ADVICE: The Common Sense Dog
Thank you again for all of the emails! I read each one. If you need help and would like to ask me questions, feel free to email me at askdogtrainersteph@gmail.com.
How many of us know someone struggling with anxiety or have experienced anxiety for ourselves? All of us. It’s not a fun feeling. It can ruin our sleeping and eating patterns. It can damage relationships. It can make us fear the world, but worst of all, it takes away our peace.
So many dogs struggle with anxiety. They struggle to fit in, relax, and be comfortable with their surroundings. Very often this constant stress manifests itself in problem behaviors. Chewing, digging, jumping, barking, humping, whining, fear, aggression, “stubbornness”, crate destruction, etc. And very often owners just think they have a hyper dog, when the dog is actually struggling.
Sometimes these issues are genetic. Sometimes pups are born with a predisposition toward anxiety, but anxiety can also be a learned behavior. Freedom is usually the culprit.
We forget that dogs were not designed to live their lives like humans: behind walls, tied to leashes, driving in cars, going to shops, groomed by groomers, etc. They were designed to work, to forage, to scavenge and be part of a pack. They don’t understand the world we live in, and the result is usually anxiety.
On top of that, our society teaches us that dogs should have everything they want when they want it, but this way of thinking is tremendously detrimental to the mental well-being of our dogs, and the average pet owner doesn’t have access to true training guidance.
Dogs are very much like children in the sense that they need leadership before freedom. I don’t allow my 6-year-old to drive the car. Why? Because she is not ready. Would she love to drive it? You bet. Would it be fun at first? Of course. Would she lose control and get stressed very quickly? Yep, and that’s when things would stop being fun. As a parent, I make the judgment call and say no to my 6-year-old driving the car. When she is 16, getting good grades, and showing me she is prepared to take on that freedom? Then we will talk.
When it comes to anxiety with our dogs, we are usually moving way too fast too soon. This is no fault of the average owner. They do what society tells them to do, and because they love their dogs, they try to follow what they think is right, but the truth is, we need to slow the dog WAY down.
And not just with the explosive anxious outbursts. We need to slow EVERYTHING down. The way they eat, the way they walk, the way they enter and exit the crate, the way they greet people and dogs, the way they move around the house, the way they play at the park, how they ride in the car, their responses to being pet, etc.
This is time consuming, but the benefits are monstrous. An anxious dog’s brain is moving way too fast, and we will never be able to teach them about the environment around them if we let it continue to race. If you have an anxious dog, take freedom away and create as much structure as possible. Without structure, our dogs fade away. Try making very specific routines for your dogs and doing everything in slow motion.
No one wants to spend a lifetime trapped by anxiety.
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Stephanie Vichinsky is the owner/head trainer of United K9, LLC in Post Falls. 208-964-4806
unitedk9training.com