Meet the lovely Wallace! Wallace is an approximately 2.5 year old English Show Cocker Spaniel who I have, at the time of writing, been working with for 3 weeks. I was contacted by his lovely humans to help them with his separation anxiety. This is Wallace below – isn’t he just completely adorable?!
The initial assessment
My initial assessment process with ALL clients is thorough to say the least – it involves sending a very long and extensive questionnaire in advance of our first meeting, delving deeper into the answers given during the live assessment as well as asking a plethora of other questions, and this is before we even assess the separation anxiety. I am very proud to be a Dynamic Dog Practitioner, and therefore also incorporate a full Dynamic Dog functional assessment into the process – this is a thorough assessment of your dog’s gait, posture, conformation, and how they perform various day to day activities, in order to identify any potential sources of pain or discomfort. This is done by looking at, and assessing, videos and photographs that I ask clients to take after the initial assessment and send to me.
Why do I do this?
Well, there is a very strong correlation between pain and behaviour, and I do find a large percentage of dogs I work with DO end up having an undiagnosed medical condition/underlying pain. D. Mills et al (2020) stated “that a conservative estimate of around a third of referred cases involve some form of painful condition, and in some instances, the figure may be nearly 80%” (P.1)
I like to be proactive, and rather than waiting to see how each dog does on the separation anxiety protocol, I prefer to assess everything as a whole, and then if anything does show up, a thorough report can be sent to the referring Vet (I only work on vet referral) to help them with their investigations and diagnostics of that dog. Very often dogs with underlying musculoskeletal or other medical conditions will not show a pain response when at the vet clinic, and it can be impossible for the vet to know where to look, but this does not mean they are not in discomfort. Wallace was one such dog.
Wallace was not only very anxious about being home alone, something that had worsened over the past couple of months prior to the owners contacting me, but he had also become reluctant to go into the groomers (something he had not done before although he had always been reluctant to be brushed at home) , had begun growling more often at some other dogs, and he had become more sound sensitive and was barking at sounds more frequently than he had done before. Upon further questioning it became evident that Wallace sometimes hesitates to jump in the car, and also his Mum had started to notice this also occasionally happens when jumping onto the bed
The first 2 weeks
In the first 2 weeks of our initial month of Wallace’s separation anxiety programme, he made very little change. Regardless of how many steps, time of day, which human was involved, Wallace tended to do the same thing – he remained unsettled, slightly on edge and while we wouldn’t expect to see a huge amount of improvement in just 2 weeks, there was really very little improvement and it was difficult to keep him under the point he became anxious, because he was slightly anxious immediately.
During this period of time, Wallace’s humans were collating the photos and the videos that I had requested (it sounds easy, but it takes time due to the fact angles have to be precise and I did request a lot!). As these were gradually sent through to me, some had to be redone, but it became evident that there may be something going on in Wallace’s hind end. I marked up photos and videos with my observations, wrote a thorough Dynamic Dog report and sent it through to Wallace’s vet.
Pain is not shown how we would expect
Now don’t get me wrong – to the lay person there was no way anyone would look at Wallace and think he could be in discomfort. He is a happy, friendly, bouncy Spaniel, who happily runs around and does everything that he always has done. However, it is so important to remember that dogs do not show pain in the ways we would often expect them to! Canine Arthritis Management states that by the time a dog is limping, the pain is going to be at least a 7 out of 10 on the pain scale. That is significant! Just because a dog is not limping, and is not lying around yelping, it does not mean there is not pain or discomfort unfortunately. This is exactly why I incorporate a Dynamic Dog assessment with ALL clients – because if there IS pain, it will mean we it will be very difficult to teach your dog to learn to feel safe home alone (or to change any behaviour ethically) until that pain is identified and managed. Sometimes the pain could be the main motivating factor for the unwanted behaviour, but at other times it can be a contributing factor, and something that makes it impossible to progress.
Behaviour is often motivated by pain
D. Mills et al (2020) state “pain-related effects may not manifest directly in a primary behaviour complaint, but rather they may moderate a pre-existing behavioural condition or present unusual signs…”. Pain can significantly reduce a dog’s emotional resilience and tolerance, and if in pain or feeling unwell a dog can feel more at risk and vulnerable, therefore expressing increased anxiety.
One of the things I look out for with my separation anxiety clients dogs, are “stress signs” or “displacement signs” (these can include yawning, panting, lip licking, sniffing, scratching, and more). As D. Mills et al (2020) explain, these behaviours could increase the release of endorphins, thereby alleviating some pain and discomfort. The same could be said by seeking social contact with one of the dog’s humans.
Videos & Photos don’t lie!
Wallace’s vet was amazing, and on receiving the report emailed me to thank me, the client was contacted immediately, and Wallace was booked in the following week for examination, X-Rays and ultrasound. The report meant that the vet was able to know where he should be looking, something that would not have been so easy if he had had to rely solely on a physical examination, as if a dog is anxious or overly excited at the vets, a pain response is often impossible to elicit, and Vets simply do not have time to do a full functional assessment with every single client as they would get through 2 clients a day! 🙂 Also, the signs with Wallace were relatively subtle, and only visible when doing certain activities.
Results
X-rays showed that Wallace has hip dysplasia – which basically means his hip sockets don’t fit together as snugly as they should. This is a condition which is degenerative and will worsen over time, but the first step is knowing it is there, as it can then be managed and steps can be taken to help longer term. We now have a plan – Wallace is on a NSAID (None Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug) and he is being referred to physiotherapy. Physio can help massively by ensuring all the surrounding tissues are kept strong and the joints are well supported.
This is Wallace after coming home from the Vet visit, with his little bald belly, having much deserved cuddles!
Working closely with vets is vital
This is why I only work on vet referral, and why it bothers me when there are “professionals” out there, with insufficient education and qualifications, working with dogs on changing behaviour but they don’t take into account the huge correlation between pain and behaviour. If a dog is in some degree of pain, it is hugely unethical to just continue working on changing the behaviour until the pain is identified and managed, plus it will be impossible to achieve consistent results if a dog is in pain….and sadly some people still use aversive methods which serve to simply suppress behaviour…..leaving you with a dog who is in pain AND scared to communicate it.
So now Wallace has a multi disciplinary team on board, all working together to help him and his amazing humans – Me, the Vet and now a Physiotherapist. Wallace then took a few days off from his separation anxiety protocol to allow the cortisol to leave his system following his Vet visit and to give him a few days on the pain medication before we started again, thereby optimising chances of success.
A clear improvement!
After taking a few days off following the veterinary investigations, we kicked off our separation anxiety protocol once again with our weekly live reassessment, and wow what an improvement already!
Below is a graph to show Wallace’s progress so far – when he had x-rays and started pain meds is shown, and you can clearly see the correlation between those pain meds and his progress!
Previously Wallace would follow his humans round all the time, and during our daily separation anxiety “training” he would follow very closely to the top of the stairs each and every time. In our first session after Wallace had been on his pain medication, the difference was noticeable! For nearly all of the warm up steps Wallace not only did NOT follow as his Mum approached, and often exited, the front door, but he remained on the sofa or, at one point, on the bed where he had gone off to during a break! His body language and behaviour was much more relaxed! And in the final step he did come to the top of the stairs, but only after his Mum had been outside for a short period of time.
Ove the following week Wallace was flying! He started showing really significant improvements, lying down during absences and easily managing being alone for 10 – 12 minutes (when previously he had only been only able to cope with about 1 minute maximum), and just under 20 minutes in our reassessment on 3.3.25. His behaviour was so far removed from the Wallace of a few weeks ago. Below is a message received from Wallace’s mum after a session in the week – and this is what is currently a common position for Wallace now!
Just because you dont think your dog is in pain, doesn’t mean he is pain free!
You can see, I hope, just HOW much of an impact pain can have on a dog’s behaviour, even when your dog may not seem to be in pain! In fact, a family member of Wallace’s mum, when she was told about Wallace’s hip dysplasia diagnosis, was openly shocked and said “but he is always bouncing about! How can he be in pain?!” And this is the problem with dogs – they simply do not show pain in ways we might expect them to, yet it has such a huge impact!
Quite honestly, if Wallace had started working with someone who’s assessment process wasn’t so in-depth and vigorous as mine, and who didnt work on vet referral and understand the strong correlation between pain and behaviour, they would still be struggling with even getting out of the front door. We are now in a great position to be able to forge forward teaching him to feel safe home alone, now that the pain has been identified and is being managed.
If you would like help working through your dog’s separation anxiety please get in touch! If you complete the form on the page linked below, I will be in touch to arrange an initial call to have a chat: Remote Online Separation Anxiety Dog Training (politepawsdogtraining.co.uk)
