Separation anxiety affects up to 17% of dogs and causes severe distress whenever dogs are left alone. Understanding recognition and treatment is essential for improving the welfare of millions of affected dogs.
Dogs with separation anxiety experience genuine panic during absences — equivalent to severe anxiety in humans. The distress is immediate and intense: howling, destruction, self-injury, and extreme physiological arousal. Owners often discover the problem only through neighbour complaints or property damage, by which point the dog has already been suffering for an extended period. Without treatment, separation anxiety worsens over time as each anxious absence reinforces the panic association. The welfare cost is measured in hours of severe distress for each period the dog is left alone — multiplied across every day of the dog's life without adequate treatment.