How to Help a Dog With Anxiety
An estimated 70% of dogs suffer from some form of anxiety. Anxiety is sadly the new norm with our doggie dependents. As pet parents that love our family companions and want to promote a comfortable, healthy life for our dogs, we need to take an active role in bringing back the stable pack.
If you’ve ever observed street dogs, community dogs, or boonies (all depending on where in the world you are), you’ll notice how confident and happy they are. They don’t display anxious behaviors and overall, are mentally very well balanced. So why are canine companions suffering from anxiety at such an alarming rate and what can we do about it?
The differentiator between happy street dogs and anxious house dogs is simple: human intervention. Living freely, dogs have agency and can make their own choices which leads to confidence and mental wellbeing. Living with humans, we often try to shove our square peg dogs into round holes based on our own lifestyles and our personal desires. The answer lies in bringing back agency - a sense of self - and letting dogs do more dog things. We have a responsibility to meet the needs of those in our care. Here are some ways that you can help be sure you are meeting your dog’s needs to prevent and/or treat anxiety.
Observe your dog - when they have free choice (no input from you or other humans) take note of what they are doing. Are they exploring with their nose, digging holes, chewing on a favorite toy, trying to chase critters, or actively trying to engage you? The more information you have about what your dog wants and likes to do, the more you can provide them with activities that match those desires.
Give them more choices - rather than feeling the need to always provide direction, give them the space to think. It’s okay if they make a choice that isn’t what you wanted or expected. Let them explore with more freedom on the leash to smell all of the things they are naturally drawn to. Practice consent petting where instead of allowing someone to simply pet your dog because they want to (this includes you sometimes), allow the dog to seek affection from the person by approaching them and engaging them first. You can also do a quick consent test by petting your dog three times and then stopping. If your dog remains in that position and doesn’t move, diverts their gaze or moves their head away from you, turns their back to you, or walks away, those are all polite indicators that your dog prefers the petting to stop. If after three petting strokes your dog nuzzles into you, paws at you, turns into you, and makes eye contact, these are signals that your dog is enjoying the engagement and would like it to continue.
Talk to a behavior professional - Dogs with anxiety have a perception that something scary will happen. Some dogs are genetically prone to anxiety, some form anxieties based on environmental conditions and some form them based on what they were, or were not exposed to as young puppies during their critical fear and socialization periods. There are many signs and symptoms of anxiety, but talking with a certified behavior consultant or veterinary behaviorist can help you determine, based on your individual dog if anxiety is the actual issue, what type of anxiety they are suffering from, and appropriate treatment for your dog. Behavior professionals are trained and skilled at determining what needs may not be being met, what potential root causes are, what their body language is communicating, and how to make the situation much better. A dog’s anxiety is personal to them, as is a human’s, and their anxieties or fears may not make sense to you, but for a dog, their perception is their reality. A behavior professional can help bridge that communication gap between what you think is happening and what is actually happening for your dog.
Here are some of the go-to tools that a behavior professional may consider to help your anxious dog lead a more calm life in addition to an individualized behavior modification plan. While you can implement some of these suggestions on your own, you will definitely get much farther in terms of progress with your dog by involving a professional that has a lot of experience, especially if you are dealing with an issue such as separation anxiety.
Consider Aromatherapy or Maternal Appeasing Pheromones - Most of these come in sprays or can be used in diffusers - chamomile and lavender aren’t just to settle your nerves and steady the ship for your stress levels, they also have a calming effect on some dogs too!
Engage their olfactory senses - dogs experience the world through their noses, so encourage them to sniff things in their environment on walks or hide things around the house for them to find with their nose. You can scatter some treats in the grass or rustle a bush as you act excited about what could be on the bush to smell. Sniffing is a great confidence booster and if your dog is enjoying their surroundings because they are wrapped up in amazing smells, it makes letting go of potentially concerning things around them much easier.
Muffling/Calming Sounds - these can be helpful for dogs with sound sensitivity, anxiety related to thunderstorms, or other loud noises like construction work. Often people use white noise or classical music, however, newer observations indicate that brown noise or pink noise may be more effective. Someone once said brown noise is like an aural Thundershirt which is a great way to think of it. For those turning to music, select curated stations such as Through A Dog’s Ear to avoid playing accidental agitating sounds. Normalize these sounds for your dog by playing them during periods where they are already relaxed for at least a week prior to playing these sounds during a time when your dog may be anxious.
Ear massage - dogs’ ears have sensitive nerve endings that when gently rubbed, fire off signals to the pituitary gland and hypothalamus, which in turn secrete endorphins, AKA happy hormones!
Calmer Canine Loop - this is a device that works with electromagnetic waves and directly targets your dog’s brain to reduce anxiety.
Environmental management - this is a fancy way to say arranging their environment to avoid triggers while you work through behavior modification. This includes things like providing visual barriers such as frosted film over windows to block the scary mailperson, or, giving dogs a break with a frozen Kong in another room away from kids when they are running and playing loudly. This goes for outside of the home as well in terms of walking away quickly from things that trigger your dog rather than having to wait while the trigger completes the approach and then passes by.
Ensure adequate sleep for rest and recovery - poor sleep perpetuates anxiety. If your dog wakes frequently during the night or does not nap solidly without interruption a few times a day then it’s time to seek help from a behavior consultant and possibly your veterinarian. He/she may recommend a supplement that not only aids sleep but also promotes healthy brain function to reduce anxiety, like Native Pet Calming Chews. Dogs sleep best in a quiet, calm, darker space with no interruption so try moving fido off the furniture in the main hub of the house if that’s his favorite dozing location, for at least one or two rest periods each day.
Calming Supplements such as CBD oil, or anxiety medication - Supplements and medications can be an amazing tool to help take the edge off and open the door for learning. Learning and anxiety do not go well together and for some dogs, the anxiety is simply too much. Getting through behavior modification successfully and reducing severe anxiety is often a more effective process with a supplement, a medication, and/or a combination of these on board. Though many are available over the counter, it’s important to check with your vet first before adding anything to your dog’s diet, including supplements or medications. The supplement industry is not regulated by the FDA so there is a lot of poor quality supplements on the market from companies that simply want a piece of the pie from pet parent spending. Be careful about taking medical advice from anyone that doesn’t have a DVM or VMD behind their name (a veterinarian) - it’s great for people to share with you what has worked for them but ask your vet if it is safe for your specific dog first. The suggestion may be a great option for your dog but there may also be an important drug interaction to know about or an ingredient your dog may not tolerate well. While behavior professionals that are not veterinarians typically know a lot of the supplements and behavior medications available, what they do, what to look out for, and even important drug interferences or interactions, they should never be making medical recommendations for your dog, rather open the door for you to have those conversations with your vet. It’s their job to know things and a good behavior professional will know about behavior meds but a good behavior professional will also not recommend specific drugs or supplements without veterinary direction and consent.
Nutrition and gut microbiome check - these play a larger role in mental wellbeing than many people realize. We are learning more and more as humans just how much our own diet and nutritional choices affect our brain function and mental wellbeing. Dogs also experience this connection from the blood/brain axis and helping an anxious dog’s brain often starts with helping their gut. Aim for a highly nutritious food with limited ingredients and a well-known protein source such as turkey, beef, chicken, or pork. Avoid extreme or fad diets such as 100% raw or grain-free. Consider a fresh food topper if you feed kibble to boost nutritional availability. You can also order a gut health test kit to check if their microbiome has deficiencies and/or you can add in a full spectrum synbiotic (probiotic/prebiotic combination) to help with overall gut health. There are specific strains of bacteria that target anxiety such as Bifidobacterium longum so often a veterinarian will recommend adding a synbiotic that has this strain included. Same with supplements and medications - you’ve probably guessed it - talk to your veterinarian first.
Check your stress - domesticated dogs were bred to be our close companions and just like your spouse, best friend, or close family member, they too are affected by your personal stress. In cases of anxiety in dogs, it is not uncommon for them to have pet parents who also suffer from anxiety or high levels of stress. If there’s conflict in the home, tension more than not, or family members that suffer from anxiety, that could be causing your furry friend to be anxious too. Practice mindful breathing or box breathing, and work towards your home being a safe and comfortable place where you both can relax.
Remember that dogs are sentient beings with their own desires, drives, and even agendas. Helping an anxious dog requires not simply acknowledgment of those facts, but a willingness to act in favor of your dog from your dog’s perspective (as much as a human can) in terms of fulfilling potentially unmet needs. Do a calibration check of some of the more basic daily needs such as how much one-on-one time they are getting, how much physical activity they are getting, are they getting sufficient independent time to build confidence alone, and very importantly, how much mental enrichment are they getting on a daily basis? The answers to these questions and the information provided in this article can give you a paw-up on helping a dog with anxiety. Often when we take the time to truly understand and help heal another being such as our own beloved canine companion, we also get the added benefit of nourishing our own psyche and wellbeing in the process.