Deconstructing anxiety...

Deconstructing anxiety... What is anxiety? It’s a lack of information (do this, do that) and a lack of accountability (valuable consequences for good AND bad choices). Anxiety is a feeling that results when we don’t know what’s going to happen... it’s the fear of the unknown, it’s a lack of resilience to stress, it’s the assumption that we ‘should have known’ what to do... a lack of education, it’s too much freedom with no structure or boundaries, it’s a feeling of internal chaos because of an external lack of expectations/consequences/structure/boundaries. And with dogs, anxiety can manifest itself as shaking, panting, drooling, destruction of the environment, self mutilation, soiling the house, compulsive behaviours, clingy behaviour, etc. But there is hope! Our dogs don’t have to suffer with anxiety! All we need to do is apply information, structure, boundaries and accountability and (most times) you can watch the anxiety fade away. Somewhere along the line, dogs have been moved into a status where they are exempt from feeling stress and they should be given everything and anything WE think they want... which on paper sounds like a wonderful life! But in practice, it sets a dog up to suffer with anxiety, bratty attitudes, and sometimes worse behaviour which lands them homeless or in a shelter because they are no longer welcome in the homes that created them. So with this in mind, what do you think is serving your dog the best? Couch time, total freedom and endless treats, or rules, boundaries and accountability for making good choices?