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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 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