The wet and grey “April Showers†time of year is upon us, and storm-related anxiety is pretty typical in our canine companions. A clap of thunder, the smell of rain, or maybe even a change in barometric pressure–any or all of these may stress different dogs and bring on panting, pacing, drooling, and frantic “escape†or “hideâ€Â behaviors. Some families don’t really mind–they let the dog find a dark corner and weather out the storm–but if you’re interested in calming down your pet during bad weather, you have several options to choose from before resorting to medication.
Behavioral training is one of those options.  Sometimes noise is the trigger for a dog’s anxiety, and that dog will also stress out over other deep noises like a car backfiring, thumping bass lines in music, etc. If that’s the case, you might be able to desensitize the animal by having “fun time†with games and treats while exposing the dog to quiet versions of the noises that frighten him or her (like a recording of thunder or playing in a park several blocks away from marching band practice). As the dog becomes less afraid of the quiet noises, you gradually increase the volume of those noises.  The idea is that, eventually, the dog will be conditioned to associate “boomingâ€Â noises of any volume with a positive outcome rather than a frightening one.Â
Conditioning is a mental approach, but there are several physical approaches to the problem, as well. You may have noticed a nervous dog calming down after being “hugged†by its owner. That response isn’t because the dog finds a hug comforting in the way humans do, but because the pressure actually affects a dog’s nervous system. Stimulating nerve endings over a large portion of a dog’s body raises the amount of stimulus the animal can stand before reacting, sort of like “resetting†their threshold for stress to trigger at a higher level. Products such as Thundershirts and Anxiety Wraps place light pressure on a dog’s torso and are safe to wear for the entire length of a storm.Â
Like accupressure or massage in humans, stimulating specific nerve areas or relieving muscle tension can also help calm an anxious dog. The best-known approach for specific-area stimulation is probably the TTouch sytem perfected by Linda Tellington Jones, which uses a variety of  stroking motions used to stimulate animals at the cellular level. Stroking the ears is a good place to start the “calming†message to an animal’s body, and you can see a quick look at it around 2 minutes 20 seconds into the video here (for Ttouch) and the video here (for accupressure/massage).Â
Some pet owners have had great luck with exposing an anxious dog to calming scents. This might include using a room atomizer or a squirt bottle to spray a substance on a dog’s collar or bedding. Studies have shown positive results from both lavender and a pheromone called DAP (Dog Appeasing Pheromone).
Please feel free to chime in and let me know if there are some non-ingested approaches to calming a dog during a storm!
Resources:
Aromatherapy–Nothing to Sneeze At. Colorado State University Vets.
Canine Behavior Spotlight. About.com.
Massage Therapy for Dogs. Petplace.com
Thunderstorm Phobia. Yankee Golden Retriever Rescue.
Leave a Comment
No comments yet.
没有评论:
发表评论