Understanding Dog Anxiety to Help Your Anxious Dog Feel Better Fast

By Shannon Cutts.

Dog anxiety. It is easy to assume your pup’s anxiety is a normal emotion just like any other. But the textbook definition of emotion is a “natural, instinctive state of mind.” And if you are a pet parent trying to help your anxious dog cope, you know that your anxious pup’s symptoms and struggles are anything but natural.

So where do you start with unraveling the mystery of how to help your anxious dog feel better?

The Difference Between Pet Stress and Pet Anxiety

If anxiety were truly a normal emotion, it would manifest as stress. The American Psychological Association defines stress as a response to an external trigger – something in your dog’s environment that triggers a fight or flight response. Stress arises and then passes. When the danger recedes, the dog’s inner state returns to a state of calm.

In other words, canine stress is temporary – just as human stress is temporary. It quite naturally arises in response to a trigger and as naturally subsides as the trigger passes.

In contrast, the APA defines anxiety as a response to an internal trigger that continues even when all is well in the outer environment. What might this look like in your dog? Canine anxiety symptoms often include ongoing aggressive or submissive episodes, shaking, loss of appetite, sweating, drooling, panting, barking, pacing, inappropriate elimination, vomiting, hiding, destructive or even self-destructive behavior.

Clearly, dog anxiety is a chronic state that quite often continues whether any identifiable environmental stressor is present or not.

What Tools Do You Have as a Concerned Dog Parent?

Even if you are at your wit’s end right now trying to help your anxious dog find calm, you may not realize just how many tools you have in your toolkit that you may not be making full use of.

1. Your own pet parent intuition.

The first and arguably most powerful tool you have in your toolkit that can help your pup is your own pet parent intuition. This might surprise you, especially if you have grown used to deferring your pet care decisions to someone else you deem “more qualified” (such as somebody who has letters or degrees behind their name).

But as a professional animal intuitive who spends her days talking with dogs about all kinds of daily life troubles, I have literally lost count of the number of times I’ve delivered a dog’s message only to hear their pet parent say (and I quote), “I KNEW they were going to say that!”

So, you must ask yourself what part of you knows. After all, you are the one who has the closest bond with your dog. Your dog may let you into parts of their world, their past, their story, that they won’t disclose to any other soul, no matter how skilled or kind-hearted.

Here’s something else you need to know about intuition. Intuitive messages may not make sense to others, such as your dog’s veterinarian or even other family members. Your intuitive insights may not even make sense to you at first. But if something just “feels wrong” or you’re getting a “bad vibe” about something in your anxious dog’s world, you need to understand that as your intuition talking. And what it has to share with you may just provide the solution to the unsolved mystery of your dog’s anxiety.

2. Animal communication.

For many years before I became a professional animal communicator, I hired animal communicators to talk with my pet family. I have never had a single session that didn’t offer at least one nugget of tremendous insight and value.

There just isn’t any substitute for talking directly with your dog about what they are experiencing and what they need. When you have to watch your anxious dog suffer day after day and nothing else is working, even long-held beliefs that animal communication isn’t a “real” or “valid” discipline tend to fade away. You become willing to try just about anything that might offer even the faintest sliver of hope.

In fact, that is how I first discovered animal communication myself!

Having shared that, it is important to understand that animal communication cannot diagnose or treat. But it can help you discover and understand your dog’s world more deeply. For example, your rescue pup may have undisclosed past trauma that is still running their life. When you know what is really going on, you can get your dog the right kind of help to heal.

3. Your own emotional state.

How are YOU feeling? Even if you have a really good handle on your inner peace most of the time, what happens to you emotionally when you try to help your anxious dog?

So many of my canine clients report that their pet parents struggle from similar issues to theirs. This can create what I call a “feedback loop” of anxiety that may not start out as chronic but becomes that way over time.

One of the most helpful gifts you can ever give to your anxious dog is the gift of your own calm. And one of the easiest and fastest ways to restore calm within yourself is through deep breathing. Just take three to five deep belly breaths before interacting with your dog or trying to intervene in an anxiety-provoking situation. When you feel better, your dog can then entrain to you and also start to feel calmer and more at ease.

4. An awareness of the “highly sensitive” pet trait.

Highly sensitive people are often labeled as “thin-skinned” or “overly sensitive.” In the same way, highly sensitive pets are often labeled as “anxious” or “anti-social.”

Science has now confirmed that high sensitivity is in fact a genetic trait with powerful survival implications. Researchers have also identified more than 100 different species to date (including humans and canines) that carry the trait. In affected species, up to 20 percent of the total population may carry the gene.

Long story short – we still don’t do a great job identifying high sensitivity even in our own species. Your dog may also have the trait and, if so, they may need a different kind of help and support to manage it than what a truly anxious dog may need.

5. My free dog anxiety support guide.

Discover more information about dog anxiety, the highly sensitive genetic trait in canines, a three-step process to help your anxious dog cope and nine effective strategies to support canine calm as well as other valuable information. Request your free guide using the link below.

Shannon Cutts is a professional animal sensitive and intuitive, Reiki Master and animal communication teacher with Animal Love Languages. Shannon’s global client base seeks her out for help with pet anxiety, highly sensitive pets, pet transition, pet reincarnation, interspecies family dynamics and more. Request Shannon’s free Dog Anxiety Guide: https://www.animallovelanguages.com/petanxietyguide