Canine anxiety

As a dog trainer I am often approached for help in assisting people with their dogs relating to issues around anxiety, and the consequence of behaviour resulting in canine anxiety.

Resent ongoing scientific research has shown there is a synergy between human and canine anxiety, the phenomenal and hormonal cause and effect.

Anxiety is clearly a complex issue which is detrimental to a dog’s well – being and over time will result most likely in health-related issues due to excessive cortisol levels in the body.

The breakdown of human and canine relationships, combined with rehoming or worse can be extremely traumatic, and it’s worth also mentioning the potential for public safety threat.

Among the most common reported behaviours are.

·      Excessive barking

·      Inappropriate eliminating

·      Destructive behaviours

·      Aggressive – reactive behaviours

·      Fearfulness toward strangers and other dogs

·      Separation

Research has been carried out also taking other factors into account.

·      Breed and breed traits

·      Breed line – hereditary factors

·      Environment

·      Number of dogs in household

·      Age and gender to elements in an environment

·      Experience of human caretaker

Anxiety manifests internally and then becomes a physical response to environment, it’s often a way of coping with something which makes a dog feel uncomfortable. Because dogs are animals who respond instinctively, and behave in an animalistic way, i.e. respond through impulse to a picture or energy in their environment it is sometimes difficult to understand how sensitive they can be to the smallest of detail.

Fight or flight – hardwired behaviours!

Often, as with our own human instinct - fight or flight is the hardwired response to things dogs find challenging and difficult to deal with.

And there is the essence of a lot of canine anxiety leading to fear or aggressive or displaced behaviours.

It’s okay to feel anxious!

Hardwired instinct derives from the time when we had to be literally weary of everything in our environment to survive, run from animals which had targeted us for a meal for example.

It’s hormonal driven and is often a response to something we find challenging which triggers a behaviour or coping mechanism behaviours.

For dogs this is something as simple as fight or flight – fear of, leading to aggression or avoidance.

Often displacement behaviours are seen – Generally behaviour not consistent with current picture of environment.

Excessive

·      Chewing of flank or tail

·      Inappropriate eliminating

·      Air snapping

·      Pacing

Being our companions and living our homes hasn’t really taken anything away from these hardwired instinctual behaviours.

The safety and security we enjoy and might take for granted is largely due the fact we humans have the power of intellect along with a distant animalistic survival drive.

When we consider the genetic makeup of a dog, and where their wild origins are, closest living ancestor being the grey wolf, stop and take a moment to understand the superpower senses they possess.

With a greater sense of smell and hearing, generally better night vison in lots of cases. And an enhanced sensitivity for energy in their environment it’s understandable that there can at times be an ‘overload’ of internalisation on their part.

We can start conditioning our pups early by gradual exposure to their environment, observing their responses as to not overload with too much dynamic activity, and allowing space and time for the young mind to digest the various elements of the new phenomena they are witnessing.

Introduce in controlled way new.

·      Objects

·      Toys

·      Smells

·      Sounds

·      Texture

·      Energy

Anxiety can be managed in canines with various methods of training, exploring the reconditioning and counterconditioning of specific behaviours. We can also speak to medical professionals for advice on medication in extreme cases.

We start by making the diagnosis of behaviour by.

·      Health

·      Environment

Even though dogs are trying to communicate with us quite often throughout the day, all be it sometimes in small ways they can’t articulate how they are feeling. Internal health issues can often only be detected by changes in behaviours.

Environment can be a huge element in cause and effect in canine behaviour. We are increasingly living in fast paced lives with our dogs, and sometimes the smallest changes can have a big effect to canine behaviours.

One example of changes in environment is that dogs don’t tend to generalise behaviours to different places too well.

If you train and condition a set of behaviours in one environment, then take the dog to another new area and ask for the same behaviours, then there is a good chance you won’t get the same reliable responses to commands from the dog.

This is because the picture and background noise are different and distracting to a dog. If the dog isn’t confident, then this will have even greater effect on their internalisation of the environment.

In conclusion this is just a snapshot of canine behaviour. Dogs are sentient beings with hardwired feelings and emotions, driven by hormones which lead to animalistic survival desire (drive!) The synergy between our species is clear in lots of ways. Lots of our human tendencies lend well to canines, some don’t, but the more we can be aware of what we are witnessing, the more we can improve as caretakers to these amazing animals which inhabit and enhance so many human life’s.

Anxiety is consistent with sentient beings, once recognised there are ways to manage for better well – being for all.

If we are proactive and considerate in the way we train and condition our dogs, we can assist in dealing with any potential or existing case.