Positively Dog Training - The Official Victoria Stilwell Podcast
Jun 9, 2026 · 1 hr 4 min · 14 segments
Separation anxiety expert Malena DeMartini joins Victoria to explore the causes, symptoms, and effective treatment strategies for canine separation anxiety. They explore how behavior modification…
Malena DeMartiniGuest
Victoria StilwellHostUm, you hear people say, "Well, separation anxiety can only be diagnosed by a veterinarian or a veterinary behaviorist," that it is a diagnosable condition.
Um, and so can you clear this up for us and for everybody listening? What is separation anxiety?
I'm so glad you asked this question because I really feel like there's considerable confusion because there's so many differing types of terminology to describe a dog who struggles with what I will refer to later as a phobia about being alone.
The terminology is interesting because separation anxiety is what is most familiar to the general public, and it has been termed that for a long time.
I feel like it's a little bit of a misnomer, um, and that I'd prefer that we were talking about separation phobia or alone time phobia, but that's not for me to decide.
Um, there are so many acronyms and ways to use the, the verbiage and terminology.
Um, but at the end of the day, as long as we are all referring to a dog who struggles with alone time, and when I say alone time, I mean in their home environment with nobody home, then we are t- then we are all talking about the same issue.
You mentioned separation distress or isolation distress or isolation anxiety.
That has become somewhat popularized recently, uh, in the last maybe decade or so.
And I think there's an important distinction in some ways, but I want to give a little, little detail on that.
So separation anxiety, as it was typically used, was indicative of a dog who struggled when alone but when their primary caretaker was gone.
So in other words, if the neighbor came over and pet sat, the dog still struggled when the primary caretaker was gone.
Isolation distress, on the other hand, has been familiarized as being a dog who struggles when entirely alone, but pretty much any warm body that stays with that dog, uh, will do, and that they can be comfortable in that environment.
The interesting thing is that it sounds very clinical and sounds very black and white, but there's quite a spectrum.
most dogs are not f- all the way far to the, uh, left on, on the separation anxiety si- side or all the way to the far right on the isolation distress side.
Some dogs really need their caregiver there, but there's ways that c- that can be mitigated.
So ultimately, the terminology that we use and the descriptions, um, are important as long, insofar as we are using the same language to describe what we are determining is the issue.
And the distinction there, when someone can, when a dog can be left alone with a friend, a neighbor, a, a pet sitterUm, it does create a little bit of an easier management scenario-
Um, you hear people say, "Well, separation anxiety can only be diagnosed by a veterinarian or a veterinary behaviorist," that it is a diagnosable condition.
Um, and so can you clear this up for us and for everybody listening? What is separation anxiety?
I'm so glad you asked this question because I really feel like there's considerable confusion because there's so many differing types of terminology to describe a dog who struggles with what I will refer to later as a phobia about being alone.
The terminology is interesting because separation anxiety is what is most familiar to the general public, and it has been termed that for a long time.
I feel like it's a little bit of a misnomer, um, and that I'd prefer that we were talking about separation phobia or alone time phobia, but that's not for me to decide.
Um, there are so many acronyms and ways to use the, the verbiage and terminology.
Um, but at the end of the day, as long as we are all referring to a dog who struggles with alone time, and when I say alone time, I mean in their home environment with nobody home, then we are t- then we are all talking about the same issue.
You mentioned separation distress or isolation distress or isolation anxiety.
That has become somewhat popularized recently, uh, in the last maybe decade or so.
And I think there's an important distinction in some ways, but I want to give a little, little detail on that.
So separation anxiety, as it was typically used, was indicative of a dog who struggled when alone but when their primary caretaker was gone.
So in other words, if the neighbor came over and pet sat, the dog still struggled when the primary caretaker was gone.
Isolation distress, on the other hand, has been familiarized as being a dog who struggles when entirely alone, but pretty much any warm body that stays with that dog, uh, will do, and that they can be comfortable in that environment.
The interesting thing is that it sounds very clinical and sounds very black and white, but there's quite a spectrum.
most dogs are not f- all the way far to the, uh, left on, on the separation anxiety si- side or all the way to the far right on the isolation distress side.
Some dogs really need their caregiver there, but there's ways that c- that can be mitigated.
So ultimately, the terminology that we use and the descriptions, um, are important as long, insofar as we are using the same language to describe what we are determining is the issue.
And the distinction there, when someone can, when a dog can be left alone with a friend, a neighbor, a, a pet sitterUm, it does create a little bit of an easier management scenario-
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