My dog Lorna Doone is a cautious sort, bordering on “Eeyore-ish.” Often when I have described her “dish-half-full” personality to friends, I’ve been accused of anthropomorphizing. A recent article in the New York Times suggests that I’m not.
It turns out that dogs can be pessimistic just like people. A new study in Current Biology found that dogs that exhibit anxiety when their owners leave them at home alone may be stuck in a permanent, gloomy mood.
The researchers placed 24 shelter dogs in isolated settings and observed their reactions, which included barking, jumping on furniture and scratching at the door. Then they placed bowls in two rooms — one with food and one empty. After training the dogs to understand that bowls can sometimes be empty, they began to place bowls in ambiguous locations.
Dogs that quickly raced to the locations were deemed more optimistic (and hungry), while those who did not were labeled pessimistic. The more separation anxiety a dog expressed while in isolation, the more likely they were to have a pessimistic reaction.
Is canine anxiety on the rise? While there aren’t any exact numbers on the books, many experts estimate that about 30 percent of our nation’s dogs suffer from separation anxiety. Symptoms range from panting, heavy drooling and obsessive licking to sheer panic that can make the Tasmanian Devil look mellow. In a world that seemingly bends over backward to cater to pets and their owners, from pet-friendly hotels and more brands of organic pet food than you can count, to dog beds with memory foam and sites like DateMyPet.com, how can this be so?
It’s true that more services and products exist for dogs than ever before, but most people’s pets never benefit from them. Even the pooches with responsible owners end up spending much of their lives inside and alone, simply waiting for someone to come home. Dogs are social creatures that live to please their people. Unfortunately this strong attachment to humans sometimes backfires.
Veterinarian Nicolas Dodman who heads up the Animal Behavior Department at Tufts University and who co-founded ThePetDocs.com says that training and socialization can help. And so can pharmaceuticals if the problem is extreme enough.
There are two drugs marketed specifically for canine anxiety, which are basically meat-flavored versions of human anti-depressants. In 1999, the FDA approved Novartis’s Clomicalm, and in 2007 Eli Lilly’s Reconcile became available. Neither is a silver-bullet cure and they tend to be more effective when coupled with a behavior modification plan, plenty of exercise and a healthy diet that matches your dog’s activity level. (If you do decide to try meds, be sure you work closely with your vet to determine the proper dosage for your pet.) Patience, consistency and lots of positive reinforcement (including high-reward treats) are required as it can sometimes take months before you see improvements.
For more information about how to combat canine separation anxiety, check out this helpful article.
Do your furry family members get angsty when you leave home? What’s worked to help calm them down (and what hasn’t)?