Anxiety and survival during the pandemic and lock down
Lock down is thankfully easing and more and more dogs are feeling the difference. As a pet owner I am sure you can relate when I say that dogs feed off your own emotions. Recently I connected with Dawn. Her business Four Positive Paws is based in East Grinstead, West Sussex.
Her clients have all noticed changes in their dogs’ behaviour including separation anxiety as many people are preparing to go back to the office.
Here is what Dawn said:
Many of us are struggling and looking for solutions. Exploring and considering what may be going on for us and our dogs can be helpful.
We can find ourselves in an almost constant state of fight or flight for everyday tasks. You might experience any of the following yourself:
- Fatigue
- Overwhelm
- Frustration and increased demands
- Giving more time and thought to basic tasks
- Concerns about our basic needs like safety
- Cognitive difficulties with memory
Mixed messages and conflicting information about what we should and should not be doing provide us with the opportunity to consider the parallels with experiences and perspectives with our own dog/s.
What can we do for our dogs and ourselves?
Walks with our dogs seem to be more challenging with more people around. What used to be our usual quiet, calm or happy walks may become stressful for us and our dogs.
Rest, recover and rejuvenate our own and our dog’s bodies and minds need good quality sleep and rest to process the events of the day. We can underestimate how much our dogs have to cope with in a day or a week.
Decompress To survive and thrive we can discover ways to decompress. If we are continuously in flight or fight and we are constantly in a state of anxiety we deplete our coping resources and our resilience can also be affected.
Who needs who?
Our dogs look to us for stability and predictability yet we have been living in uncertain and unpredictable times. Dogs take their cues from our body language and our verbal communications and they can even pick up on our hormones.
If our dogs are anxious or nervous and they look to us and we are behaving oddly, unpredictably or in a stressed and anxious state they will pick up on it. Often, we look to our dogs for comfort but our dogs look to us for their safe space. Some dogs may not cope with the demands expected of them.
We can observe how fraught and sensitive people are at the moment, on a short fuse, reactive where they may previously have been responsive. There is plenty of tension around.
- How do we behave when we are woken up again at 2 or 3 am to let our dog or puppy outside?
- How do we react when they have another toileting accident?
Depending on how we behave will affect our dogs but it can be more challenging to keep cool, calm and collected when we have more demands put on us than we may be able to cope with.
As a fully accredited member of The Association of INTODogs and ICAN I am able to display this symbol. Please check out the Charter website to see what assurances this symbol brings at www.ukdogcharter.org”
If you need help with your dog/s, Dawn is passionate about supporting owners to teach their dogs to gain more confidence and improve their social skills.
Dawn offers 1:1 sessions, courses and workshops for nervous, anxious dogs, good socialisation, reliable recall, lead skills for both ends of the lead and sensory enrichment for building confidence.
To find out more about Dawn, here are her contact details:
Website www.fourpositivepaws.co.uk
Email dawn.allen@fourpositivepaws.co.uk
Facebook @fourpositivepaws
Watch out for the next blog with Dawn when she will give you some tips how you can help yourself and your anxious dog/s!
*Disclaimer: Due to the current Coronavirus outbreak all images from this blog have been kindly submitted by Dawn.
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