Why Food Rewards Are Not Used in Separation Anxiety Training
As a positive reinforcement trainer, I always tell my clients to give their dogs treats for a job well done. It’s a phrase I repeat dozens of times per day. It may seem counterintuitive– but the opposite is true for separation anxiety training.
Reasons why food isn’t used in separation anxiety training:
Some dogs will not eat when left home alone. They leave food and chews unattended until the guardian comes back home. At which point, they will eat again.
Dogs that do eat when left alone are merely distracted by the goodies in front of them. In essence, we are putting a Band-Aid over the issue. They aren’t going through a proper training protocol to help them get better. The moment the food or chew is gone the dog realizes they are home alone and may fall apart emotionally. This gives us a false read on the amount of alone time the dog can comfortably handle.
Giving food to a dog before absences becomes a predictor of alone time. One of the things dogs are exceptionally good at is making associations. With enough pairings of food leading to absences, anxiety manifests earlier in time. This is known as a “pre-departure cue.”
Here is what the use of food looks like from the dog’s point of view.
Mom gives me treats and then leaves. I fear alone time, but I do love treats. I finish the teats. A couple minutes pass. Oh no! They’ve left me alone! Panic!
Wash, rinse, repeat.
Eventually, as mom gets the treats ready, the dog catches on that the treats signify alone time. Anxiety appears earlier in time because food (which was once a pleasant thing) becomes poisoned.
How to treat dogs with separation anxiety without the use of food:
The most effective and humane training approach is through systematic desensitization.
Desensitization involves exposing the dog to a version of a problem that is not a problem.
How does that apply to separation anxiety training?
It means not leaving a dog with separation anxiety home alone for several hours to “deal with it.” That only makes their anxiety worse. Instead, desensitization training manufacturers short absences at lengths of time the dog can comfortably handle. Over time we increase the length of absences in small increments, so the dog never feels a sense of worry. The goal of desensitization is to never put the dog in a situation they are not mentally equipped to handle. The goal is to set them up for success.
To learn more about separation anxiety in dogs visit our main page here.
