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Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Separation anxiety in dogs should be seen as a symptom of underlying frustrations rather than a diagnosis, and understanding these root causes could be key to effective treatment, new research by animal behaviour specialists suggests.
Many pet owners experience problem behaviour in their dogs when leaving them at home. These behaviours can include destruction of household items, urinating or defecating indoors, or excessive barking and are often labelled as 'separation anxiety' as the dog gets anxious at the prospect of being left alone.
Treatment plans tend to focus on helping the dog overcome the 'pain of separation', but the current work indicates dealing with various forms of frustration is a much more important element of the problem.
[...] The team, led by scientists from the University of Lincoln, UK, identified four main forms of distress for dogs when separated from their owners. These include a focus on getting away from something in the house, wanting to get to something outside, reacting to external noises or events, and a form of boredom.
[...] Daniel Mills, Professor of Veterinary Behavioural Medicine in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Lincoln, said: "Until now, there has been a tendency to think of this as a single condition, ie "My dog has got separation anxiety" and then to focus on the dependence on the owner and how to make them more independent. However, this new work indicates that having separation anxiety is more like saying "My dog's got an upset tummy" which could have many causes and take many forms, and so both assessment and treatment need to be much more focussed.
Journal Reference:
Luciana S. de Assis, Raquel Matos, Thomas W. Pike, Oliver H. P. Burman, Daniel S. Mills. Developing Diagnostic Frameworks in Veterinary Behavioral Medicine: Disambiguating Separation Related Problems in Dogs. Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 2020; 6 DOI: 10.3389/fvets.2019.00499
(Score: 3, Insightful) by barbara hudson on Thursday March 19 2020, @09:19AM (4 children)
Just more proof that psychiatry doesn't belong with the sciences, whether human or animal.
What next - medication for dogs to deal with their "mental disorder?" Oh wait - already happening [petmd.com].
Pharmaceutical companies and psychiatrists - working together to classify everything as a mental disorder. Now available for pets too! Get your therapy dog into therapy as well!
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 4, Funny) by ikanreed on Thursday March 19 2020, @12:57PM (2 children)
Yes, let's all dedicate ourselves to the real science of purging body thetans.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by barbara hudson on Thursday March 19 2020, @03:17PM (1 child)
More and more psychiatrists and psychologists are joining the anti-psychiatry movement, which is and isn't what it sounds like. They reject the medicalization of normal emotional reactions to stressors. One example is the removal of the grief exception that was made in the DSM5 - until then. it was considered normal to be depressed for up to a year at the loss of a close one, such as a child. Not now - you're depressed because your kid just died, you're considered mentally ill and here's a bunch of pills that probably won't work, have terrible side effects, including doubling your risk of suicide, but hey, we want you on the treatment treadmill.
Back in 2017 the UN recommended we stop medicalizing social and economic problems, and treat the social and economic problems that cause emotional stress. Lost your job? You don't need a pill because you're depressed over it, you need support to help you find a new job and financial aid in the meantime.
But that would mean more social workers, and more help retraining people, and that costs more money than forcing people out of the job market by labelling them depressed. It also takes them longer and doesn't make money for drug companies and lobbyists.
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 19 2020, @04:27PM
Never met a psychologist who didn't need one.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday March 19 2020, @02:19PM
Not counting psychiatry as a science is a psychological condition which can be diagnosed and involuntarily treated with drugs.
This new diagnosis will be added to DSM automatically in a downloadable online update.
Pharmaceutical companies approve of this new treatment. End goal: Everything in reality is a mental disorder. There will be a drug to treat every mental disorder. And drugs to create mental disorders for anyone who thinks they do not have a mental disorder.
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Bot on Thursday March 19 2020, @09:20AM (9 children)
The root cause of separation anxiety is that the dog is a domesticated wolf is a social animal.
Treating separation anxiety as if it were a problem is like treating a bird ability to fly as a problem.
Yes you can have bird degenerate into creatures unable to fly like chickens, for your convenience. The key word being "degenerate".
Just get a cat instead of a dog, they suffer all the same from the separation (I know from the desperate meow sis' cat does 5 minutes after she's gone outside) but at least they can better rely on themselves, being solitary predators.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday March 19 2020, @02:52PM (4 children)
Or, if you're a dog person, get them another dog as a companion.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday March 19 2020, @07:51PM (3 children)
My idiot Mexican neighbor did this. What actually happened was that both dogs just stared out the window all day and barked incessantly at every speck of dust that blew by. That situation doesn't work when you're dealing with yappy, needy little shit dogs like the chihuahuas Mexican bitches leave home in a cramped apartment 12 hours a day.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday March 19 2020, @10:31PM (2 children)
It's funny how you're so frightened of your neighbours that you can manage to shoehorn your racism into a discussion about dogs.
Weird.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday March 19 2020, @10:55PM (1 child)
Frightened my ass, I've been fighting bad Mexican neighbors for ten fucking years, but my landlord likes having them around because they work cheap labor on his properties (not HIS property, just the ones far away from him). Since I moved here I've caused to move away 1 problem family and 3 problem neighbors by reporting crime and noise (and often counterattacking with noise bursts of my own aimed directly at them, and in one case, walking outside to tell him to shut the fuck up).
The only reason why I was successful was a combination of threatening to publicly shame the landlord, and living in a nicer neighborhood where nobody wants to be known as a noise and crime enabler. The only people I've seen sick so far are filthy Mexicans, not the magic ones but the ones who think America is Tijuana. These motherfuckers are running loose gurgling and hacking and don't even bother to turn their head or cover their mouths, then they hock those loogies on the ground all over the place. Yeah, San Francisco might have a Chink problem, but down here we have a Southern border problem full of nasty motherfuckers with 18th-century hygenic practices.
Oh, and by the way, if you saw my other comment, the loud dog problem is not just a Mexican one but also a young White woman problem. That right there proves that I'm not racist. Nyah Nyah.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Friday March 20 2020, @12:06AM
That is a very revealing comment.
It just makes me wonder how your neighbours view the angry, drunk arsehole who yells at their kids all the time.
Also, it turns out that not only are you frightened of Hispanics, Blacks, Jews, Gays, New Yorkers, and Californians, you're also scared of young white women. It comes from being rejected by them so often I suppose.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday March 19 2020, @06:19PM
I think it's the destructive behavior caused by severe separation anxiety that's the problem.
My dog doesn't like it when I leave, either, but he doesn't destroy the entire house when it happens.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday March 19 2020, @08:00PM
The perfect formula is Yappy needy little shit dog + apartment.
All Mexicans and young White women are both the main perpetrators whenever there are yappy, needy little dogs stuck in apartments screeching and shitting and pissing and generally ruining the peace and quiet of the neighborhood.
Mexicans, of course, because it's in their blood to be obnoxiously noisy and that translates to their choice of dog. So with Mexicans, it's something obnoxious like a screechy Chihuahua or an untrained pitbull they leave home alone for 12+ hours a day while they steal an American labor job and collect American tax dollars going to night school. That they come home to a pissed/shitted floor and angry neighbors everyday is no big deal to them, as they are filthy noisy people and believe America should be more like Mexico anyway.
Young White women are a different kind of stupid: They're just oblivious, the perfect consequence of mommy taking antidepressants with them in the womb. They too work and go to school, but they have no idea that pets, especially the small obnoxious dogs women prefer, are needy and not just some toy to be pulled out from under the coffee table whenever they want instagram likes.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Reziac on Friday March 20 2020, @02:35AM
Speaking as a professional dog trainer with experience spanning 50 years and thousands of dogs... in a nutshell, the root cause is snowflake humans unable to take charge of the dog.
Dogs are wired to be followers, not leaders. If you aren't the boss, the dog feels like it has to be the boss. The boss protects the pack. If you (having self-demoted from boss to pack member) go out of sight, the dog gets upset because now it (having found itself catapulted into the boss job) can't 'protect' you when you're 'separated'. However, if YOU are the boss, then the dog knows you will protect it (rather than it being handed the job), and is not anxious about being left alone.
Human lack of ability to take charge also commonly causes unsuitable canine aggression toward nonthreatening persons, and all manner of rude behavior (jumping up, blocking your path, dashing out doors, etc.)
Dogs don't want a buddy. They want a pack leader who is the unquestioned boss, which makes the dog feel safe. Take charge of your dog, make your word law, behave like a pack leader, and a host of social problems vanish. Including 'separation anxiety' and public aggression.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by dwilson on Friday March 20 2020, @04:01AM
I keep and train macaw's, new world parrots. Think Pirates of The Caribbean, here.
Clipping the wings of a bird that has never flown in now way de-generates it, and it's as much for it's safety as my convenience. A captive parrot that was a wild-capture is a whole different story; A captive-bred bird that has never known the jungle is not a degenerate, and if you insist on calling it that, I'd be happy to introduce you and let it bite you. Pro-tip, most macaw species can snap a broomstick in half, so feel free to offer up a hand or finger to a strange bird that can sense your disrespect.
- D
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 19 2020, @01:08PM
question 1: what is the texture of sandpaper?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 19 2020, @01:29PM (1 child)
I'm tired of every other asshole having a dog now and using baby talk to describe them. That and people seem to have completely forgotten that dogs need training. You just don't buy one and bring it home without training it. Then people wonder why it barks at everything or misbehaves. I was never fond of them even as a child and less so now.
(Score: 2) by Booga1 on Thursday March 19 2020, @05:59PM
I'm with you about the baby-ing trend with pets. They're pets, not kids. Bad owners raise bad dogs.
Unfortunately, not every dog will be a good fit for every home. If you live in an apartment and get a dog that can't stop barking, find it a home where that won't be a problem.
It sucks to give up a dog you love, but you owe it to the dog to give it a better home if yours isn't the right one.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 19 2020, @01:54PM (3 children)
Dogs are not house pets.
This is the fundamental problem.
People want to treat them just like a cat and keep them inside while they are at work all day, but that is absolutely unnatural for a dog. They really are outside animals. Most of them were also bred to have a job to do, such as a Lab. People don't give them a job and so the dog goes nuts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 19 2020, @03:48PM
Sounds a lot like my high school.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 19 2020, @10:38PM (1 child)
We are babysitting my cousin's cats and one of them can not stand being alone. If we leave him alone he would meow by the door and wouldn't stop. Sometimes he may do something destructive like knock something over but I think it's out of anxiety and panicking and fear not so much out of spite. He would seem remorseful after for instance, he's a good cat. (For instance if he accidentally peed on the floor he would look down and go into his little cat house and act sad and when we clean it up he would go back to the place and sniff it and look at us as if to say he's sorry but this has nothing to do with being alone). I think he just gets afraid or something to be by himself. If he is either with a person or with his companion cat he is fine though. The other cat does not mind being by herself though. Weird.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 19 2020, @10:40PM
(and, no, we would not get mad at him for making an accident. We pretty much forget about it and just pet him and let him know it's OK but regardless he would still have that remorseful look on his face as if to say sorry and he would sniff the carpet several times after it's been cleaned and look at us).
(Score: 5, Informative) by jelizondo on Thursday March 19 2020, @02:09PM (7 children)
Easy to fix really.
I have border collie which had "separation anxiety" and I understood that being a pack animal it needed some company. So I got a second collie and now both are quite happy to wait until I get home.
No need for drugs or therapy, just some company fixes the problem.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 19 2020, @03:15PM (2 children)
Weird. It's almost like they're pack animals and being alone is hard-wired as an emergency situation.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 19 2020, @03:50PM (1 child)
Instead of being anxious, now they're bored out of their minds. There's only so many times you can sniff a butt, you know.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 21 2020, @06:32PM
Speak for yourself.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 19 2020, @04:17PM (2 children)
Border collies are really really active. They're bred to run after sheep and cattle all day. A half hour walk each night just isn't enough.
Great dogs, but you need to give them a job.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 19 2020, @06:32PM
A lot of people don't know that this applies to all the working breeds.
A Labrador retriever, America's most popular dog breed, requires mad exercise its first 2 - 3 years!
Many find they can't provide the dog the exercise and activity it needs and give it away when it's about 7 months to 1 year because it's tearing up the house and is spastic.
Dogs are not cats. The fact that you have to cage it (sorry, "crate" it) while you are at work is proof.
(Score: 2) by jelizondo on Friday March 20 2020, @12:29AM
There are cats on three adjacent houses, they job is to make sure no cat enters our property.
And you get to see how high a collie can jump pursuing a cat running on the fence!
(Score: 1) by bmimatt on Thursday March 19 2020, @05:20PM
A lot of people seem not to understand that dogs *need* regular exercise. That's on top of training. A tired dog is a good dog.