I’ve dedicated my education and attention to dogs with anxious and aggressive behaviors for years. Over time, I have learned about these behavior patterns and their effects on all individuals involved. In this blog post, I will delve into the connection between stress in dogs and its impact on the entire household.
3 Things I Learned After Years Of Focusing Stress In Dogs
- Humans are doing the best they can with the knowledge they have.
- Dogs struggle to communicate and cope, leading to maladaptive behaviors.
- The dog industry lacks compare and contrasting information for dog owners, making it hard to decipher conflicting information.
How are these three topics related to dog behaviors?
All three of them have negative (aversive) associations or emotions.
What Do Negative Associations or Emotions Cause?
The Need to Decrease Stress Levels
- Does the dog experience stress multiple times a day?
- Is the dog showing early signs of stress or displaying high-intensity stress signals such as barking, growling, lunging, high-pitched whining, shaking, and/or hyper-vigilance?
- Does the dog calm down quickly or does it take them over 10-20 minutes to calm after being stressed?
If both the dog and human are frequently experiencing long durations of stress and reacting intensely, it significantly affects their capacity to learn something new.
Therefore, it is important to prevent unnecessary stress and address safety needs before trying to train the dog alternative behaviors.
Addressing the Root Cause of Stress in Dogs
Our focus should be on eliminating unnecessary stress. When you are experiencing high levels of stress, you and your dog cannot effectively learn new skills. Once you’re both less stressed, communication between you and your dog will improve.
Prevention & Interruption Is Not Enough
However, it’s important to remember that prevention and interruption are not sufficient enough for sustainable behavior changes. True correction involves replacing unwanted behaviors with substitute behaviors.
Training Substitute Behaviors
There are various ways to help dogs cope with their surroundings and encourage alternative behaviors. One effective method is training them to sniff when they encounter triggers.
In a video, a dog can be seen stiffening up upon seeing a trigger, but then turns around to sniff instead.
Why Should You Prevent Problematic Behaviors?
If dogs believe their current behavior is effective and continue to practice misbehavior, they will not want to learn something new. Why would they change if their current behavior is working?
Is Your Dog Relaxed or Tense?
Being able to identify the right moments to boost your dog’s confidence and when to allow them to take a break is vital. In this video, Suzanne Clothier discusses the importance of helping dogs build confidence and teaching them how to handle stress in this video.
Teach Your Dog How to Deal With Stress
We can help your dog handle stressful situations and improve their coping skills. In this video, Dr. Ian Dunbar teaches a group class to make the dogs hyper and then helps them calm down. This approach encourages positive behavioral changes.
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