Help! My dog has separation anxiety! Can acupuncture help?

Anxiety.

Many of us are familiar with the physical toll that anxiety takes on our bodies, especially in light of the current pandemic. Dogs and cats can also suffer from a wide range of anxiety disorders, stemming from fear (especially in dogs) or territoriality (especially in cats), separation anxiety, and anxiety associated with aging and cognitive decline.

These are very strange times we’re living in. Many of our dogs are stoked to have their humans home all the time! But we must remember that this, too, shall pass, and when it does, our canine best friends may have a very hard time with it! Make sure your pets are getting some quality alone time every day, even if you’re home all day, so they remember how to be emotionally self-sufficient. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But even with the very best practices in place at home right now, we are going to be seeing a lot more cases of separation anxiety in pets once people start returning to work on a more regular basis.

Chloe is my own dog, and she suffers from fear-based anxiety. Despite her impressive size (she's almost 80 pounds!), she's always fearful of the new, the loud, the erratic/unpredictable, and really anything that moves. Behavior disorders, including anxiety, are frustrating for owners and veterinarians alike. It's not an "easy" fix, and treatment relies heavily on the owner's consistency with behavior modification techniques, with lots of guidance from trained professionals (your vet, a good animal trainer who utilizes positive reinforcement training techniques, sometimes a veterinarian who specializes in Animal Behavior, and I would argue, a good acupuncturist!).

Acupuncture and behavior modification techniques alone can effectively treat mild anxiety cases where medications are not indicated. Acupuncture and behavior modification techniques can also reduce the amount of medications needed to control anxiety in more severe cases, and acupuncture can provide that extra little bit of help in controlling really severe anxiety cases where drugs and behavior modification aren't enough.

Chloe originally started treatment with acupuncture to help with her allergies, but improvements in her social anxiety have made me a firm believer in acupuncture as a complementary therapy for anxiety disorders!