Your dog understands that you’re stressed

Ihave had a lot of experience dealing with dogs that are stressed, from either poor breeding, illness, or change in environment. There are many different ways to deal with stress in dogs, but these days, our dogs’change in behaviour are fairly straight forward and understandable.

As life has become stressful for a lot of us over the past several weeks, we joke about how much our cat is sorry we are home so much and our dog is ecstatic at the extra attention and walking. But, the drastic change in the household is still present and any dog is sensitive to that. A dog doesn't know what to do when they sense you are experiencing stress on a daily basis. Help them to know how to respond.

When you are stressed, would you like your dog to leave you alone and stay far far away? Some people do. Others would love the dog to bring them a ball, yap at them, and give them something else to focus their attention on.

For a lot of dogs, that is an easy task to do. The dog knows you are stressed by your smell or change in habit, but they can't figure out themselves what you want, so they may get annoying, almost obnoxious, so to speak.

This is dog talk for, “please give me some guidance or I am just going to keep flipping out because nobody is giving me a job to focus on.” Even if we don't understand their signals to us, there are some things that we can all do to help our dogs relax. It can be something as simple as a walk or run, a jog in the morning or maybe a slow bike ride, and if all else fails, some ball fetching. And don't forget good old bones to chew.

But with Penticton closing down dog parks, and dog catchers circling the city parks to make sure we aren't letting our dogs run, this can be a problem for many people. I am finding more people walking their dogs at night trying to let their dogs play and relax without getting the evil eye and a ticket from animal control.

Because of social distancing, we can't borrow a neighbour's yard for a toss of the ball, so options sometimes are limited. Another alternative is helping your dog with some natural relaxing tea. Try some stiff-brewed chamomile tea and pour some of it on their kibbles. Some dogs will drink it mixed with their water.

No, this is not like taking a pill and having an instant relaxing response. The dog does not immediately becomes relaxed. This is something you do daily to help the dog calm a bit and help the dog have a better relationship between family and friends. It can help all of you if you have a morning cup of chamomile before anyone begins the day rather than a hype of caffeine and sugar.

Sit back on the porch, put your arms around each other, dog in the middle for most families, then sip your tea and chill.

Cheri Kolstad is a certified dog behaviourist, dog groomer and trainer who lives in Penticton