If you’ve wondered how pets feel about their people being home more during the coronavirus pandemic — and their people eventually leaving more often for longer periods of time as normalcy returns — Christopher Pachel may have some answers. It’s not a one-size-fits-all-pets scenario, according to Pachel, the owner and lead clinician at the Animal Behavior Clinic, or ABC, in Portland.

Before becoming an animal behaviorist, he worked as a general veterinary practitioner for two years. In 2004, he made the decision to undergo more residency training toward additional certification and becoming a veterinary behaviorist. In 2010, the same year he moved to Portland, he received his board certification from the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists. He bought ABC from a colleague the following year.

“I just really found a need, a niche and an interest in helping my clients specifically navigate those behavior issues that were there for their dogs and their cats,” he said.

Pachel said that if you’re a dog who loves having its person around, “Then right now, you’re living your best life,” he said. “You may not experience a significant amount of distress. When you, as the owner, go back to work, it may not be as high of a quality of life for that dog, but it’s not going to automatically create a separation anxiety problem for that population.”

However, for dogs predisposed to separation anxiety, “We know from other research — longstanding, way pre-pandemic — that those dogs often struggle after periods of prolonged contact with their people,” he said. “Basically, as we set those expectations that I, as your security blanket, am always available.”

When the security blanket isn’t around, the dogs are left “under-supported in terms of their ability to navigate whatever stressors may be there in their life,” he said. “So for the separation anxiety kind of dog, whether that’s a puppy or an adult, we’re definitely anticipating — and it’s too soon to know what’s going to happen yet, but there’s definitely an anticipatory concern about what that’s going to look like, and what are the steps we can put into place to try to transition back to a non-work-from-home scenario.”

There’s another type of dog that can be affected by changes thrust upon them by the pandemic, and Pachel and his colleagues have to consider them as they suss out what treatment might be required — dogs that tend to have anxiety around any kind of change. They’ll struggle with transitions no matter how much of a people-dog they are.

“Those dogs struggled when their people came home, and then they adapted. Those dogs are going to struggle when their people go back to work, and they’ll likely adapt to that too,” he said. “The transitional stress between those different conditions actually has those dogs struggling in both directions.”

“That’s part of our challenge … which of the patterns are we seeing here, and what does that mean in terms of our intervention? Is it truly just specific to that time when you are separated from your dog and they’re struggling, or from your cat and they’re struggling — although it’s much, much less prominent in cats than it is in dogs — but is that what we’re seeing, or is there a bigger pattern here and we need to broaden our net in terms of interventions?”

Your love is like bad medicine

No matter how much you’ll miss Fido, showering a separation anxiety-prone pet with affection in anticipation of your departure or absence won’t help. In fact, it may only increase their attachment to you.

“For those dogs, when we shower with love, when we’re there 24/7, we’re basically creating an expectation that I will always be here for you,” he said.

What they really need is to develop coping skills for navigating the world without their people.

“That can start out really, really simply for the dogs who may not have major issues but may just be a little more prone to that: We can take times during the day where maybe sometimes the dog is outside by themselves, and we’re inside, or vice versa,” he said. “There may be times where I’m working in my home office and I close the door and the dog is given a long-lasting chew treat to occupy their time elsewhere in the home.”

Such absences are called virtual departures, Pachel said. “We’re not really gone, but basically setting up a condition where you have the opportunity to experience being physically distant from me. I’m still here, but I’m not quite as available to you as I might otherwise be.”

These can be increased to departures of 30 seconds to 15 minutes, with some scattered food left on the ground or a chew toy to keep a dog occupied.

“I’ll be back in a bit. No worries. I’m out the door, no drama. I come back 30 seconds to 15 minutes later, no drama, no big deal, just sort of reintegrated to back into the household. I was gone. I’m here. I love you either way,” Pachel said. Those calm, short absences show the dog that he’s OK and you’re OK.

However, owners leaving more frequently may not be right for dogs with strong separation anxiety, whose owners may see signs of stress such as excessive vocalization or destructive behavior around windows and doors. These otherwise house-trained animals may even urinate or evacuate their bowels as a panic response.

Without more of a training plan or even medication in place, “we might actually be perpetuating that anxiety,” Pachel said. “That’s (when) specific help with someone who really focuses on separation anxiety to help figure out what are the training skills, how do we manage, is this animal more of a medication, supplement or pheromone candidate for additional support. Not that medication fixes the problem, but it may reduce that emotional arousal and panic response” enough to enjoy chew toys or buy into developing coping skills.

Pachel said ABC sees cats with separation anxiety, too, albeit rarely.

“Just as a species, and understanding their social structure, they’re not nearly as predisposed to developing that pattern as we might see in dogs, but it can happen,” he said.

Further, there are cats can experience stress around new routines developing.

“For cats who might be more of that personality or temperament of really just wanting to hang out and sleep undisturbed for long hours throughout the day, having people at home, working from home, educating the kids … all of that stuff 24/7 can be a lot,” Pachel said. “On the other hand, there are some of my clients who have said, ‘Gosh, since I’ve been working from home, my cat has really turned into a lap cat in a way they’ve never been before.”

‘Cat-veat’ emptor

Pachel warns “buyer beware” when it comes to finding a trustworthy expert for getting your pet help. “There’s an appalling lack of regulation and standards within the dog-training community,” he said. A dog trainer that resorts to punitive training methods may stop your dog from barking, but it’s not the right way to go if the reason they’re barking is because they’re panicked.

“Punishment isn’t the right option for that. It’s suppressing the clinical sign, but it’s not actually addressing the issue,” he said.

Fortunately, “There’s an entire network of individuals who can help either in person or remotely through more virtual, like Zoom-type training sessions,” Pachel said.

He recommends the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants, at iaabc.org, which offers a consultant locator.

“There’s no excuse right now for not being able to find someone who really understands, who is credentialed and who’s really focusing on this not only from a problem-solving basis, but also addressing the animal welfare concerns that go along with some of the more problematic training methods,” Pachel said.