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It's a dogs life or is it? 6 Ways to reduce dogs' stress


Stress that dogs experience can be classified as physical and psychological. A

physical stressor could be caused by illness or pain. Whereas psychological stressors can be received by the brain positively or negatively depending on the associations made with the trigger. Positive stress is known as eustress, for example the anticipation for a walk can cause cortisol levels to rise. While a negative stress response is a dog who is in distress, causes a dog to go into a fight or flight or freeze response. A dog can experience acute (short term) distress, for example hearing a loud bang (Caraffa-Brage et al, 1973). This short-term stress can cause physiological changes to the dog’s body such as changes in body temperature, blood pressure, heart rate or even gastrointestinal disturbances (Beerda et al, 1997). If a dog experience distress regularly, or chronic stress over a long period of time, the dog’s physiology can be irreversibly changed. For example, having a weaker immune system as the body diverts from some 'non-essential' organs to focus on the fight or flight stress response.


Main causes of stress and anxiety in dogs


Noise


One of the main causes of stress for dogs was noise sensitivity. In the UK dogs who had poor quality socialisation to prepare them for stressors, such as noises, that are inevitably going to happen in their lifetime causes distress. ‘41% of dog’s are thought to be ‘afraid of fireworks’ (PDSA, 2022), and these figures were even higher for dogs who were rescues (Salonen et al, 2020). Another study indicates that this issue was a common cause of dog ‘anxiety with a prevalence of 32%’ (Salonen et al, 2020, p.4). Other factors that cause stressed dogs are unexpected noises (Caraffa-Brage et al, 1973) or objects falling (Beerda et al, 1998).


Separation anxiety

Another cause of stress and anxiety for dogs, at around ‘20%’ (Sargisson, 2014) was separation anxiety. Dogs who do not have separation anxiety will settle down in the home when the owner is not there. Dogs who do have signs of separation anxiety can be very vocal, defecate, over groom or be destructive in the household (Scaglia et al, 2013). When an owner returns home to their dog who has separation anxiety, the dog will show excessive excitement (Horwitz, 2000). Moreover, the number of dogs with separation anxiety had increased recently due to lockdowns under the covid-19 pandemic restrictions where puppies were raised in constant companionship with their humans (Sherwell et al, 2023).


Furthermore, contradictory studies have found common traits of dogs who suffer with separation anxiety such as ‘male dogs are more prone’ (Sargisson, 2014, p. 145), while other studies found know gender difference. Studies have indicated that dogs who sleep on the human’s bed with them are more dependant. Also, there were links made between dogs who had food left out all the time and anxiety issues.

Other studies have found adult only homes had more anxious pets compared to those with children. Separation anxiety is a big problem for dogs as this can cause enough distress to both the dog and the owner that the dogs are given over to rescue centres ‘or euthanized’ (Sargisson, 2014, p. 143). But giving the dogs up does not solve the issues and dogs who have separation anxiety are likely to carry this with them into their next home (Stephan and Ledger, 2007). Additionally, dogs with anxiety in general are more likely to be aggressive towards people (Riva et al, 2008).

What are you talking about?


Additionally, interspecies miscommunication can lead to feelings of stress and anxiety for dogs. The opposite of anxiety is clarity. Yet, a lack of clarity can cause stress for dogs in how humans communicate their expectations of dogs’ behaviour. Sometimes people will take their frustration out on the dog for not understanding a command or an expectation of a behaviour that was not understood, resulting in them shouting or punishing them, which will only cause the dog further stress and fracture the relationship between human and dog (Fan et al, 2023, p.2). This miscommunication goes both ways, the dog does not understand us, but lots of humans misread dogs’ body language, and this can lead to devastating consequences (such as children being bitten, dog fights, ect).


Unemployed dogs

In recent decades the role dogs play is very different. For the most part, dogs are companion animals rather than working dogs where being aloof, suspicious of strangers, alert barking would have been desirable characteristics. Although people believe they are doing the very best for their pets, the environment for our dogs nowadays is actually ‘resulting in stress, aggression, anxiety, and depression-like behaviors’ (Bayram and Semen 2023, p.69). Medical conditions such as anxiety and depression or illness and pain can cause dogs to act aggressively as medical conditions can play a role in behavioural changes. Furthermore, an environment that is not fulfilling a dog’s natural needs and desires can be stressful and problematic behaviours may result from this (Fan et al, 2023). Dogs whose needs are not met causes frustration and anxiety or even ‘depression’ (Fan et al, 2023, p.2).


Six ways to reduce stress


Owners need to teach their dog life skills from an early age to reduce canine stress and anxiety, by desensitising them to loud noises and coping being left home alone.

Socialisation, which is the positive exposure to lots of different stimuli from a young age and teaching the dog to ignore or interact appropriately with stimuli. It is very important to expose the young dog to a range of experiences from '5-10 months of age' to 'reduces the likelihood of a dog developing separation-related’ (Sargisson, 2014, 145) issues.

Dogs have been scavengers for millennia and it is completely natural for them to want to forage and hunt for their food. A great way to give your unemployed companion a job, is to hide their food. So next time you feed your pooch their dinner, pop it in a tip toy or hid it in a sniff mat or scatter it across the garden or house for them to sniff out.

This combined with behavioural modification methods has been proven to help dogs relax in the home and improve behaviour.

Contacting a Veterinarian to see if antianxiety medication would be given to reduce the dog’s anxiety. This treatment plan needs to be combined with behavioural modification methods (Sargisson, 2014). When the dog’s behaviour improves the decision could be taken to gradually ‘withdraw’ from the ‘medication’ (Sargisson, 2014, 149). Therefore, a dog trainers may need to help in showing the owner how to desensitize a dog or counter condition them to reduce their stress outside the home. Moreover, Blackwell et all (2004) suggest that the strategies to reduce canine stress and anxiety need to be tailored to the dog’s individual situation which is why, at PoochWise I have tailored training programmes to meet dog's individual needs.

6. Crate training is one way to train a dog to be safely left alone. There are many reasons to crate train from preparation for settling in a crate in the car or vets, crate rest issued by the vets for recovery from an operation, to keep the dog safe in the home when unattended, creating healthy separation from their human (i.e., not sleeping on the human’s bed).

Also, a dog in a crate prevents them from following the owner from room to room which can lead to very dependant behaviours. Lastly, crating a dog when leaving the house and when arriving again means that the owner can actively minimise the big hello or goodbye when they leave the house which can cause dogs to have anxiety when the owners are not home. Consequently, a dog who is used to the crate and happy to go in it will help in situations that could otherwise be stressful for a dog.



Citations


Beaver, B.V. and Haug, L.I., 2003. Canine behaviors associated with hypothyroidism. Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association, 39(5), pp.431-434.


Beerda, B., Schilder, M.B., van Hooff, J.A. and de Vries, H.W., 1997. Manifestations of chronic and acute stress in dogs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 52(3-4), pp.307-319.


Blackwell, E., Casey, R.A. and Bradshaw, J.W.S., 2006. Controlled trial of behavioural therapy for separation‐related disorders in dogs. Veterinary Record, 158(16), pp.551-554.


Bradshaw, J.W.S., McPherson, J.A., Casey, R.A. and Larter, I.S., 2002. Aetiology of separation‐related behaviour in domestic dogs. Veterinary Record, 151(2), pp.43-46.


Cannas, S., Frank, D., Minero, M., Aspesi, A., Benedetti, R. and Palestrini, C., 2014. Video analysis of dogs suffering from anxiety when left home alone and treated with clomipramine. Journal of Veterinary Behavior, 9(2), pp.50-57.


Caraffa-Braga, E., Granata, L. and Pinotti, O., 1973. Changes in blood-flow distribution during acute emotional stress in dogs. Pflügers Archiv, 339(3), pp.203-216.


Fan, Z., Bian, Z., Huang, H., Liu, T., Ren, R., Chen, X., Zhang, X., Wang, Y., Deng, B. and Zhang, L., 2023. Dietary Strategies for Relieving Stress in Pet Dogs and Cats. Antioxidants, 12(3), p.545.


Gaultier, E., Bonnafous, L., Bougrat, L., Lafont, C. and Pageat, P., 2005. Comparison of the efficacy of a synthetic dog‐appeasing pheromone with clomipramine for the treatment of separation‐related disorders in dogs. Veterinary record, 156(17), pp.533-538.


Herron, M.E., Lord, L.K. and Husseini, S.E., 2014. Effects of preadoption counseling on the prevention of separation anxiety in newly adopted shelter dogs. Journal of Veterinary Behavior, 9(1), pp.13-21.


Horwitz, D.F., 2000. Diagnosis and treatment of canine separation anxiety and the use of Clomipramine hydrochloride (clomicalm). Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association, 36(2), pp.107-109.


Palestrini, C., Minero, M., Cannas, S., Rossi, E. and Frank, D., 2010. Video analysis of dogs with separation-related behaviors. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 124(1-2), pp.61-67.


PDSA, 2022. Paw PDSA Animal Wellbeing Report. Accessed 04/09/2023. Available at: https://www.pdsa.org.uk/what-we-do/pdsa-animal-wellbeing-report/paw-report-2022/pet-behaviour


Riva, J., Bondiolotti, G., Michelazzi, M., Verga, M. and Carenzi, C., 2008. Anxiety related behavioural disorders and neurotransmitters in dogs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 114(1-2), pp.168-181.


Salonen, M., Sulkama, S., Mikkola, S., Puurunen, J., Hakanen, E., Tiira, K., Araujo, C. and Lohi, H., 2020. Prevalence, comorbidity, and breed differences in canine anxiety in 13,700 Finnish pet dogs. Scientific reports, 10(1), p.2962.


Sargisson, R.J., 2014. Canine separation anxiety: strategies for treatment and management. Veterinary Medicine: Research and Reports, pp.143-151.


Scaglia, E., Cannas, S., Minero, M., Frank, D., Bassi, A. and Palestrini, C., 2013. Video analysis of adult dogs when left home alone. Journal of Veterinary Behavior, 8(6), pp.412-417.


Schwartz, S., 2003. Separation anxiety syndrome in dogs and cats. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 222(11), pp.1526-1532.


Sherwell, E.G., Panteli, E., Krulik, T., Dilley, A., Root-Gutteridge, H. and Mills, D.S., 2023. Changes in Dog Behaviour Associated with the COVID-19 Lockdown, Pre-Existing Separation-Related Problems and Alterations in Owner Behaviour. Veterinary Sciences, 10(3), p.195.


Simpson, B.S., Landsberg, G.M., Reisner, I.R., Ciribassi, J.J., Horwitz, D., Houpt, K.A., Kroll, T.L., Luescher, A., Moffat, K.S., Douglass, G. and Robertson-Plouch, C., 2007. Effects of reconcile (fluoxetine) chewable tablets plus behavior management for canine separation anxiety. Veterinary Therapeutics, 8(1), p.18.


Stephen, J. and Ledger, R., 2007. Relinquishing dog owners’ ability to predict behavioural problems in shelter dogs post adoption. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 107(1-2), pp.88-99.

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