Stress and Your Dog

A common theme of the conference I recently attended was stress.  We heard about stress in the shelter environment, stress in the home, and even stress in utero; that is puppies born to stressed mothers are inherently different than those whose mothers aren't subjected to stress. Stress can be good, it can be tolerable, and it can be toxic.  We need to understand the differences between these three types of stress and their effects on the bodies and the brains of our beloved companion dogs.

Good stress is basically just a challenging experience that is rewarding for your dog in the long run.  So, if your dog competes in agility or dock diving, for example, they are under stress while competing, but if they get a rush from that challenge, then that ultimately is good stress.

Tolerable stress is a negative experience that your dog is able to adjust to and move beyond with the aid of social support. Events that result in tolerable stress are still inherently distressing, but the effects are transient. Thus, for most of our dogs, a trip to the vet falls in the category of tolerable stress.

Toxic stress is also a negative experience, but it is one from which an animal is unable to escape or cope. It isn't the stressor itself necessarily that matters here, it is the animal's inability to cope with that stressor that is the crux of the matter.  For many shelter dogs, confined to cement cages and subjected to constant noise and tension is a form of toxic stress.While acute stress can be beneficial to an animal and help them learn to cope, chronic or toxic stress can have a serious negative impact on health and well-being.  Toxic stress leads to physiological changes and changes in the brain in ways that are long-lasting.

Puppies born to stressed mothers grow up to be dogs who are hyper-responsive to stress, with increased anxiety and a higher incidence of depression.  Their negative reactions last longer meaning they lack the coping mechanisms to move through their stress. Literally, these puppies are sensitized to stress having long-term repercussions making them vulnerable to anxiety based issues as adolescents and in adulthood.  And these changes can last forever.

Many of my clients share their homes with rescue dogs.  Often these dogs have poor coping strategies and suffer from a variety of behavioral problems rooted in anxiety.  It is likely that many of them had stressed mothers.  Others were raised as singleton puppies and/or in shelter environments will little enrichment or opportunity to gain the social experiences necessary to develop coping strategies and build resilience. By the time these puppies and dogs find their way to my clients' homes, they are already behind the eight ball, so to speak. Their brains and bodies are different and accommodations will need to be made in order to help them succeed and thrive to the best of their abilities.

While this all may seem quite depressing, it is just an overview or foundation from which we can build our strategy for helping these dogs who suffer from toxic stress.  I definitely have some ideas on that front!

For now, if your pet is experiencing a behavior problem, you know where to find me.

This sweet little one was raised by her mother and with all of her siblings in a rich social environment filled with the sights and sounds of normal family life. She is well-adjusted and displays appropriate coping mechanisms in response to transient stressors in her environment such as strange noises...and the occasional correction of the resident adult female dog in her new home!