Canine Stress and How Relaxation Exercises Help
What is Canine Stress?
In today’s world, where our lifestyles are fast and packed with activities, many dogs are stressed, or anxious, or fearful, especially since the pandemic. I am seeing more and more dogs come to my classes where the dogs lack general socialization and basic boundaries which result in dogs who are high strung and stressed and anxious or fearful. This may be due to many factors such as genetics, traumatic experience when the dog was young and impressionable, or just was not socialized correctly or at the right time.
Dogs generally demonstrate high emotional states by being:
Reactive (barking and/or lunging) at other dogs or people
Highly distracted by everything (loud noises, coming and going of people) which may also result in barking, pacing, etc
Cower or run away and hide if they are not on leash when a new person comes over
Unrestrained excitement where they are staring, barking and jumping all over the new person or dog
Presenting calming signals to try to relieve stress such as panting, yawning, pacing, drooling, etc
Mild to Severe Separation Anxiety
How Does Stress Affect your Dog’s Brain ?
When your dog is in a high emotional state, it can affect how your dog’s brain is operating which then affects their behavior or response to the stress event. When a dog is stressed the brain produces more stress related hormones like cortisol, adrenaline, increased testosterine levels, etc. which in turn causes your dog to respond using their emotional brain (limbic system) instead of their logical brain (cortical system). As your dog responds to stressful events over and over again and responds by behaviors driven by their emotional brain, what happens is that access to your dog’s logical brain in stressful situations atrophies. What this means is that the more your dog reacts to stress events by being reactive, fearful/anxous, or overly excited, the more apt your dog will continue to respond that way in the future and will escalate those behaviors over time.
Regardless of what the stress event is, or why the dog is anxious or fearful, we need to support our dogs by helping them learn how to BE CALM. One way to do this is to register for a Paws N Relax class today and let us guide you on how to touch your dog so you and your dog can reap the benefits that therapeutic touch can provide. We use Classical Music and the power of physical touch to teach your dog how to be calm or to teach them what calm feels like because they may not know!
How Does Calming Physical Touch Work?
The brain communicates within itself and with all other organs in the body via chemicals, neurotransmitters, and hormones which drives how a dog feels and behaves, or how they respond to external stressors. Physical touch has been proven to be beneficial for both humans and dogs. This is because physical touch actually increases several chemicals and hormones that drive mood and overall health. Physical touch increases:
Oxytocin which plays a significant role in shaping social behviors such as bonding, affection and maternal care. All it takes is 15 minutes to increase Oxytocin and strengthen the bond between you and your dog.
Serotonin which regulates moods such as anxiety, depression, etc. Seritonin also helps with bone health and healing.
Dopamine is the neurotransmitter that assists in controlling the reward and pleasure systems in the brain. It’s the “feel good” neurotransmitter. When you spend quality calm time with your dog petting or touching them, dopamine levels increase making both you and your dog feel better.
Endorphins, produced by the pituitary gland, are increased simply by interacting with your dog and play a significant role in making you and your dog feel relaxed.
So you can see how using physical touching techniques with your dog will help them be calmer and happier. But how do we touch our dogs to reap the benefits of physical touch?
Touching Techniques
Be Still While in a Down Position
For this touching technique we are going to rub the dog firmly with the flat plam of our hand. Both hands should be on the dog at all times.
Start out with your dog in a down position. Preferably on their side with their back to you. However, if this is really stressful for your dog, then simplay get them in any down position that they are comfortable with. Place one hand under their collar or on the side of their head (on their jaw) and with the other hand, start to rub the dog firmly along their back or side in a pretty fast pace. Do not lift your palm off of your dog while you are rubbing them. While you are rubbing them, watch their face for a calming signal like taking their tongue and flicking their nose or licking their lips. When you see this, slow down your rub, but not the firmness. Continue to rub your dog and notice when your dog starts to feel more relaxed under your touch. Then you can start rubbing other areas, such as their legs, abdomin, chest, feet, neck, and head.
If at any time, your dog starts to squirm or wiggle around, stop rubbing your dog and firmly hold them until they stop moving, then start rubbing them again. You may need to do this a couple of times. Don’t dispair, your dog is just trying to resist against calming down, many times because being calm or calming down feels very foreign to them. Be persistent and just keep holding your dog until they stop moving and then start rubbing again.
During this exercise, do NOT talk to your dog. If you must say something to your dog, just say your postivie marker (like “Yes”) so that over time your dog will associate the word “Yes” with feeling of calmness.
Continue touching your dog in this manner until they are completely relaxed. When ready, you can quietly stop touching them and gently, slowly, and quietly get up to end the session.
The benefit of this type of touch is that as your dog relaxes, the brain starts to access neural pathways associated with calm behaviors that may have atrophied in the past.
T-Touch Techniques
T-Touch technique was created by Linda Tellington-Jones where she uses circular movement and breathing to calm animals that she was working with. T-Touch is a very different type of touch than the Be Still touching technique. When using T-Touch, only the tips of your fingers are touching your dog and moving in a circular motion. There are several common T-Touch exercises you can use with your dog. The most common ones are:
Head & Ear Slides T-Touch Exercises
Ear Slide - One handed - Start at the ase of ear placing fingers on 1 side and thumb on the other side. Stoke from the base of the ear to the tip of the ear. Each stroke moves from one edge of the ear to the other edge of the ear.
Head Circles - Place finger tips on the top of the head and move finger tips in a counter clockwise motion
Ear Circles - Hold the ear at the base then move hand first clockwise, then counter clockwise around the base of the ear.
Leopard T-Touch Exercise
The Leopard T-Touch is the foundations of all T-Touch techniques. It is especially effective for nervous and anxious dogs and can help dogs feel more confident in new and challenging situations
Place hand on dog with fingers slightly curved so that you are touching the dog with the pads of your fingers
Start in a Circular motion starting at 6pm spot and move it counter clockwise (to the left) in a complete circle to the 8pm spot
Breath into the circle as you are doing it. Inhale when you lift your hand, and exhale when you place your finger tips on your dog and move in circular motion
Lift hand and place on adjacent spot parallel with spine or parallel to the dog’s limb.
Always keep BOTH hands on the dog while practicing any touch technique
Participate in Paws N Relax Class
Register for a Paws N Relax class today and let us guide you on how to touch your dog so you and your dog can reap the benefits that therapeutic touch can provide.
Our classes provide you with a clam and safe indoor place where you can focus on bonding with your dog while listening to calming classical music that has been re-rendered to a specfic octave that has been proven to help dogs relax. Combine the music with the touching techniques above and you have a recipe to teach your dog how to be calm, to strengthen your bond and relationship with your dog.
Bring your dog’s favorite blanket or pillow and start your journey to a calmer dog!