6 Simple Ways To Calm Your Dog
Do you have a dog that is scared in a thunderstorm or jumps all over you or visitors and is so excited they can’t control themselves? Whatever it may be emotions play a big part in our dog’s overall wellbeing and there a few ways that can help support your dog’s emotions.
Of course, it goes without saying getting positive behaviour training in place is imperative and we also strongly recommended that if your dog is suffering from severe anxiety or behaviour, a vet behaviourist is always your first point of contact to assess your dog first initially.
However for every day stressors and nervous or excitable behaviour there are a few simple tips that can assist you when managing your dog’s emotions and behaviour.
1. Calm yourself before your dog
Whilst this may seem very simplistic the fact is our dog picks up on all our energy – positive or otherwise.
Our dog’s noses are super sensitive to the point where they can even sense when you are anxious, upset, angry or happy. It’s all to do with a cool little organ in their nose called a vomeronasal that can detect pheromones, which are “undetectable”. You can read more about it in our blog, “Change your Energy, Change your dog”.
2. Exercise
Exercise is proven to increase endorphins in us humans so you would think it would make sense exercising your dog to help them with over excited behaviour or nervous energy. Whilst it is beneficial the key is the walk itself. If you have an anxious dog that is sacred of noises, people etc and are walking in an area where there lots of things going on then this is not going to help calm your dog. The same would be for an over excited dog.
Throwing a ball and letting your dog run and run is not the best option nor is an extended walk, physically or mentally for your dog. Too much stimulation can create a more excited dog not to mention a fitter dog that can go for longer.
If you can choose times of the day when it is quieter or areas where there is less going on, even if you have to drive somewhere to do this. By doing this you will also notice feeling calmer.
During the walk it is also important to let your dog sniff and use their nose. Allowing your dog to sniff on their walk actually tires them out mentally and is especially helpful for over excited dogs and senior dogs who aren’t able to walk as far. It helps with stress, behavioural issues and cognitive function to name a few. Your calmer energy combined with letting your dog sniff has a knock-on effect to your dog.
3. Massage
Touch and massage is very soothing for us so it would make sense to use this strategy for helping calm a nervous or over excited dog. However it’s important to remember that like some humans some dogs don’t like to be touched or massaged so it’s knowing your dog and respecting their choice. For some dogs touch can be quite triggering so listen to your dog.
If your dog does enjoy being touched then incorporate a few moves into your daily routine. It’s a great way to bond with your dog and they will love you for it.
A good place is down the spine. Start at the base of the head and do small circular movements with your hands as you go down their spine. Don’t go too hard. This is not a therapeutic massage, its just to give your dog some time to relax and calm down.
Another good tip is just placing your hands on your dog and doing some breathing exercises.
Remember they can feel your energy so just by slowing your breath down and reducing your heart rate your dog will feel your calmness.
4. Music
Calming music is often used to help with human stress but can dogs benefit? There has been much research on the effects that calming music has on dogs. As a result a number of CDs and other musical products have been produced. The studies show that certain classical music had the most impact on calming an anxious dog. The music created is specifically designed to help anxious dogs in various situations.
These range from loud noises like thunder and fireworks, behavioural issues and being left alone.
For our dogs we use and like pet acoustics. A small blue tooth speaker preloaded with 8 hours of continuous music that has been specifically created for dog’s ears. It has helped to calm my dogs during a thunderstorm and also has a positive effect on their barking.
5. Aromatherapy
One of the reasons we started using aromatherapy for our dogs was due to their emotions. Sunny was very fearful in a thunderstorm and fireworks and Grommie was nervous around new situations. Both of them together at the beginning of their relationship was not a match made in heaven so it was a very tense environment for a while.
Using essential oils helped to ‘diffuse’ the situation (along with some positive reinforcement training). Some of favourite calming oils include Lavender, Copaiba and Frankincence. Remember with using any essential oils with animals to follow some safety guidelines. You can find them HERE>>>.
6. Play Games
Games-based training and enrichment activities are an amazing way to help with calming our anxious dogs. They help with a number of things including calming and focus and helps builds confidence in nervous and anxious dogs. It also helps with disengagement with dogs that get easily distracted. Best of all you can start all this in your home.
There are also a range of different enrichment products on market to engage your dog’s brain. We love using licki mats, KONGS and snuffle mats but you can also create your own enrichment activities using simple household objects.
The Box game is a fun little activity to do with your dog. Simply hide high value treats (something that your dog doesn’t usually get e.g. cooked chicken) in various empty cardboard boxes and let your dog sniff them out. Used the word ‘find it’ and your dog will soon learn the word after doing the activity for a while. It helps dogs that are nervous, excitable and tires them out mentally.
So give these a go and see if they make a difference to you and your dog.
We love training dogs for the situation rather than in the situation and using games is a simple way to help our dogs overcome a number of struggles such as barking, pulling on the lead, separation anxiety, reactivity the list goes on.
You can book in a free 15 minute chat with us to find out more about our dog training and animal arothatherapy services and how we can help your dog with their struggle.
