Why Separation Anxiety is one of my favorite behavioral challenges to treat
By Stephanie Keesey-Phelan, Ph.D., BCBA, CSAT, CCUI, FFCP
I know it sounds weird: separation anxiety and “favorite” in the same sentence. But it’s true, separation-related problem behaviors are one of my favorite types of behavioral challenges to treat. It wasn’t always this way. Early on in my career (over 17 years ago, long before I encountered Behavior Analysis), I was flummoxed by separation anxiety (SA). With the understanding of behavior that I did have at that time, it seemed reasonable that a “cry it out” approach (i.e., operant extinction) would work. I recommended the use of crates, baby gates, or pens - as many trainers did and still do - and I had very limited success. Eventually this became a behavioral challenge that I avoided as a trainer. So what changed?
I learned
Isn’t it always the way? We are truly lifelong learners, as we should be. We’ll never know everything, but as the great Maya Angelou said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” In my studies in Behavior Analysis, I learned a number of things that helped me better understand separation-related problem behaviors. The first is the distinction between operant behavior and respondent behavior.
Operant behavior is behavior that changes in the future as a result of the consequences that follow it. This is the type of behavior that comes up when we think of the idea of “the Quadrants.” The quadrants consist of two principles of behavior: reinforcement and punishment. I won’t give these concepts a full treatment here, but the idea is that a behavior either increases or decreases in the future as a result of some consequence that comes after the behavior. Just to give two common examples: if I say “sit,” my dog sits,I give him a cookie, and he sits more often under these circumstances in the future, that is reinforcement. On the other end of things, if visitors come over,my dog jumps on them, I shout “no no no!”, and my dog jumps on visitors less in the future under similar circumstances, that would be considered punishment. To be clear, I am not suggesting that anyone should do this, and I am also oversimplifying (for more on the ins and outs of behavior, check out our course Beyond the Quadrants). The idea here though is that in this case both “sitting” and “jumping” are considered operant behaviors. They are susceptible to change as a result of the consequences that occur after sitting and jumping respectively.
How is this different from respondent behavior? Respondent behaviors are also sometimes called reflexive behaviors or reflexes. Said loosely, they are the types of behaviors that just happen. That is, when a stimulus occurs a behavior occurs. A common example: if you go to the doctor’s office and they tap your knee with that weird triangular device, you are likely to kick out your leg. This is termed the knee-jerk reflex. Another example: if a gust of wind blows in your face, you will most likely blink. Contact with the air in your face causes or elicits your blinking behavior. It doesn’t matter if I give you a cookie or scream at you each time you blink under these circumstances - in most cases, you will continue to blink at the same rate whenever a puff of air hits your eyes. To throw a wrench in things, it is possible in some circumstances for reflexes to come under operant control, meaning that a reflexive behavior if it contacts a powerful enough consequence, can be susceptible to reinforcement and punishment. However the original eliciting stimulus for the reflex remains.
How is this relevant to separation anxiety? Because dogs who engage in vocalization, destruction, elimination (urinating and defecating), and other behaviors when left alone are emitting first and foremost respondent behaviors. That is, these behaviors happen as a result of being left alone, and not because anything bad has happened to your pup when you left them as would occur in an operant contingency. In fact, I’m willing to bet that most guardians with dogs who have separation-related problem behaviors did everything in their power to ensure their dog had a good experience while they were away: providing treats, toys, a comfortable resting area and the like. And not only that, these guardians returned after every absence and did not abandon their pups.
When we understand separation-related problem behaviors in this way, we quickly come to the conclusion that we don’t need to focus quite so much on the consequence end of things but on changing the antecedent relation of person leaves → dog panics. One of the most common ways to do this is through systematic desensitization. But before we get into that, let’s talk about a few procedures that we often hear recommended for treating Separation Anxiety that may not be as effective as you might think.
Give them a KONG (or puzzle feeder or other frozen toy)
This is incredibly well-intentioned advice, and for many dogs who don’t have separation anxiety, it can be a wonderful way to ensure the dog’s needs are being met while we’re gone. However, the tricky thing about giving your dog with separation-related problems something interesting that will hold their attention is that they may not notice that you left. It may allow you to leave your home without eliciting any panic from your dog, but as soon as your dog has completed the activity those respondent behaviors set in because the eliciting antecedent is still there - they are alone and they are not okay with it! Not only that, but over time with this method, you may start to notice that your dog no longer engages with frozen treats or puzzle feeders because these items have come to predict the scary event of being left alone. Although a method like this might buy you 10-20 minutes of time out of the house without panic, it does not teach your dog how to be comfortable being left alone and as a result is not something I incorporate when working with SA dogs and their guardians.
Put them in a crate / Do crate training
This is perhaps one of the most common pieces of training advice I’ve heard for dogs with separation-related problems - and is one that I used to advise as well! However, it turns out that dogs may also experience Confinement Anxiety (Ballantyne, 2018; Palestrini et al., 2010). When paired with Separation Anxiety, this can increase the intensity of separation-related respondent behaviors. Generally speaking, dogs with Separation Anxiety do better with their training protocols when they do not also have to be confined. Of course there may be safety concerns that we have to consider, particularly if we are talking about treating separation-related problems with a puppy. That being said, I have found in my practice that the majority of dogs progress faster and are more successful when they have more space to move, not less. This is particularly effective when we use systematic desensitization as our treatment, because the goal of this treatment (as you’ll read below) is to never expose the dog to being alone for longer than they can comfortably handle. There is no point in our treatment plan where we will put the dog in a situation in which they are so panicked that they would engage in behaviors like destruction, vocalization, and elimination.
Then I learned some more
Systematic desensitization is a behavioral treatment that has been used widely in the treatment of fears and phobias (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2020), and is a process in which a learner is initially exposed to an aversive stimulus at a low-enough intensity that the panic response is not elicited. Over time, as the learner emits a new response, typically one of relaxation, they are exposed to gradually increasing intensities of the aversive stimulus until they can maintain the new response at the maximum intensity that would occur in their natural environment.
Now you may be thinking sure, this makes sense for humans, but dogs? Fear not (hahahaha, I just can’t help myself with puns!), there is actually quite a bit of evidence for the use of systematic desensitization to treat separation anxiety in dogs (Appleby & Pluijmakers, 2004; Blackwell et al., 2006; Butler et al., 2010; Voith & Borchelt; 1996). In many areas of dog training, we work with the dog’s guardian to find out how often they can complete training exercises and create a program individualized to them. This is true of our work with systematic desensitization as well, but what’s different is that we use a more intensive structure of separation anxiety “missions.” Four days per week, guardians complete “missions” independently, taking detailed notes so I can give them a tailored mission each day. On the fifth day of the week I sit in on their training, evaluate progress, troubleshoot, and modify the protocol to maximize success. Then they have two days off. The work is systematic, detailed, and involves tons of data collection and analysis - every Behavior Analyst’s dream! Although there is a framework in place to guide this process, every dog, guardian, and family is unique. This means that each case is different and there are unending opportunities for creativity and problem solving along the way.
All of this is to say that although the work is not easy but, most importantly, it is effective! And at the end of the day this means that we don’t need to be daunted by separation anxiety cases if we have the knowledge and experience to treat them. The best news is that separation anxiety is a condition that dogs can and do recover from!
I was inspired again and again
I have been fortunate to work with some truly exceptional dog guardians in my journey as a separation anxiety trainer. They have inspired me with their dedication to and empathy for what their dogs are going through. Despite the ups and downs of a rigorous training protocol, these guardians persevere and their dogs' quality of life improves drastically as a result. I was so inspired by the clients I worked with that I decided to pursue certification in this area. In April I became a Certified Separation Anxiety Trainer (CSAT) through Malena DeMartini’s program. The CSAT program was a rigorous 16-week program that provided me with additional training on protocol development, client support, and a community for myself as a trainer to help prevent burnout and keep me in this for the long haul. I came out of the program with an amazing community of trainers to collaborate and learn with and I was even more inspired to help SA dogs and their guardians.
This leads me to the last reason (for now) of why separation anxiety is one of my favorite behavioral challenges to treat: the community. I’m not just talking about the community of CSATs I have joined this year - although they are amazing! I’m talking about the communities that I have seen develop around SA guardians as they work to help their dogs recover. One of the components of each dog’s protocol is that they are never left alone for longer than they can handle. At the start of a protocol, many times our SA pups can only manage seconds or minutes alone if that. Imagine not being able to leave your dog alone for seconds or minutes! It is an impossibility. This means that a big part of the process is for guardians and families to build communities to help support their progress, and this can look so many different ways. Community can be the dog daycare that watches a SA pup so the guardian can go to work or run errands. It could be the dog walker or sitter, friend or family member that takes the dog out or sits with them for a few hours so the guardian can get out in the world. It is the neighbor or coworker who is rooting for them, or the barista who celebrates their second 30-minute coffee outing that week knowing how hard the guardian worked to get there. Community is the delivery drivers who bring groceries, or the medical offices, laundromats, and cafes who allow guardians to bring their dogs along so they don’t need to arrange care. I have been continually amazed and humbled by the generosity of the communities I have seen spring up around SA guardians and their dogs. This has been a huge part of what has made the work fulfilling for me.
Dogs with Separation Anxiety can recover, and we all grow through the process of helping them.
This is why it is one of my favorite behavioral challenges to treat.
References
Appleby, D. & Pluijmakers, J. (2004). Separation Anxiety in dogs: The function of homeostasis in its development and treatment. Clinical Techniques in Small Animal Practice, 205-215. doi:10.1053/j.ctsap.2004.10.002
Ballantyne, K. C. (2018). Separation, confinement, or noises: What is scaring that dog? Veterinary Clinic Small Animal, 48, 367-386. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cvsm.2017.12.005
Blackwell, E., Casey, R. A., & Bradshaw, J. W. S. (2011). Controlled trial of behavioural therapy for separation-related disorders in dogs. The Veterinary Record, 158, 551-554.
Butler, R., Sargisson, R. J., & Elliffe, D. (2011). The efficacy of systematic desensitization for treating the separation-related problem behaviour of domestic dogs. Applied Animal Behavior Science, 129, 136-145.
Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2020). Applied Behavior Analysis (3rd Edition). Hoboken, NJ: Pearson Education.
Palestrini, C., Minero, M., Cannas, S., et al. (2010). Video analysis of dogs with separation-related behaviors. Applied Animal Behavior Science, 145, 61-67.
Voith, V. L., & Borchelt, P. L. (1996). Separation anxiety in dogs. Readings in Companion Animal Behavior, 124-139.