Is medication necessary for dogs with separation anxiety?

In this video highlighting his Fetch dvm360 conference session, “Prescribing for separation anxiety,” Christopher Pachel, DVM, DACVB, CABC (IAABC), discusses the role of medication in managing canine separation anxiety. Pachel explains that while medication is not always required for improvement, any experience of panic or acute anxiety in a patient can hinder progress, particularly when the goal is to condition a sense of safety and emotional well-being. For dogs that must be left home alone, he notes, medication becomes a relevant consideration.

The following is a transcript of the video, lightly edited for clarity and cohesion:

Pachel: My name is Dr Chris Pachel. I am a board-certified veterinary behaviorist and the lead clinician at the Animal Behavior Clinic in Portland, Oregon.

dvm360: How should veterinarians decide whether a separation anxiety case warrants medication?

Pachel: I think there's a couple of things to think about here. The first one, just as you phrased it: does a case warrant medication usage? And I will say that separation anxiety is one of the diagnoses that this conversation is probably even more relevant for than perhaps the majority of other conditions.And the reason for that is, if we have a dog who needs to be left home alone for any length of time and they're experiencing a level of panic or emotional distress, medication is relevant.

I'm not saying medication is needed or medication is necessary for progress to occur, but we recognize that any experience of that panic or acute anxiety can absolutely slow down the progress a dog is making and potentially make it really challenging for them to improve, especially when we're trying to condition a sense of safety and emotional well-being under those very specific conditions.

So, I will say that the opportunity to consider medication is there for every dog with separation anxiety for whom the owners do need to leave that dog home alone at least some of the time—which, at least in my experience, is the majority of them.