It's possible, but it's not easy

Some of the ways that I help a dog learn to cope with his anxieties in life is by teaching him about boundaries, impulse control, structure, rules and giving him accountability. Crate training and Place command training are just two of the first pieces that teach.

When most anxious dogs have the freedom and the opportunity to choose for himself, he always makes very poor, anxious, impulsive and reactive choices. So, what we need to do is stop this cycle of unhealthy mindset and inappropriate behaviour and then replace it with something better… a calm state of mind and appropriate behaviour and then always hold him accountable for the new mindset and behaviour by not allowing him to indulge his old anxious habits.

Anxiety is one of the most challenging unwanted behaviours to rehab in any dog. Once we’ve got the anxiety into remission and taught the dog a new calmer skill set, the dogs longterm behavioural success now depends on his handler continuing to provide that leadership by consistently applying the rules, boundaries, structure, self discipline and accountability longterm. Training makes this possible, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.