Dog Anxiety. More than just seperation anxiety

So many times when we tell people Roo is anxious, people will assume she has seperation anxiety and send us all these lovely helpful links to articles on how to fix that. But Roo doesn't have seperation anxiety, Roo is perfectly fine if we leave her alone at home. In fact, our behavourist thinks Roo might actually find it more relaxing when we are out!

Dogs just like people can have various forms of anxiety. Generalised or situational, such as seperation anxiety. Seperation anxiety is the most common form of anxiety people will come across in their pet which is why there is so much information out there on it.

All of the advice we followed when Roo was young to ensure she didn't develop it. Slowly building up the time she is left, making sure she loved being in her crate so she felt safe when she was alone etc. Thank god we did, because getting to leave her at home and enjoy ourselves is the only thing keeping us going at times.

More needs to be said about dogs with generalised anxiety so people know what to look out for and how best to help their dogs.

We see so many people on social media reaching out for advice on their dogs who are clearly displaying signs of some level of anxiety but instead of addressing that, people just want to know what lead will stop their dog pulling and lunging. Whether feeding a particular way will reduce energy levels. How to stop their dog from being reactive etc.

A dog's mental health and state is just as important if not more than their physical exercise needs. You cannot out run an anxious mind, you will struggle to train out an anxious one too. Your dog anxiety does not need to be as severe as Roo's for you to step in and give it days off to decompress and provide mental enrichment. In fact, the earlier you step in and manage their "stress buckets" the easier things can be.

Perhaps if we had seen more people being open and addressing their dogs potential anxiety then maybe we would have recognised signs in Roo earlier as it seems as though from speaking to trainers/behavioursits it would have been obvious.

Pet MD states:

According to Dr. Meghan Herron, head of the behavioral medicine clinic at Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center, there are some tell-tale symptoms. “Signs that a dog is anxious may include panting, pacing, whining or whimpering, avoidance of eye contact, fidgeting, attempts to move towards the exit, hiding, and trembling. Less obvious signs might include dilated pupils, subtly moving away from people who attempt to pet the dog, displacement behaviors such as yawning, lip licking, air sniffing, wet-dog shaking, and shutting down and avoiding interactions.”

For Roo, her signs of generalised anxiety are fidgeting, pacing, air sniffing, yawning, lip licking with an inability to settle on her own. Alert barking, lead pulling, lunging, fixating, food refusal, ball/toy obsessions, resource guarding, wet dog shaking and probably 10 other things. It is generalised because she is like that all the time. At home, on walks, at other peoples houses.

A lot of these things other people never see in Roo because they don't live with her. To the outside world, if you met Roo on a walk, she is reactive but will settle down evenutally, she is very playful and high energy. But what is actually happening is she is stressed, very stressed. She is uncomfortable with the situation and will keep bringing you her ball to play with because she can be in control of that activity.

If we had a live stream in our house, people would see a dog wandering around the house all day, chewing things, guarding whatever she can find. Barely laying down for more than a minute or two. Barking at every noise outside. Jumping up at things and us.

Unfortunately, Cocker Spaniels are one of the breeds more likely to have generalised anxiety along with German Shepards, Labs, Border Collies, Greyhounds and a few others. A dog with anxiety is often referred to as easily distracted, stubborn, dominant or overally active because they struggle to follow commands and can be difficult to train. This isn't because they are stubborn, this is because their brains simply cannot cope and compute what is being asked. This is Roo. In a calm environment on a good day, Roo can walk nicely on a loose lead, she can sit, lay, leave, hold, retrieve. On a bad day, she can't do anything.

Just because lots of people have dogs who display signs of anxiety doesn't make it normal or something that should be ignored. We have seen far too many polls on instagram for things like lead reactivity where the majority of people say their dog does that thing aswell and people just accept that it is what a normal dog must do because a lot of peoples dogs do it. NO. What that means is more people should be addressing these issues and getting help for their dog!

If someone told us their dog behaves like Roo, our first and only response would be go and see a professional now! No person or animal should just be left to struggle with their mental health. Things will not get better on their own or as your dog gets older.

Treatment options for generalised anxiety are two fold. Behaviour modification should be used and in some cases medication may also be needed. We have begun our behaviour modification journey and hope to soon add in medication as well. For some dogs, the behaviour modification will be enough but for others, like Roo it will make very little difference until their mental state is under control. Roo needs something to help calm her mind enough that she can understand the modification that is happening.

Having a dog with anxiety is hard work and can be very isolating. We hope by sharing our life with Roo we can shed light on this topic and bring more awareness.