Crate Training and Separation Anxiety
“The first thing you need to do is crate train your dog” may be one of the most common pieces of advice you will come across when you are searching for answers for your separation anxiety dog. While obviously well-intentioned and with understandable logic, this advice may actually be some of the most harmful in the industry.
Does crate training make sense for separation anxiety? From a non-specialist’s perspective, absolutely. You need a way to safely contain your dog while you are away, in a way that protects both your dog and your home from the ways that he expresses his panic. There is also a very prolific myth that dogs are ‘den animals’ and that this crate can become a place for him to rest that he views as safe.
Unfortunately, in practise this does not actually appear to be the case. In fact, separation anxiety has a high rate of co-morbidity with confinement anxiety - meaning, crating your dog can actually exacerbate the problem and make it worse. While your dog may indeed like to find small, quiet spaces safe to hide in, they also need the choice and ability to leave. Removing that choice might cause your dog to attempt to escape on their own, which at best might mean you will have to buy a new crate; at worst, your dog could severely injure themselves while trying to break free. I have personally witnessed the incredibly upsetting aftermath of the latter, and it’s not something that I would wish to describe to you nor for you to experience yourself.
Now, if for whatever reason you absolutely need your dog to be in a crate while you are away, I’m not saying that can’t be done. Crate training can be a valuable skill for a lot of reasons. However, it is unlikely that crate training is likely to help your dog overcome their separation anxiety, and it could in fact slow down your progress. It’s like if I were terrified of both clowns and spiders (I am) - yes, with some work I might be okay with one particular clown. But I’m not very likely to reach a point where the clown is making me feel safe enough that if he holds a spider near me, I will feel any better about the spider than I would if someone else were holding it; in other words, I will never like the clown enough that his presence makes me feel better about other things I don’t like.
You may be wondering at this point what you are supposed to do about your dog who eats your couch every time you leave the house; who has cost you thousands in furniture repairs, permanently stained your carpets with urine, or has permanently scratched your front windows as they claw to try to follow you. There are, of course, crates that are marketed as ‘indestructible’, and indeed are marketed specifically toward those of you whose dogs are adept at escaping or destroying their crates. Unfortunately, these are absolutely not worth the high ticket price. You may have a dog who can no longer destroy your home, but rest assured they will still be panicking for as long as you leave them. Such continual, intense, and repeated stress will permeate the rest of your lives together, including their physical health. This is not an option for those of us who consider our dogs family and love them as such.
But there is good news! When you work with a Certified Separation Anxiety Trainer (CSAT) such as myself, we implement a management strategy from Day One that ensures that your dog will never reach the point of panic again. If they never panic, they never eat the couch. More about that in another post! But if you can’t wait, click here to schedule a free 30-minute call with me and let’s chat.