Separation anxiety

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MALE DOGS: Between one and three are most prone.

THE University of Warwick has recently carried out a survey into the causes of separation anxiety to try to identify any common factors. The survey showed almost 75 per cent of vets reported seeing up to five cases per month with the other 25 per cent seeing more than this.
That totals to one case every single week for every vet in the country! Separation disorder is rarely the reason that a pet dog owner will take the dog to the vet, since most owners do not understand the problem.
One of the worrying aspects of the survey is that 57 per cent of owners stated they could not keep their pets because of the barking or destruction.
Male dogs between one and three years of age from the working or terrier breeds were most prone to these problems.
This does not mean that you will never encounter barking or destruction if you have a female collie aged four.
The survey has so far shown that in many cases, a change in family life or the home led to the onset of barking and destruction.
Forty three per cent were due to a change in the owners working hours, followed by 23 per cent from house moving, a new member of the family showed a 19 per cent change, and 13 per cent from the death of a member of the family.
Of course all surveys will produce different results. I personally find that questions prepared by companies with a commercial interest and asked by vets who know little if anything about triggers, which cause behavioural problems, can be very misleading.

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