Many of us will be forming new healthy habits this month, and taking steps to reduce the stress in our lives is often a very popular January resolution. It’s important to always remember that dogs feel happiness and sadness and can experience stress in various situations, dog stress is a serious issue and should be treated as such.
Does my dog feel my stress levels?
This might be happening due to stress in the owners’ everyday life. Our animals will and do pick up on this and they might be even mirroring it. Usually, the owners might be acting disruptive towards their pets – shouting, mumbling. These physical expressions are clear to humans as well as animals.
When we are stressed or scared, we secrete the fight-or-flight hormone, adrenaline, which dogs detect even though we can’t smell it. Also, when we are anxious, we have increased heart rate and blood flow which carries body chemicals to the skin surface where dogs can pick them up more easily. So, it’s no use trying to mask your true feelings from your canine companion. His sense of smell will not be fooled.
We have dedicated a whole blog post to owners about stress reduction which you can read here.
This is also a great opportunity for us to remember that, as pet owners, we’re more in control of our dogs’ environment than they are. Whilst we’ve no doubt our Rocketeers provide the best possible lives for their dogs, stress is often inevitable [for us and our pets] – and that’s exactly why we’ve created OHM.
Stress can come in many forms that we often don’t notice, but these can affect sleep cycles, hormonal function, and immune function to name a few.
How does my furry friend express stress?
Here are some of the indicators you should make sure to watch for when trying to diagnose your dog’s strange behaviour. If the symptoms are severe and your dog seems disturbed, either physically or mentally, seek medical advice from your veterinarian as soon as possible.
🟡 Vocalizations – Whining, growling, barking, or whimpering are signs that your dog is displeased, annoyed, angry, scared, or generally anxious.
🟡 Body Language – Where a relaxed and content dog might snooze away on the couch or rollover to present its belly for a scratch, an anxious dog might cower in a corner, shake uncontrollably, or pace around a room, looking disorientated.
🟡 General Behavior – If your dog begins to exhibit destructive behaviour, such as ripping up socks and shoes or destroying your walls, floors, and furniture, this is an unmistakable cry for help and a clear sign of anxiety.
🟡 Physical Changes – Things like constant, prolonged yawning, consistent scratching, panting and licking, large amounts of shedding, and excessive drooling are all habits to look out for, mostly if they were not prevalent before.
What can you do to release the stress in your dog’s life?
💛 Exercise – Stress, anxiety, and aggression can stem from a lack of exercise. Dogs are inherently energetic and require physical exercise and mental stimulation.
💛 Creating a safe space – Create a place for your dog where they can go to relax. Ideally, you should always use the same bed, blanket, or mat and take it with you when you visit potentially stressful environments.
💛 OHM – Bringing some zen into your dog’s life OHM contains naturally calming herbs like valerian, chamomile, passionflower, and Rhodiola – these work on the nervous system internally; relaxing the body and bringing an overall calm. OHM combines ashwagandha, Rhodiola Rosea, and mushrooms that are adaptogenic powerhouses, acting as a natural vaccine to stress and supporting the body to cope.
Last but not least very simple advice:
💛Evading Stress Triggers – If your pup cannot seem to get over their dog anxiety, fear or stress, avoiding their triggers would be the only logical solution.
The two pandemic years has been extremely harsh on us and on our pets. We hope the basic tips will help you every day and with help of organic supplements – we can help them in a long term.
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