Dog anxiety affects many of our dogs, whether that is a fear of loud noises such as fireworks, or thunderstorms, or stress that is triggered by leaving them on their own. The result of this anxiety shows up in what often looks like a case of bad dog behaviour, which can lead to the wrong approach to solving the problem.
Take for instance a dog pooping in the house. To the owner it can look like he needs more house training rather than treatment for being anxious. Equally a dog chewing everything when left alone can be labelled as a destructive dog rather an anxious dog.
Dog Anxiety Symptoms to Look Out For
Because all dogs have different personalities and characteristics, they will also react differently, but their anxious behaviour largely falls into these groups.
- Nuisance Noise such as excessive barking, howling, whining, yelping or crying.
- Dog Behaviour Problems such as chewing everything, digging, scratching at doors, carpets and windows and in extreme cases completely destroying furniture.
- Physical Symptom such as panting, drooling and salivating excessively, pooping and urinating in the house, manic greetings when you return home, non-stop pacing, trembling, hiding, and self-mutilation like chewing their tail or paw's until raw.
Causes of Dog Anxiety
A dogs anxiety can be triggered in all sorts of ways, but is typically brought on by major changes such as moving house, a change in their pack (like someone leaving due to divorce), the arrival of another dog, the arrival of a baby, a change in their health (such as feeling vulnerable or ageing), or a major incident in early life such as abandonment.
Study of the wolf pack suggests that a dog that takes on the role of leader within your 'pack' will also suffer with stress as this role will make them responsible for safeguarding the rest of the pack. Which of course, 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 programs, non-prescription medication, prescription anxiety meds, and use of a range of products specifically designed to reduce anxiety.
Dog Anxiety Training
Vets recommend a specific training programme based on behaviour modification and desensitization to get rid of a dog's anxiety. The techniques used for desensitization 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.
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 these symptoms as a means of attention seeking.
Dog Anxiety Medication
Non-prescription medications are widely available over the counter or on the internet, such as the herbal based Rescue Remedy. These products generally claim to help calm a dog and at the same time being naturally based, contain nothing that could be harmful to your dog.
Prescription medicines for anxiety will need to be bought through your vet. Be aware that there are some side effects to these drugs. Some will have a sedative effect on your dog and others can alter the general mood of your dog. Other side effects including allergic reactions, potential of liver damage, lethargy or depression, vomiting or diarrhoea. It can take a few weeks to get the level of medication right in your dog.
Products to Help Dog Anxiety
There are numerous products designed to help alleviate anxiety, from toys to distract your dog while you're out, through pheromone treatment via a plugin that mimics the pheromones produced by the mother of young pups to pressure wraps that work physically to keep the dog calm.
Solutions To the Problem
Dog anxiety is unlikely to go away if ignored, in fact over time the dog behaviour problems caused by their anxiousness are more likely to get worse. So as an owner you'll need to invest time and patience into understanding your dog's anxiety and use the training and products available on a consistent basis to make the changes needed to create a calm and happy dog.
