14-19. Retrieved January 18, 2017,from www.issuu.com/petprofessionalguild/docs/barks_from_the_guild_may_2016/14Malena DeMartini; The Experts on Separation Anxiety in Dogs:www.malenademartini.com

Dr. Kang Nee is a Singapore-based certified separation anxi-ety trainer (CSAT), who specializes in the treatment of canineseparation anxiety and operates Cheerful Dogs, www.cheerfuldogs.com. Together with well-known separation anxi-ety expert, Malena DeMartini and a team of 36 CSAT col-leagues worldwide, she hopes to alleviate the stress andfrustration of dogs suffering with separation-related disordersand those of their guardians.

www.tawzerdog.com

world of possibilities begins to beckon. Says Chia: “The positive emotions

that came with working with Princess’separation anxiety were less conspicu-ous, so I was often taken by surprise bytheir depth and intensity. I felt prideand a sense of achievement at seeingthis little dog conquer her fear in a wayfew of us would ever even attempt todo. I learned to treasure her everyhappy moment, and in turn I was happytoo. Most of all, helping Princess taughtme love and true acceptance - even ifshe struggles with what other dogs findeasy, [she] has always been the bestdog in the world to me. Never had Iexpected to get as much as I gave toour separation anxiety training pro-

gram. To my surprise, it made my world a brighter place.” n

Princess can now beleft for up to 25minutes withoutshowing any signs ofseparation anxiety;initially she showedsigns of stress withinone minute of herowner’s departure