Stress, and the resulting hormonal and neurochemical arousal, underpins just about every behavioral problem.
Neither stress nor arousal always bad. Momentary excitement is wonderful, healthy play important for welfare, and a dog focused on a task is also aroused but is still responsive and has self-control. That is what we want. Think of a still-in-body border collie focused on sheep, ready to act as needed.
I am also not talking about our collective as of late obsession with keeping our dog statically calm. Emotions are varied and dynamic. Universally animals have moments when they are scared, frustrated, or excited, and our dogs are not an exception. So our demands on our dogs are unrealistic. Healthy animals recover just fine when the perceived threat is gone, the exciting chase, play, greeting, is over.
The issue is ongoing stress, a scary event during a dog’s fear-developmental stage, or trauma (from the dog’s point of view). Then the emotional and biochemical repercussions, played out behaviorally as well, can be long-lasting. Returning to hormonal equilibrium can take weeks or months even after the dog’s situation has changed.
Biochemical arousal enhances the memory systems in the brain, which means that the situation and associated details have more of an impact and affect future behavior whenever these details are present. It could be other dogs, kids, the leash, the training facility, a certain scent, the sound of a car driving by, anything connected to the event stored in the brain can put a dog on edge for a long time to come.
With our dogs there is an additional human factor: selective breeding that can make a dog, by nature, more sensitive to specific stimuli.
Puppies can be born with elevated cortisol levels if mother dog was stressed.
Feeling physically unwell plays a role as well. Not everything is always right away diagnosed. GI issues come to mind, the beginning of arthritis, fine muscle injuries, failing senses in our older dogs. Dogs can’t tell us in our words how they feel, and yet we often still put our demands on them and eliminate choice.
And of course we are also in control of their environments.
Here are some signs that your dog is a bit stressed out at the moment:
Flash-react, even if they put themselves at risk.
Unable to perceive normal social signals from others (does not respond to appeasement or cut-off signals), and does not respond to known cues. Not taking treats any longer.
All senses are tunnelled. Dog is transfixed on the trigger. It further contributes to not hearing you anymore. The body is stiff and streamlined toward the trigger. Mouth is clamped up and eyes not blinking.
Insists and harasses and is difficult to interrupt.
Lowered inhibition: jumping, mouthing, grabbing and ripping sleeves or the leash. One way to gauge arousal is to give the dog a treat (provided she takes it): if she takes it harder than normal arousal is higher.
Humping—a dog, person, or an object.
Stress panting—often the tongue is scooped, and increased heart rate.
Staccato-like barking. Growling, Lunging.
Nerve poop.
Actions a reflection of how the dog feels, but are also intentionally expressed to change or control the situation. Which one depends on the dog’s nature and what has worked in the past. Brain pathways are strengthened each time neurons fire, and arousal again plays a role. It makes sense that an action that gets the animal what it wants—to avoid or gain access or prompt a change of behavior in the other—becomes memory to be retrieved each time the animal encounters the stimulus, or an associated detail. Actions done over and over again become well established and the animal’s first choice coping mechanism—the habit.
Signs of chronic stress:
General restlessness and frantic, repetitive, behaviors. That includes normal behaviors expressed in a frantic way like eating, sniffing, marking, aimlessly pulling. More than three poops a day.
Constantly stimulation seeking. Dog is either fully on or exhausted, and when exhausted, and has a low startling threshold and overreacts when surprised.
Generally low frustration threshold and overreacts to seemingly benign stimuli.
Constant hyper-vigilance and inability to fully relax.
Heightened sensitivity to environmental contrasts and any detail changes.
The underpinnings are:
Fear/anxiety
Frustration/anger
Excitement
Conflict/confusion
Fear/Anxiety
Fear—the trigger is present. Example: Nervous Nellie won’t go for a pee in her back yard when next door neighbor’s Brutus is in his.
There is no option but to change the situation. Feeling safe can neither be bribed nor punished into a dog.
Bring Nellie in the house. And maybe have a friendly chat with the neighbor.
Generally, distance increase = decreased pressure. On a walk, a few steps can be enough. Walking away is empowering; the dog learns that walking away under pressure is an option. In fact, a powerful reinforcement when the dog responds to you again is more distance. Don’t make the mistake of getting too close to the stimulus too quickly just because your dog appears to be calm.
Anxiety—the dog feels threatened all the time. Nervous Nellie won’t go in her yard ever, can’t settle in the house, gets jittery when she hears dog tags jingle anywhere.
The dog is agitated by virtue of being anywhere away from his perceived refuge, which often only is home turf. These dogs have a narrow, very context-specific, safe zone. Often labelled as reacting unprovoked, the fact is that for these dogs anything can be perceived as a threat to their welfare: a jogger who stops jogging, a person entering the home not proceeding into the living area, a person crouching down or giving calming signals. These dogs have to experience safety in many different contexts before they feel safe in general.
Increasing distance to a stimulus is often ineffective. In fact, it can raise distress and arousal, and intensify expressions, because there is lack of information: “Hey wait. I’m not done yet. I must sniff you.”
Frustration/Anger/Rage
What can a dog possibly be frustrated about? Plenty!
Any barrier or restraint: the door, window, fence or crate, the leash or hand on the collar. It is frustrating not being able to act on impulse.
Generally being overly controlled. We want to teach our dogs functional cues that serve as information, but being micromanaged is frustrating. That includes controlling a dog’s communication: punishing the growl but also manipulating via a nose harness, or a cookie. Allowing the dog to communicate freely alone can lower distress, but aside from that if “being nice” is not authentic but a nothing more than a trick to score a cookie, you have no clue how he feels. You lack the must-have information to avoid explosive, from your perspective out of the blue, aggression.
Not getting necessary information. That includes not given autonomy to sniff, and inconsistencies and confusion about cues. That also has an anxiety component.
Being disturbed when meeting a basic need: eating, napping/resting, chewing a bone, but also when interacting with his person or dog playmate. Especially the working breeds don’t want to be interrupted when they are busy. Dogs not wanting to be touched, handled, groomed, falls into that category. That can also have a fear/anxiety component.
Under-stimulation/boredom—often overlooked. Many dogs are especially mentally under-stimulated.
In the extreme we have isolation, unending confinement, and sensory and social deprivation. In humans and test animals that results in severe behavioral problems, including the need to control, aggression, and provoking situations to be aggressive.
There are neurological changes, and with some people they are irreversible. Rescue dogs and commercially bred dogs can come with that past.
The opposite: overstimulation is also often overlooked. That is being bombarded with ongoing stimuli and no resolution. No options to avoid, escape, or control. Noise and odor pollution. Also think dog tags clanking on the water of food dish and household sounds, and cleaning materials and chemical plug-ins. Nonstop things that move: passersby, cars, wildlife. At a dog daycare it can be all of that. Ditto car rides. Herding breeds who are compelled to control the movement and behavior of other animals can be especially negatively affected motion. At the daycare or dog park there is additional frustration when the other dogs object to being controlled—frustration in the controller as well as the controllee.
For dogs who bark at passersby putting up window film to block visual access can be a game changer.
A possession that is contested (or perceived as such), and a possession taken away, can make one mighty angry. Food/bone/toy, but also think space: a preferred resting area, and people’s attention and interaction. Frustration intensifies when resources are perceived as limited.
Ditto when a resource is on the dog’s radar, but unattainable or about to disappear. Examples: a toy held up high and out of reach, or the hand with the treat retracting in fear that the dog snaps. I met a number of dogs who became aggressive when I tucked my treat pouch away. It is also when a walk is about to end, when people leave (that is also anxiety), any cue that announces that something of importance is about to vanish.
Attention is withheld or not given is frustrating, and also fosters social anxiety. Don’t delay greeting your dog when you return home. Let her out of her crate right away—and preferably work toward not crating her. With the door closed, it becomes a cage.
Don’t ignore your dog when he solicits for attention and interaction. I once had a client with a juvenile large dog whose trainer told them to not reinforce “demand barking”. After 43 minutes straight asking for attention, the dog gave up and retreated to his bed. When the owner approached to reinforce for being quiet, the dog bit him. Frustration had switched to anger.
So respond when your dog wants something. Who else could he ask? If he has pressing need, meet it. If it’s interaction and you don’t have time, give him that piece of information. Teach all-done.
Any social pressure is frustrating. It includes unstable and incompatible group members, performance pressure—and anticipatory excitement turns to frustration when what is expected doesn’t manifest, or when it is delayed. One common example is the pup who experiences that she can access people or dogs at will: on walks, at daycare, in the dog park. Frustrated barking and lunging results when, at one point, access is denied because people and dogs don’t want a 50 pound juvenile in their space.
Sometimes greeting also isn’t a solution: it puts a dog in an aroused grey zone: “This one? Can I? Why not this one?” each time he encounters a human or dog. Being the gatekeeper to greetings, asking the dog for a moment of patience with trained “wait” and then giving active permission like “say hello”, is clear information and lower frustration, but with some dogs making not greeting the default until that has become a habit is necessary.
Excitement
Excitement, well, excites. On a biochemical realm as well. We certainly don’t want to quell joy—but too much of a good thing can be a bad thing for the body and, again, lead to actions we don’t like. It’s the proverbial pooch who barks up a storm in the car as soon as he realizes that he’s going to the beach. In that context our Will once bit me in the shoulder because she couldn’t contain her excitement.
Predatory behavior falls into the excitement category. Excitement or not, that can be a shitty outcome for the targeted animal. Even a playful chase between dogs can get out of ‘paw’—turn into frustration when the chaser never catches up with the chasee. Many of nip-bites in the back legs of the runner happen that way.
Conflict/Confusion
Dogs can be in conflict: wanting the treat but not trusting the hand that hold’s it; wanting to be with you but nervous who they could encounter on the walk; wanting to be with you but feeling nauseous in the car; wanting to go for a walk but feeling uncomfortable when the nose halter or ill-fitting body harness is on; being excited about daycare because of people and dog friends, but being overstimulated by the environment or nervous of some dogs.
Dogs can be somewhat curious about a dog or person and somewhat nervous at the same time. In this case the dog might attempt to provoke a behavior in the other to gain more info. Any behavior that part of his natural-by-species repertoire can be used, including barking. Like: “If I do this, what will you do? What are the risks” Whether the dog escalates or not depends on the other’s response.
Generally lack of information is confusing. What ’that’ is that caught the dog’s attention, what to do and how to act at the moment.
Ways we can help
It is critical that a new dog is given the time to settle in and to decompress fully. That is not isolation, but low key stimulation and avoiding exposure beyond the dog’s comfort level. Dogs don’t need daily walks to have good welfare, but keeping them away from the world for life is unrealistic for most people.
Venture out in incremental steps—outside the front door, hanging out in the front yard, a few steps down the street, driving to the end of the road and walking back home, etc.
Fewer walks in quieter areas—the mall before it opens, behind the strip mall where smells are enticing, a deserted beach or wood trail.
Build distraction and busier spaces in gradually. With our feral-born Will who you see in this picture with her emotional support dog Grover, it was literally 30 seconds main street Banff with 15 minutes side streets, and building on that.
A few years later we could take her anywhere. She was one of our two dogs whose claim to fame was having dipped their toes in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and leaving pee-mail in every Canadian province in between.
How did we get there?
Patience. Incrementally expanding her world.
Even though our dogs weren’t lunging and barking, we always paid attention to how they felt—watched for intense pulling, clamped up mouths, increased breathing, lack of curiosity and attention to us. Whenever they needed a break, they got it. Sometimes that meant going back home or to the car.
Routines make life predictable and anchor a dog. Especially basic needs have to be met consistently, and for free. A dog who doesn’t have to be concerned about where he eats, pees, sleeps, has room in his brain to learn, including about his social environment.
Other words for routine are pattern and habit. We can create new habits for our dogs, for example going to the toy box to fish out treats when the delivery van shows up. To get a dog from point A to point B, for example from the apartment to the elevator, a pattern could be a treat, always the same kind, after every 3rd step. Set the foundation first, so train the pattern in a no-distracting/relaxing for your dog environment, and then count it out verbally when you need to get past a situation that agitates your dog. 1-2-3 treat, 1-2-3 treat… gives your dog focus and makes life predictable again.
That pattern is in essence Information.
Providing it reliably builds trust, and your dog will increasingly look for information from you. This is what trained cues are for. A roadmap for the dog. Other functional ones are: leave, wait, this way. Leave and this way make creating distance rewarding; wait buys you space when the ‘problem’ already is increasing the distance—don’t ask your dog to be stationary the stimulus comes closer.
Always be cognizant of space, and do your best to create a safe space for your dog. Including a place in your home where he is not disturbed when he naps. Especially critical for dogs who are overstimulated—the young and ones who have busy lives.
With frustration, so the dog wanting to play with another dog but can’t, information in form of taught cues is equally effective. However, instead of distance the reinforcement must be something that is better, more wanted, overrides, than what your dog wanted to access but couldn’t.
Ideally the leash should be a safety net for your dog instead of an additional frustration trigger.
Normalize the leash by randomly putting it in all different kinds of situations, including in the house.
Follow your dog on leash walks, allow free sniffing. That is critical for mental stimulation. Although we want our fearful and anxious dog to get our information from us, they also need to get their own intel, and free sniffing is part of that. The other is watching = observing and processing to the end. Don’t interrupt, no matter how long your dog needs. Let is unfold as long as he doesn’t escalate. It is then when real learning takes place, and whenever a dog has checked a stimulus that initially unnerved him off as safe, it won’t be a problem in the future. Distance again is key. A dog has to feel safe enough to watch and learn, be curious.
One of the antidotes to fear/anxiety is choice: to approached or not. Don’t allow others into your dog’s space unless you get full consent. From your dog. Tolerating isn’t good enough. Organisms only tolerate for so long and then explode. Telling people that your dog is in training is in my experience the best way to keep them at bay.
Graduated Exposure Therapy is rather successful to help anxious and phobic people. The critical component is that the person is supported. Support is equally as critical for dogs. Support are a dog’s humans, sometimes dogs they are bonded with. It is not adding extra stress via aversive tools like shock or prong collar, or nose harness. It includes not pulling a dog closer to the “problem” or luring her with a cookie. It includes remaining grounded and playful. I know, supporting a dog who just acted out is the hardest thing to do, but it is exactly when your dog is agitated that she needs you most. Always be on your dog’s side. Be her spokesperson. A dog gains confidence in an environment where nothing bad happens: I am not punished, the stranger doesn’t touch me, the dog doesn’t come too close.
DSCC! Huh?
DSCC is a combination of desensitizing and counterconditioning with the aim to change the dog’s emotional response to the arousal-inducing stimulus. The (by us) undesired expressions that reflect the emotional state are information how the dog feels. It is counterproductive to try to manipulate the expressions away. Instead, we want her to feel differently. If successful, the expressions we don’t like will simply disappear. Bonus: not dealing with just the expression means that our dog is not frustrated being micromanaged, but we also don’t eliminate these expressions. Which means that when our dog does feel fearful, frustrated, or conflicted, we are still getting that important intel. Noting worse than a dog who feels bad but doesn’t tell you that anymore.
How to: the dog is exposed to the stimulus in a way he can cope, and in addition it is paired with something he loves. It is critical that this something overrides the stimulus. Otherwise it won’t work. Also important: the dog has to be aware of the stimulus. It is not luring or distracting. And that something is only contingent on the stimulus, NOT the dog’s behavior. Yes, it feels counterintuitive to ‘reward’ the dog for being bad, but the straight-forward “This (the trigger) makes that (what you love best) happen” is the way to change the emotional response.
New associations are formed over existing ones. It is not replacing. You can’t erase what is stored in the brain, but you can overlay it with new experiences that become memory. The more consistent new experiences are made, the more solid the new memories.
Desensitizing works best when there isn’t a strong fear already, and where we can control the inducing stimulus. Think about thunder or fire works. It is almost impossible to desensitize a dog to that. But we can, for example, to sounds a newborn makes in preparation of a baby’s arrival, and anything that has to do with husbandry. And DSCC is part of my resource defensive behavior protocol.
What emotional changes are we after?
Feeling neutral about a stimulus the dog previously wanted to avoid (aggression is a form of avoidance). Examples: nail clipping, the other dog in the family, the toddler, the visitor entering the home, a specific sound.
Acting differently to a stimulus the dog wants to access. Examples: chasing wildlife or the cat, barking at passersby, controlling playing children/dogs, sniffing/greeting a dog.
Feeling great about a stimulus that previously triggered fear or frustration, i.e. a person approaching while the dog has a resource.
The hurdle: Finding something that overrides the stimulus can be sleuth work. Be creative. Think outside the food box.
Whenever our Aussie Davie spotted a deer I invited her to play tag with me. Worked as planned. Within six weeks deer had become the cue for her to play tag. I did not have my eye peeled any longer, and she could safely be off the leash.
My client produced a flirt pole with his dog-reactive juvenile German shepherd whenever they encountered a dog on the walk. That also worked. It was the reinforcement for “leave”, and once leave was a habit, the flirt pole wasn’t needed any longer. Rather, not every time.
Diet can play a role, and generally not feeling well or being in pain.
What your dog eats should be something that he likes, and that is free of nutritionally useless fillers—which includes legumes, corn free but not grain free.
A probiotic supplement could help. Here is one research article:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5707719/
More info: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gut-second-brain/
And one more: https://www.patriciamcconnell.com/theotherendoftheleash/aggression-fear-and-gut-health-joined-at-the-hip?fbclid=IwAR00vRh5N6z93J-hMLMs4P0nsPq4mCGDQzk8_YWbT6jHg4ybEMzFwPE8lbk
My favourite brand Adored Beast—online.
With severe GI issues check out animalbiome.com. A few of my clients did with great success.
Other nutritional supports
Biocalm
Kalm-Aid
Zylkene
available through your veterinarian.
The feedback I am getting on CBD oil is anywhere between “made a difference” to “made things worse”. My personal experience with our border collie: it made things worse. But it is worth a try.
Ditto regarding Thundershirt and Adaptil collar of diffuser.
Some dogs require psychotropic drugs, sometimes only temporarily. Talk to your veterinarian.
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