Dog Anxiety

Dog anxiety is a problem that affects many of our dogs, whether that is anxiety brought on by fear of noises such as fireworks, or thunderstorms, or anxiety in dogs that is triggered by leaving them on their own.

The result of dog anxiety will show itself in what often looks like bad dog behaviour or a poorly trained dog. This can be very confusing for dog owners and often leads to the wrong approach to solving the problem. One which is not only doomed to fail, but also likely to make the problem worse.

Take for instance a dog pooping in the house. To their owner it can look like he just needs more house training, rather than treatment for anxiety, equally a dog chewing everything can be labelled as a destructive dog rather that needing a cure for anxiety.

Dog Anxiety Symptoms

Free Video Training on Dog Anxiety

Because all dogs have different personalities and characteristics, they will also react differently to dog anxiety, but their anxious behaviour largely falls into these groups.

Nuisance Noise: Excessive barking, howling, whining, yelping or crying
Dog Behaviour Problems: Your dog chewing everything, digging, scratching at doors, carpets and windows and in extreme cases completely destroying furniture and breaking through plasterboard walls!
Physical Symptom of Dog Anxiety: Panting, drooling and salivating excessively, pooping and urinating in the house, excessive, hyper greetings when you return home, non-stop pacing, trembling, hiding, self-mutilation (like chewing tail or paws until raw).

Causes of Dog Anxiety

A dog suffering from anxiety does not mean that the dog is being neglected, in fact it can be the exact opposite, which is why many dog owners find it hard to understand why they have an anxious dog. However, a dogs anxiety can be triggered in all sorts of ways, but is typically brought on by a major change, including:

• Moving house (change of territory)
• A major change in their pack (i.e. someone leaves due to divorce)
• The arrival of another dog
• The arrival of a baby
• A change in their health (feeling vulnerable, aging)
• A major incident in early life (like abandonment)
• The transition from puppy to adult dog

Study of the wolf pack also suggests that a dog that takes on the role of pack leader within your household will also suffer with anxiety as this role will make them responsible for safeguarding the rest of the pack. This is something they cannot do if you go out and leave them home alone, hence the anxiety.

Dog Anxiety Treatment

There are a number of different approaches to dog anxiety which include the use of training, non-prescription medication, prescription anxiety meds, and use of a range of products specifically designed to reduce anxiety.

• Dog Anxiety Training

A specific training programme based on behaviour modification and desensitisation can get rid of a dogs anxiety completely.  The techniques used for desensitisation will gradually expose the dog to their anxiety triggers in a controlled way, teaching the dog to be calm at low levels of exposure and then gradually increasing their tolerance to that trigger.

This might sound complicated but in reality can be as simple as starting by leaving your dog alone for a few seconds until they do not get anxious when you do and then increasing the time they are left by a few more seconds, each time waiting until they are calm and relaxed before moving on.

Training needs a consistent approach, and must not be based on punishment for their behaviour as it is likely to make it worse, nor should it be based on comforting the dog for their behaviour as this could encourage the dog to use their anxiety symptoms as a means of attention seeking.

• Dog Anxiety Medication

There are a variety of non- prescription meds that can be bought over the counter (or on the internet) that claim to help calm a dog and at the same time are naturally based, so contain nothing that could be harmful to your  dog.
Prescription meds for anxiety will need to be prescribed by your vet. Some will have a seditary effect on your dog and others can alter the general mood of your dog.  It can take a few weeks to get the level of medication right in your dog and there can be side effects including allergic reactions, potential of liver damage, lethargy or depression, vomiting or diarrhea.

Many vets will recommed the use of a training programme alongside medication for maximum effect.

• Dog Anxiety Products

There are numerous products that are used to alleviate anxiety, including toys stuffed with food to distract your dog or favourites for them to play with.  There are also a range of other products including a pheremone plugin that works like an airfreshner, and pressure wraps that work physically to keep the dog calm.

Dog Anxiety Solutions

Dog anxiety is highly unlikely to go away if just left alone, infact over time it is more likely to intensify and for the behavior to get worse.  And while the problems of dog anxiety can seem too big to tackle for some dog owners, by investing some time and patience into understanding anxiety, identifying the symptoms in your dog, and then using the training and products available to you, you can get rid of your dogs anxiety.