Every dog gets at least a little anxious the moment they recognize you're getting ready to leave.
How anxiety-ridden does yours become?
Interestingly, a study published in Psychology Today shows their anxiety peaks when you've been gone for about two hours. This "plateau of melancholy," as it is called, then goes on to last for about four hours.
Fortunately, what's even more interesting is that you can do something about your dog's anxiety.
And it's super easy!
Researchers from the universities of Pisa and Perugia, Italy have found that all you need to do to reduce your dog's anxiety is to pet your dog before you leave.
Simple enough, right?
And now science has confirmed what appears to be the obvious...
How The Study Came To Its Findings
To actually conclude that petting a dog calms its anxiety while you're gone, researchers set up a simple experiment.
The subjects were 10 dogs between the ages of one and eleven who didn't have any attachment issues.
The dogs' owners walked their dog into a fenced in area, where they were greeted by a researcher. The researcher then measured the dog's heart rate.
Two tests were then created. In the first, the owners didn't give any special attention to their dog after walking it into the fenced-in area. In the second, each dog's owner petted their dog while they were in the fenced-in area and were interacting with a researcher.
In both tests, the owners hid far enough away such that their dog was unable to smell them.
After the owners returned, the researchers measured the cortisol (the stress hormone) and the heart rate of each dog.
It was found that, whether the dogs were petted or not, their cortisol levels did not change.
However, if the owners petted the dogs before leaving, their heart rate was significantly lower.
The researchers also watched videos of the dogs and found that the ones who were petted showed more behaviors indicative of calmness.
So yeah, it's simple, fast, easy, and helps your dog keep calm if you pet them before leaving!
Try to remember to do it before every time you go.
Oh, and this is the link to the study's findings if you like denser reading.