Chapter 1

Understanding Anxiety in Dogs

IN THIS CHAPTER

Defining anxiety

Considering your dog’s worldview

Identifying your dog’s triggers

More than anything, dogs want to feel safe. However, many dogs with anxiety experience life as a series of unpredictable events and startling interruptions, leaving them feeling stressed and unsure. The good news is that you can help unpack your dog's fears and help them learn to enjoy life.

It can be difficult to witness your dog struggling with anxiety, and you can't reason with them or validate their emotions as you can a person. Being routinely anxious takes an emotional toll, whether your dog dreads abandonment, is sensitive to noise, weather, or other sensory stimulation, or views other people and dogs as threatening.

Understanding the similarities between human and dog anxiety will help you appreciate your dog’s struggles. Recognizing how your dog comprehends their circumstances and communicates stress will help you guide their rehabilitation with empathy and kindness.

Working through your dog’s anxiety is more than training them to make better choices and self-soothe once their anxiety is triggered. The initial goal is to build their general confidence and joy for living. By inspiring fun and happiness through shared interactions, games, and lessons, you can help your dog prioritize your relationship and look to you before they react.

Punishment and violence have no part in this process and will only intensify your dog’s anxiety. Although you may feel frustrated at times, it's important not to take it out on your dog.

Recognizing Anxiety in Your Dog

All of us can relate to anxiety. Whether you or someone you love receives bad news, experiences financial insecurity, or endures the butterflies before starting a new job, we have all felt it. Coping with anxiety is something we recognize and identify, even at an early age. Many people have a distinct formula for dealing with our anxiety, things like talking to a friend or therapist, going for a walk, or deep breathing. Some people even download an app!

Dogs aren’t so lucky. In fact, with limited freedom or ability to express themselves, dogs vent their stress in ways we sometimes deem unacceptable, such as barking, chewing, eliminating, or nipping. Left on their own or unattended, they can suffer greatly.

Unlike people, dogs can’t explain unpredictable events, so their tension builds up. Unless you step in and help your dog desensitize triggering events, they will be left with a lot of unresolved triggers and phobias.

Your dog doesn’t identify stress as a separate emotion. When they feel anxiety, it affects their whole being. While there are things they can do to calm themselves, such as run away, dig, or hide, modern dogs often have little agency over their actions and the freedom to choose their own path.

The great disconnect

Your dog doesn’t categorize behavior as good or bad. Even for us, right or wrong is often inconsistent; it can be different from house to house, culture to culture, and even person to person. Many couples differ in opinions regarding greeting manners and play. From your dog’s perspective, their behavior is a moment-to-moment decision that is more dependent on what alleviates their anxiety or pain. Here are a few examples:

• When left alone, a dog might tear the house apart or howl for hours — not to punish you for leaving, but because they physically implode when finding themselves alone. This is known as separation anxiety.
• If you can’t find your dog before leaving for work or they dig their heels in as you try to get them in the crate, they are not trying to derail your schedule. Many dogs have containment anxiety and become visibly upset when forced into small, contained spaces.
• Dogs don’t growl at strangers or other dogs because they’re mean; they do so because they’re afraid and unable to distance themselves. Dogs with social anxiety are often unsure of a strange person, another dog, or of children.
• When some dogs sense a storm or hear a loud noise, they become terrified. They hide and run away to soothe their distress, not to derail your schedule or plans. This is an example of a sensory-sensitive dog.
• When dogs react to other dogs on leash or from the safety of an enclosure, they are generally afraid and use their behavior to urge the oncoming dog away.

Understand anxiety

Many words describe the range of intensely fearful emotions dogs experience. While these terms might seem interchangeable, it's important to explore the differences before you can get handle on your dog's issues:

• Anxiety: Dogs experience anxiety when they anticipate a future threat or feel uneasy about something that isn't immediately present. This can manifest as restlessness, excessive barking, or destructive behavior. Unlike fear, which is a response to an immediate threat, anxiety is more about the anticipation of possible dangers.
• Fear: Dogs feel fear when they perceive a real or imagined threat in their environment. This might be triggered by routine events or specific stimuli, such as fireworks, a balloon, or a person wearing a hat. While fear is a normal survival instinct, it can become problematic due to a lack of socialization or a learned response. Fortunately, dogs of every age can develop more positive associations through gradual exposure, a process known as counterconditioning.
• Panic: When a stressful event is pronounced and inescapable, a dog may develop a panicked response. For example, Jasper, a terrier mix, was fine being left alone in his crate until a smoke alarm went off and fire trucks arrived. Now Jasper panics whenever he hears sirens and is confined.
• Phobia: When dogs have a chronic fear of an unavoidable noise, situation, or traumatic experience that leads to a PTSD-like response, phobic reactions can evolve. Examples include being left alone, experiencing trauma, hearing thunderstorms, and being confined on a leash. Dogs with phobias often become sensitized to related events, such as the sound of rain paired with thunderstorms, or be crated before isolation. For some dogs, similar-sounding events on the radio or TV can also trigger panic.
• Aggression: Dog aggression is a response to perceived threats or stressors. It can result from fear, anxiety, or frustration. Aggressive behaviors can include growling, barking, lunging, and biting. Dog aggression is often a way of trying to protect themselves or their territory.

Other words I use to represent different levels of anxiety include distress, dread, alarm, caution, and stress.

Your dog’s anxiety falls into one of two camps:

• Generalized: Dogs with generalized anxiety are constantly stressed by any number of sensory stimulations, which interferes with their everyday lives and, by association, your life.
• Episodic (situational): These dogs live a relatively stress-free existence until a specific event occurs, such as a thunderstorm, a vacuum, and so on.

Recognize your role in their anxiety

Nobody intends to reinforce their dog’s anxiety or maladaptive habits. Too often, however, we do just that. The message often gets lost in translation when trying to reassure a dog. Consider these examples:

• When out for a walk, do you retreat from other dogs, people, and situations that frighten your dog, or do you tighten your hold on the leash, drag your dog toward what they’re trying to avoid, or stand still?
• When you come home to a frenzied dog or a destroyed household, do you stay calm, or do you get frustrated or angry with your dog?
• When your dog barks or whines incessantly or paws you repeatedly for your attention, do you politely redirect them, or do you give in to their demands?

Often, our reassurances reinforce our dog’s stress. How you’d naturally reassure a friend having a meltdown or panic attack differs from how you should reassure a dog or puppy.

The good news is anxiety isn’t a life sentence. Your dog can make more positive associations and learn better coping skills with your guidance and the information in this book. As they become more emotionally stable, your dog will be more confident and relaxed, even in formerly unnerving situations. One of your first goals is to identify what’s causing your dog's anxiety and why.

Understanding Why Some Dogs “Misbehave”

Your dog doesn’t love their anxiety any more than you do. When fear transforms a moment, their body floods with adrenaline, giving them a jolt of energy to escape or fend off a threat. Even though you...