No doubt you have heard the expression "your dog's bored" before, because dog boredom is commonly used to justify all kinds of dog behaviour problems.
Problems like your dog being destructive and chewing up the house, your shoes or the couch especially when you leave your dog home alone.
In reality dog boredom is used to explain away many of the symptoms of separation anxiety in dogs. Symptoms like barking or whining non-stop, or digging up the garden, or maybe your dog running away. Because of this reason a large amount of the tips you see to stop your dogs separation anxiety is based around entertaining your dog, or at very least distracting them, which could help, but is not going to get to the roots of the issue and offer a cure.
Should You Feel Guilty if Your Dog is Bored?
The worst thing about being told your dogs behaviour problems are caused by boredom is that its going to get you feeling guilty like you are not doing enough for your dog, either walking then enough or paying them enough attention.
The reverse is generally correct for dogs with separation anxiety, but that does not stop us feeling anious when we go out and leave them and the consequence of that will instead be to extend a dogs anxiousness.
A Quick Walk and a New Toy is Not Always the Answ er
It can also get you focussing on the wrong things when you're trying to address your dogs anxiousness. If it was just boredom, you could leave your dog alone with tons of toys and they should be fine, but that doesn't happen in fact as many of you already know.
When we start to go looking for a reason to explain bad dog behaviour we frequently make the blunder of humanising dogs, then we come up with an explanation that is perfectly reasonable to us but doesn't necessarily fit with natural dog behavior.
In studies of the wolf pack, quite naturally a wolf will use up a lot of hours everyday sleeping and lazing around without any evidence of boredom or turning to harmful behaviour!
Anway, the solutions we're often given to dog boredom, is to walk them more often, leave them alone for less time, give them toys to play with or feed them. But if you are trying to stop your dog from scratching up your carpets, or chewing your cushions while you are out and none of these approaches work maybe you didn't have a bored dog in the 1st place.
Dog Separation Anxiety Training
Unfortunately , separation anxiety in dogs can not be cured with a short walk and a chew toy. However if your dog is troubled with separation anxiety there are techniques to get rid of it. Most vets would accept that a dog separation anxiety training routine is the best choice, though there are a range of other products that will aid in reducing a dogs anxiety on the way.
Problems like your dog being destructive and chewing up the house, your shoes or the couch especially when you leave your dog home alone.
In reality dog boredom is used to explain away many of the symptoms of separation anxiety in dogs. Symptoms like barking or whining non-stop, or digging up the garden, or maybe your dog running away. Because of this reason a large amount of the tips you see to stop your dogs separation anxiety is based around entertaining your dog, or at very least distracting them, which could help, but is not going to get to the roots of the issue and offer a cure.
Should You Feel Guilty if Your Dog is Bored?
The worst thing about being told your dogs behaviour problems are caused by boredom is that its going to get you feeling guilty like you are not doing enough for your dog, either walking then enough or paying them enough attention.
The reverse is generally correct for dogs with separation anxiety, but that does not stop us feeling anious when we go out and leave them and the consequence of that will instead be to extend a dogs anxiousness.
A Quick Walk and a New Toy is Not Always the Answ er
It can also get you focussing on the wrong things when you're trying to address your dogs anxiousness. If it was just boredom, you could leave your dog alone with tons of toys and they should be fine, but that doesn't happen in fact as many of you already know.
When we start to go looking for a reason to explain bad dog behaviour we frequently make the blunder of humanising dogs, then we come up with an explanation that is perfectly reasonable to us but doesn't necessarily fit with natural dog behavior.
In studies of the wolf pack, quite naturally a wolf will use up a lot of hours everyday sleeping and lazing around without any evidence of boredom or turning to harmful behaviour!
Anway, the solutions we're often given to dog boredom, is to walk them more often, leave them alone for less time, give them toys to play with or feed them. But if you are trying to stop your dog from scratching up your carpets, or chewing your cushions while you are out and none of these approaches work maybe you didn't have a bored dog in the 1st place.
Dog Separation Anxiety Training
Unfortunately , separation anxiety in dogs can not be cured with a short walk and a chew toy. However if your dog is troubled with separation anxiety there are techniques to get rid of it. Most vets would accept that a dog separation anxiety training routine is the best choice, though there are a range of other products that will aid in reducing a dogs anxiety on the way.
About the Author:
Dog anxiety is increasingly common in dogs, and has affected the author's own rescue dog. Visit her blog to make sure you can tell the difference between dog behaviour problems and dog boredom.