Does Your Pet Have Separation Anxiety?
How can you tell if your pet has separation anxiety? Sometimes it maybe hard to tell the difference between misbehavior in your pet and separation anxiety. If you discipline your pet when it?s a separation anxiety issue you may make things worse instead of better and not solve any of the problems.
Knowing the difference can help drastically. Panic responses when you have left such as chewing, urination, etc. are not misbehavior but are in fact separation anxiety problems and the pet should not be disciplined for them.
If your pets’ misbehavior happens mostly when he?s left alone then chances are it?s an anxiety issue not a behavior issue. Other signs may be:
- Your pet following you from room to room
- When arriving home your pet maybe overly excited when greeting you
- Your pet may react with depression, anxiety, or excitement when you prepare to leave the house
- Chewing, digging or scratching at the doorway to try and be reunited with you
- They may bark, howl, or whine until you return
- Urinate even though the pet is house trained
- Clings to your side constantly
- Have attention seeking behavior.
Separation anxiety is common in the older pets and pets that have had a traumatic event happen, such is being lost or have been left in a new or different environment. If there has been a change in routine such as work schedule changing or the owner has gone on vacation. Even a family member leaving home or a new baby coming into the home can cause separation anxiety.
When our dog, Kierra was having anxiety problems we started using an all natural supplement to help her. By using all natural supplements there are no negative side effects that you would have with prescribed medications from a vet.
When we would leave it started out with just whimpering but as time grew on we?d come home to find our things chewed up and urination on the floor. We would discipline her for it but it still continued on.
After speaking with a friend who is a veterinarian we found that we were disciplining her when we shouldn?t have been because she had separation anxiety. We stopped disciplining her and started using the supplement our friend referred us to use and after about 2 weeks we could see a big difference.