I'm interested in what others think about this topic, is it fact or fallicy?

Some people believe that dogs don't experience stress like humans, eg feelings of anxiety, heart palpatations vomiting etc.

I know that there are dogs who react badly to thunder, fireworks, vehicle sirens, but is this because the noise hurts their ears or is it because they become stressed by the event and react by trying to run away or hide under beds to try and block it out.

What about when dogs suffer seperation anxiety, they pace, they cry, they attempt to 'escape' a confined place, they don't eat, they shiver/shake.

All the dog psychology books say if you react to your dog with over protectiveness when there has been a frightening situation such as thunder or sirens or anything that has caused them concern they will remember this and in turn it sets up a cycle, so you must stay calm and try not to over react to any situation to keep them calm. It makes sense as if you have ever watched a dog when it first meets a kitten and gets scratched on the nose the next encounter is more tentative as the dog remembers what happened.

In my own dogs case if he is overly concerned about me not responding to his cueing he drops and commences licking his front paw very loudly and I am sure he knows it annoys me as it gets my immediate attention. Initially when this started I took him to the vet believing he had a problem with the paw, this was excluded, then I thought he was doing it out of boredom, this was not the case so I kept a close watch of when it happened and what the precursors were and on each occaison it was when he had cued me he needed to go out to toilet or it was his walk time or even in his opinion my bed time, so when  I started responding immediately to his request the licking stopped. the last couple weeks if I stay up an hour past the usual bed time he will come and insist on sitting on my lap especially if I am using the laptop he pushes in between me and it and then he will lick my knee once on my lap. By rewarding this behaviour, taking him out or going to bed he is establishing a pattern and he is one clever dog, but I think I as the Alpha dog now have the upper hand and give him a wait command rewarding him when he drops and waits a short time before I take him out or organise going to bed at my pace not his command.

So does anyone else have an opinion about this topic?

Hi Zeebie,

We reckon our dogs are 'master manipulators'... they know all the cues that we will respond to (rightly or wrongly)... but yes, we'd have to agree dogs can and do become very stressed in certain situations.

Our old boy Cosmo (min Apricot Poodle - Died March 2008 aged 14) was a better storm forecaster than the weather bureau...
 He'd start by pacing up and down... then start to pant heavily and salivate... then he'd get 'the shakes'...

By then we had to give him valium (or clomicalm) just to get him to respond to us!

Within a few hours a storm had hit (he was never wrong!)
One of our other dogs Kismet (Apricot Min Poodle) licks her paws when she is stressed ... usually because we've shut her out of the bedroom! - but all our (3) dogs respond well to a calm voice and gentle stroking...

In fact just like humans, dogs love to sit together quietly and be touched. It doesn't have to be play or constant as long as there is a connection.

Kaye uses this time to do some gentle grooming :-) - especially on Monet (Black Min Poodle) who hates his face being done.

As for manipulating us - Monet is the best at 'talking' saying he wants a treat (and showing us where they are with his head) - even when we move them he either 'remembers' or more likely smells them!

We know dogs - like most animals - can become depressed - this is usually due to lack of environmental enrichment (stuff to do) - we have chooks and lots of lizards, little 'forests' of bushes, some old (safe) junk to wander around in so they have plenty of areas to go and 'be dogs', although as we work from home there is also a lot of 'dozing in the office' time as they get older :-)

To be honest medical conditions and certain 'hyper' breeds aside - I think we ultimately get the pets that we ourselves are.

If we're stressed, yelling, fighting, unhappy all the time then our pets will most likely sense that and be stressed as well.
If we're cool calm and collected (and organised - dogs do like routines of course!) then our dogs will be like that too.

We've only had dogs over the last 16 years or so but oh-boy, have we learnt a lot! (and continue to do so)

Oh BTW - Matisse (podgy Bichon Frise) can tell the time... he knows EXACTLY when it's 4:30pm - walkies time!... and starts getting excited and pacing up and down to go out.

Only problem is he now does it at 5:30pm!! - Dogs don't 'get' daylight saving do they ? :-)

Brian

I can certainly identify with the time telling Taz knows exactly when I have to get up he will actually preempt the alarm and dare I shut my eyes and nap for ten he gets VERY insistent that I must get up now!

Then it is breakfast and he drops outside the kitchen door and watches and when I have finished he gets the milk dregs into his bowl and if I accidently put the bowl in the sink he dashes into the kitchen and looks at me like this is unforgiveable, even if i pour a small amount of milk into his bowl he won't have it, has to be the cornflake dregs

 obviously.

Then he knows morning tea and will paw me until I put the kettle on, same with lunch, and like your dog, walkies must be promptly at 4.30pm (we don't have daylight saving yet), and we have a set walk and if I try to deviate away from it he gets very annoyed and tries to pull me the other way, so lately I have been alternating taking him in the car to one place one day then the next day to another area and this seems to be working, gives us both a bit of variety.

Dinner and bedtime he thinks he has under control but I still have a few tricks up my sleeve with this.

My theory is that dogs who bond very closely with their owners become very sensitive to your routine and quickly learn what happens when, Taz knows if I am going to work as I only work a couple days a week as soon as I get out

 my work clothes he goes under the bed and when I am ready he will then get his coat and wait at the front door he has never been trained to do this, he has self taught.

He use to get the mail from the letter box - well wait for the postie to give it to him but for some reason he has become totally distracted with the motorbike and now goes bullistic running in circles and will bark continuously at the bike if allowed, so we are working on a desensitization program to correct this behaviour, funny thing is it is only the small postie bike as my neighbour has a big bike and it doesn't affect him. Like your storm detection dog he obviously hears the postie several streets away and runs and sits at the door and back to me to let me know and then back to the door and when I let him know its ok he will come and lay at my feet and wait.

We will be flying again this week and he gets very excited when he first boards the plane just like a child, and I always ensure i have plenty of treats to settle him with, but once he has sat on my lap and looked out of the window and sees where he is then he  is content to  lay on his mat for the rest of the journey.

Glad to hear I am not alone with a psyhic dog.

Zeebie, I agree that dogs do get stressed. Dogs suffer from anxiety and show typical scientific symptoms such as raised heart rate, dilation of the pupils, shallow and faster breaths, and increased neuron receptor activity, as well as behavioural symptoms such as avoidence of the situation, displacement and redirection by destruction or self mutilation.

Interestingly, studies have also shown that a dog in a stressed situation is not learning. That the brain cannot be in self-reservation mode and learn new behaviours at the same time. This is why we often see dogs 'shut-down' or show a learnt helplessness in very stressful situations.

The key for us when training is to avoid a high stress level in any situation otherwise learning can't happen. And you are right Brian, touching and patting can have a de-stressing effect, although in some (rare?) occassions, the petting can actually be quite stressful for the dog especially if they are not happy with it. For the average normal dog, petting would be a relaxant. The TTouch excercises are a great example.