How to Know Your Dog’s Behavior and Signs of Anxiety

How-To-Know-Dog

Whether your dog is grinning at people or constantly staring at you, it is important to consider such signs. Ignoring such small aggressive behaviors in your dog, may lead to severe anxiety disorder in them. It is important to recognize any change in your dog behavior and if any serious change is noticed, consider providing him proper training and medication to reduce the effect of anxiety in dog.

Look at dog’s posture

Dogs with anxiety disorder usually freeze with tense muscles when they feel frightened or simply turn away from threat. They may crouch with their upper body and head close to the ground or roll over to expose their belly. Sometimes submissive dogs may also urinate while rolled over. Some more signs include shaking as if drying him, lowering his head, stretching, tucking his tail underneath his body, or lifting a paw.

Check the dog’s eyes

It is necessary to check his eyes. Worried dogs when exposed to threat give a wide, unblinking stare while showing the whites of their eyes. Anxious dogs who want to look away from threat, blink rapidly or close their eyes.

Note:

If a dog continuously stares without blinking, showing the whites of his eyes, immediately look away from dog’s eyes and refrain from looking in his eyes for some time. Giving a direct stare can make your dog aggressive.

Look at the position of the dog’s ears

Dogs with anxiety usually pin their ears back in a sign of submission or fear. If your dog’s ears are constantly pinned back showing other signs of anxiety, remove him from the source of anxiety.  Moreover, pinned back ears and tail tucked underneath dog’s body show a sign of underlying fear in an aggressive dog.

Refusal of eat

Dogs that are exposed to unpleasant situations, they may shut down and refuse to eat. If your dog, who is afraid of slippery floors, is forced to walk on slippery floor, he may refrain himself and refuse to eat. Some dogs even refuse to have treats when taken to training classes. At such times, they need to be given separate training.

Sniffing and distracted behavior

Dogs show signs of distraction or sniffing the ground to ignore situations that make them anxious. When meeting with other dogs, or trying to avoid aggressive dog’s presence, your dog may show such signs of anxiety. To make sure that he is not just sniffing or interested in smelling, look for other symptoms of anxiety.

Get to know your dog’s behavior

It is important for you, as a pet parent to know the personality trait of your dog. What he likes dislikes. How he behaves in certain situations, does he like to be around other pets or rolls over while seeing people around.

Some Important Tips

Most common type of anxiety in dogs is separation anxiety such as being separated from owner or excessive fear of being left alone. Dogs with such anxiety might constantly whine or bark, defecate in the house or even destroy furniture. When your dog has mild separation anxiety, you can train him and prevent defecating inside or destroying the house. On the contrary, dogs with severe separation anxiety require professional training, as they cannot be safely crated.

A dog that is aggressive may snarl and expose his teeth, while a dog holding his mouth in a wide grin is actually demonstrating a calming signal though the show of teeth can be frightening. If your dog shows this signs, train him to sit politely and greet people. This will help prevent misunderstandings.

If you have recognized your dog with anxiety disorder, never put him to punishment-based training methods or training methods that involve flooding (means exposed to extreme frightening stimulus to help the dog overcome fear). If your dog is anxious, provide positive reinforcement training as it will increase his confident.

Important Note:

If your dog is showing severe anxiety or threatening to use aggression, refrain from your dog’s look and slowly back away. If suddenly your dog is showing severe aggressive behavior, immediately remove him from source.

If your dog is facing anxiety disorder, it is important that you take care of his needs and ensure that you show love and affection more frequently. Moreover, there are certain products available to treat anxiety disorders in dogs which are helpful.