Dog’s behaviour when left home alone and treatment for separation-related problems
over the course of two weeks we filmed
Bruno when he was left home alone
sometimes he was confined to the kitchen
other occasions he was given the run of
the house I’ve asked dr. Emily Blackwell
a leading dog behaviorist to analyze the
footage and we’re going to show it to
Alisha Bruno has a set pacing routine
taking in the hall first then the
sitting room then the kitchen then back
to the front door before starting again
he doesn’t ever eat when he’s left alone
disease that’s quite typical Bruno is
never left longer than three hours he
goes for three walks a day yet within
minutes of Alicia leaving
he’s defecated the toilet in his office
it’s like anxiety even it straight away
I just can’t believe it was just so
quick he just went to toilet like you
know he’s been out just before and yeah
I know I know he’s been home because
people have told me but it’s just
different seeing it it’s not nice and
just like I was chewing the doors like
really trying to get out and get back to
me or what I don’t know what well I
think the big thing to take away from
this is actually this is treatable okay
yeah which that’s really good to know
Harry so what we need to do is approach
it in two main ways the first way is to
try and make him a bit less dependent on
your attention so that he’s happy being
left on his own eventually and the
second part is to change his perception
of being left alone at the moment to him
it’s the worst thing in the world and
what we want to do is actually teach him
you’re going to come back and he doesn’t
need to get anxious or worried about it
it’s gonna be tough but we’re here to
support you we’re at the end of the
phone we’re going to come round here all
the time
see how you’re getting on make sure
you’re doing everything right and
hopefully make Bruno happy good you’ll
be sick of the size of
there’s a lot riding on his treatment if
Bruno doesn’t get better Alicia may have
no choice but to give him back to the
rescue center where he’ll face an
uncertain future we’re going to be
following Bruno to see how his treatment
goes when I was a vet in practice
treating behavior problems in dogs was
more of an art than a science
but today cutting-edge research is now
being used to investigate what dogs with
separation problems are thinking and
feeling I’m taking the video evidence
we’ve gathered to professor Daniel Mills
at the University of Lincoln who’s
delving into their minds bruno suffers
from separation related problem what
we’re trying to work out is which
emotions are underpinning the signs that
he’s showing what we see is there’s at
least two different emotions that seem
to be involved for example the howling
and things like that suggest the
fundamental emotion of attachment like
the attachment child has to its mother
maybe playing a part but also
frustration is playing a role
professor Mills wants to take a look at
the thermal-imaging footage research has
found that the temperature of dogs ears
is an indicator of their brain activity
the footage could help us see what’s
going on in Bruno’s head so the brighter
areas like here
that’s quite hot whereas the surrounding
environment you can see is quite quite
dark a lot of activity in relation to
unpleasant events are processed by the
right side of the brain and as that side
of the brain gets more active so we see
more heat what we’re interested in is
whether or not there are differences you
can see that the right ear is warmer
than the left ear that’s consistent with
him being more distressed so fits the
theory that actually the right side of
the brain in dogs is associated with
negative emotions would you still get
that side of the brain writing up if it
was frustration that’s one of the things
where places we want to go with this
technology is actually to look to see in
the cases of frustration whether or not
you see right or left activity but yeah
he’s turning is
had something’s coming towards the door
and what’s interesting is you see how
this ear was started to heat up now this
could well be this is you can actually
see it change now
this year so it’s something positive
that’s happening tails suggested as
ative yeah certainly true but we’re
seeing actually the shift is coming back
so where does this take us I mean this
is the very early stages of what is at
the moment a research technique so
understanding the underlying
neuroscience really helps us develop our
treatment programs so that they can be
more specific for a particular case
analyzing our footage has allowed the
scientists to get inside Bruno’s head
and they now know he experiences a toxic
mixture of fear frustration and panic
whenever Alicia and II believe him dr.
Emily Blackwell has prescribed a
tailor-made course of treatment to help
him learn to be happy on his own first
he’s taught to relax he’s given a new
dog toy called a Kong it’s stuffed with
treats okay so we need a way of showing
Bruno that this is different from when
you go out to work and it becomes
anxious and we need some kind of signal
for that what we often use is a
different matter or beds that the dog
hasn’t seen before do you have anything
like that Alicia that’s perfect thanks
Alicia and what we’re going to do is
just let Bruno see this put it down on
the floor
give him his tasty Kong we’re going to
have a new word that you say so
something like relax Bruno relax Bruno
give him this calm the point and then
you just sit there we don’t want you
petting him at this stage just sitting
there so you’re there it doesn’t have to
worry he sees the black mat and
brilliant that means Cong time yeah for
how long the time she’d like to sit to
begin with the relaxation training just
the whole time it takes him to eat a
song Hey you just sit next to him the
next stage involves Alicia gradually
moving away from him what we’ll get you
to do is literally one step away and
then back to him again and then if
you’ve done that a number of times and
you’re 100%
confident that he’s happy just two steps
away okay and then back to him Bruno is
one of
