Is Dog Stress Killing Your Best Fur Friend?

We’ve all heard about how stress can kill humans, but have any of us humans ever stopped to consider how dog stress is also taking its toll on our beloved canine population?

Once we humans decided to domesticate dogs, remove from all they previously knew and fully integrate them into our immediate environment, they have become affected by all our human foibles and diseases, which includes a mountain of stress.

In many cases, we have unknowingly created situations that are unnatural to our dogs whom we now expect to function as small fur humans and just forget about the true nature of their very being.

There are many humans situations, which seem normal and every day to us humans, that when not approached in a way that the dog can properly comprehend can cause ongoing dog stress for your fur friend that will ultimately shorten your dog’s life.

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Dog Stress Situations

There are multiple situations and daily activities in the human world that can cause a great deal of dog stress which the average human may not even be aware of.

When you start to think about how much we have changed the lives of dogs over the centuries and how much we expect them to accept or give up as they become part of a human family, we start to realize that all that is part of our daily routine, is largely foreign to our dogs.

Riding in Vehicles

Many dogs are just expected to blindly accept that they will ride about in vehicles, and for many of our fur friends, this simple transportation system that has been part of our human daily lifestyle for a very long time, and which we don’t even think about, if not introduced properly can be a big dog stress.

The Little Things

What we humans think of as simple, little things, such as nail clipping and bath time can cause much dog stress.

In the wild, dogs don’t need their nails trimmed because they wear them down naturally from all their daily motion, but when they come to live with us, we are much more sedentary than the average dog, therefore our dogs don’t get the exercise they need, and thus their nails grow too long, so require regular trimming.

When your dog is not properly introduced to a nail clipping routine, this process than cause traumatic dog stress so severe that your dog will do anything to avoid the procedure.

In the wild, dogs don’t take baths, but instead they run through streams and puddles, swim in lakes and oceans, and they never have to mask their natural scent with lovely human fragrances so that they are more agreeable to the humans.

No Job – No Exercise

Dogs are natural born athletes who, in order to stay healthy, need to move at a pace much faster than the average human is capable of.

Over the centuries our dogs have worked outside with us, providing valuable services to help us get through our daily grind, but today, many of our dogs are confined, must stay indoors all day long and just don’t get the exercise or mental stimulation they need. This causes a great deal of dog stress.

Victoria’s very own Dog Whispering team is concerned that the majority of the Greater Victoria and Vancouver Island dog population is suffering from stress overload that could very easily lead to an early death for many beloved canine companions.

The K-9 Super Heroes Dog Whispering team believes that the majority of dogs are not receiving the leadership they need from their humans resulting in many stressed, unhappy dogs acting out in noisy, destructive and dangerous ways.

The K-9 Super Heroes team says that an out of control dog not only disrupts the household and puts children and adults in a potentially harmful situation, the stressful, ripple effect is also felt throughout the entire neighbourhood.

Of course, our fur friends can be easily integrated into our human lifestyle and learn to accept many unnatural situations without the stress than can shorten their lives once the humans understand that there are many things they can do to help extend the lives of their best friends.

How Do I Know if My Dog is Stressed?

There are many different ways that dogs display their stress, with the more common indications being excessive excitement, panting, barking, pulling, lunging, growling and aggressive behavior towards other dogs and humans.

Not only do the above behaviors put a tremendous stress load onto the dog, the result of which can shorten your best friend’s life.

Even worse, if left unchecked these types of unstable behaviors can escalate to such a degree that your best friend may hurt someone and be sentenced to an early death.

Also, the family that doesn’t know how to rehabilitate these unwanted behaviors may feel forced into making the decision to remove their dog to a local pound or rescue organization, which may also result in early death.

The K-9 Super Heroes Dog Whispering team is often called upon to show humans how to stop this unwanted behavior and bring peace to the neighbourhood.

Help your dog live a stress-free, happy life. If you need help, please contact us today.

Asia

Asia Moore has been dog whispering for 40+ years, and along with K-9 Super Heroes Dog Whispering team members Jim and Boris the dog, offers insights about dog behaviour and psychology and their relationships with their humans! Many humans don’t realize that they could have a much happier life with their canine counterparts. You don’t have to live with the embarrassment of behavioral problems because with just a little dog whispering, everyone can live a happy, stress-free life together. ^..^