How To Know If Your Dog is Anxious?

Dog anxiety is a common thing, yet we want to be able to fix it quickly so that our dog can be their healthiest, happiest self. It’s okay if your dog has anxiety, it’s normally an easy solution. Yet if you don’t realize they are feeling anxious to certain things, it can form into a disorder after a long time. Here is a simple article to elaborate on “how to know if your dog is anxious” and the causes, symptoms, and solution.

Causes of Anxiety in Your Dog:

For shepherds a common reason they get anxiety is from not getting enough exercise or work in. We don’t want to push our dogs. But if your shepherd doesn’t get enough exercise throughout the day they can start to feel like they don’t have a purpose, forming anxiety. Make sure that your shepherd does tiny tasks to fulfill through the day and gets lots of exercise.

A common thing that causes your dog to become anxious is when exposed to something new. This could be things like moving, a new family member or pet, or a change in routine to name a few. Another big reason your dog may be anxious all the time is from their past life. If they were from a shelter or had been rescued they may have had a lot of negative experiences or PTSD, making their anxiety much worse than others.

Some other causes include:

• Fear
• Separation
• Old Age
• Pain / Discomfort
• PTSD

Signs of Anxiety In Your Dog:

The most common symptoms for dog anxiety are:

• Agitation / Aggression
• Decreased or Increased Appetite
• Drooling
• Depression
• Destructive Behavior
• Excessive Panting
• Obsessive, compulsive behaviors as in paw licking, tail chasing, skin chewing
• Potty Accidents in the House
• Restlessness
• Trembling or Shaking

How To Decrease The Anxiety In Your Dog:

Dog anxiety is usually a quick fix. Here are several different ways you can try to get rid of, or at least decrease your dog’s anxiety levels.

Decrease Exposure:

One thing you can try first is to cutback the exposure to the certain new event that may be giving them anxiety. In other words remove them from any situations causing the anxiety such as big objects, large crowds or loud noises for example. Often times it is pretty clear what is causing the anxiety while other times it may take some time to identify.

Train them to be calm:

Another way is by training them to be calm around what’s giving them anxiety, by exposing them to it in tiny amount of times and increasing the time every day. Say your dog gets anxious because of a new pet, like a cat. What you’ll want to do is bring them in a good view of the cat and sit there with them for a little to let them get more used to it. Then everyday you can move them closer to the cat and leave them their longer. Make sure to reward them after each time.

Aides and Medications:

The last option I would consider to use if the other options have failed. This solution is using aides and medications. If your dog gets anxiety bad, then you may want to look into this. You can look around the market for these, some results even range from calming hemp powder to weighted vests, and others. Yet check with your vet before using any type of anti-anxiety product.

In Closing:

There’s a quick article with everything you need to know about “how to know if your dog is anxious.” Look out for the symptoms that were mentioned, and contact a vet if it gets any more serious.