You exercise your dog every day, rain or shine. You ensure there are plenty of daily play sessions and food they love, and you’re generous with their favourite treats. In short, you’re nailing caring for their physical health. But what about your dog’s mental health? It’s essential to their overall wellbeing. Learn more about anxiety in dogs, including some ways to calm an anxious dog.

Like with humans, there’s not just one type of anxiety in dogs. It’s quite common and takes many forms, including:

• Separation anxiety.
• Travel anxiety.
• Storm or noise phobias.
• Anxiety about strangers or other animals.
• Generalised anxiety, where dogs feel stressed most of the time.

If you suspect your dog is experiencing anxiety, take them to the vet first who can rule out any underlying health conditions, and give you a proper diagnosis and treatment plan.

Anxiety, not nervousness

Although anxiety and nervousness might seem like interchangeable terms, they’re not. It’s normal for a dog to feel nervous at times. Like when a loud, unexpected noise startles them (like door slamming) or you leaving them alone. This kind of nervous stress is temporary (it normally goes away within a few minutes) and low intensity.

Anxiety isn’t. It’s a much more intense reaction to the stressor (like a thunderstorm or you leaving) and typically lasts a lot longer. You may have notice symptoms of anxiety or distress around Guy Fawkes where loud fireworks can disrupt their night time routine and sense of security - learn more about keeping them safe around fireworks.

Here are some common signs that your dog is experiencing anxiety:

• Avoidance. An anxious dog might try to avoid what they feel are dangers. As well as moving or looking away from you, they might hold their ears back against their head, tuck their tail, crouch low, shrink away from perceived threats, or find hiding places.
• Always alert. Anxious dogs don’t often let their guard down so they’re always on alert for whatever danger is lurking around the corner. This can be seen in the pricking of their ears, constantly scanning eyes, always sticking by your side, pacing, or excessive licking.
• Noisier than usual. An anxious dog can be a loud dog. This is typically either whining or whimpering, or excessive and frantic barking.
• Destructive behaviour. Anxiety can turn into panic, which can turn into destruction as your dog tries to escape whatever the perceived threat is. This might look like clawed walls, chewed doors or skirting boards, scratched floorboards and even broken windows.
• Toilet accidents. Stress can cause your dog to go to the toilet where they shouldn’t. Try to remember that your dog isn’t being ‘bad’ - they’re terrified and not in control of their bodily functions.

Other signs of anxiety include trembling, panting, drooling, lip licking, shaking, energy changes (when they’re more or less energetic than usual) and appetite changes (when they eat a lot more or less than usual).

It’s really important that if you see any of these signs in your dog, you take them to the vet rather than self-diagnosing anxiety. Your vet will need to rule out any medical conditions that may be causing these issues.

Most anxious dogs respond best to multimodal treatment. This means more than one type of treatment at a time. Your vet can help you decide the most effective treatments for your dog.

Vet treatments

Vets will normally suggest behaviour modification and/or medications. Behaviour modification involves:

• • • Counter-conditioning. This helps your dog associate something positive with whatever used to trigger their anxiety. So, if a dog gets anxious when another dog approaches during a walk, they can be taught to sit and wait for a treat. Over time, this dog learns that another dog approaching means good things (i.e. treat time!).
    • De-sensitisation. This involves exposing your dog to watered-down versions of their triggers and rewarding them when they remain calm. If a dog experiences separation anxiety and picks up on cues that someone is about to leave home (like the sound of jingling keys), you can carry keys around your home for a little while, then put them down and never leave. Your vet will be able to help you with this desensitisation technique, including tailoring them to your pup.

There are a range of medications available to help highly anxious dogs that can’t relax enough to modify their behaviour. Your vet will talk you through the prescription medication options and help you choose the right one for your dog.

At-home treatments

As well as seeking vet support, there are some calming techniques you can try at home.

Avoid their triggers: The first step is to work out what your dog’s triggers are. Some are obvious, like their reaction to a thunderstorm. Others, not so obvious. In these cases, when you spot signs of anxiety you’ll need to ask yourself questions like what’s different? Has someone new (human or animal) come into the room? Did a noisy truck go past? Am I about to leave home? Make a note of what you think might be causing their anxiety then watch your dog the next time it happens to confirm it’s a trigger for them.

Figured out their trigger? The next step is to try avoid them. If your dog has separation anxiety, try to make sure they’ve always got company, until their treatment starts to work. Bring them to work, find a dog sitter, or look into doggy daycare. Although not all triggers can be easily avoided (loud unexpected noises, for example), you might know when some are going to happen, like local fireworks displays. In which case, you can try white noise or music to reduce the noise impact.

Train them: It’s possible to train your dog to be less anxious, here’s how you could train them:

• • • Reward them when they’re calm and relaxed. Your dog will come to associate being calm and relaxed with getting plenty of love, attention, praise and treats. This is especially true if you reward them for staying calm in a situation that normally makes them anxious.
    • Distract them. It’s not always possible to avoid your dog’s triggers and dogs with mild anxiety might respond well to delicious distractions like puzzle toys filled with treats. When faced with a stressful event, whip an interactive toy out and see if they can calm themselves by trying to release a tasty treat.
    • Exercise them, lots. Daily exercise is essential to your dog’s physical and mental health. Like with humans, exercise can relieve anxiety in dogs. A tired, well-stimulated dog is normally a happy dog!

Go shopping
There’s a range of calming dog products available, including calming chews, nutritional supplements, sprays and clothing, like ThunderShirts. You might have to try a few before finding what works best for your dog.

We hope this article helps you spot any signs of anxiety in your dog and gives you some helpful tips to support them. If you need any further help or have a question we haven’t answered, contact our friendly Pet Direct Customer Care team on 0800 200 240 or email support@petdirect.co.nz.