Separation Anxiety: Advanced Technique

Separation Anxiety: Advanced Technique

For those of you with dogs that suffer from separation anxiety, I recently read some interesting material on use of the bridging stimulus. If you’ve been trying the approaches previously outlined in our blog and want to make a little more forward progress, this technique is well worth a try.

Dogs are very sensitive to signals in the world around them, and that is how they always know exactly when you are leaving the house. Our first task was to take away the meaning from those negative signals by using them at random times. This entails carrying a purse inside your home, reaching for your car key at unexpected times, and donning a jacket for no apparent reason. In time, the car keys, purse, and jacket lose their meaning and cease to inspire so much fear.

The concept of a bridging stimulus takes that theory one step farther: you’ll create a brand new signal and use it to your advantage. The new signal—the bridging stimulus—will be used to foster confidence and security instead of fear. The stimulus itself is entirely of your own choosing, so select something that is easy to duplicate, something that you can easily turn on and off or easily remove and replace. It should be something your dog can easily detect and something that has no negative connotations. A specific blanket placed on the floor or a certain lamp lit near his resting area will do, but you could also turn on a white noise machine or a specific track of music, or even leave a certain door or drape open or closed.

Even dogs with separation anxiety can usually be left alone for a short period of time, especially after employing the more basic treatment techniques. Take a critical look at your dog’s condition and divide your absences into those short enough to tolerate and those long enough to end badly. The bridging stimulus is now quite simple to apply. If it is a particular music track, you will turn this on only when you are leaving for a short time and turn it off immediately upon your return. It will become part of your routine for “absences short enough to tolerate.” Once you’ve applied your new signal consistently for several weeks, you can start to use it as a bridge toward the longer absences. As with any training technique (and particularly for those addressing problem behaviors), it is absolutely critical that you do not proceed too rapidly. If you try to rush the process, you’ll be back to square one in an instant, so increase the length of your “short absences” by only ten minutes at a time and make another advance only once every 3-4 weeks. Slow down even more as you’re closing in on “absences long enough to end badly.” If you’re totally consistent (and blessed with luck), you might succeed completely, but even a partial victory will loosen the shackles of separation anxiety. That’s a step up in quality of life for both you and your dog.

Dr M.S. Regan