Signs of Stress In Dogs

Signs of Stress In Dogs

Did you know that dogs can also suffer from stress? Nuria is going to tell us a few ways to detect and treat it. Nuria is going to talk about stress in dogs.

Nuria Sorribes is a specialist in canine ethology. She's a dog behavior specialist. And she'll give us tips on how to detect stress and also a few tricks on how to avoid it in our pets

Dog lickings are not kisses

When the dog licks us a lot we think that it gives us kisses, but it's not true. When the dog gives us a lot of kisses, it tries to de-stress. Or when dogs lick themselves a lot, bark a lot, get crazy when they see the ball.

The way dogs look at the owner says a lot.

When you see that the dog looks at the owner calmly, with satisfaction, it's a balanced dog. A dog that is calm but not on orders, not by the screams of its owner Dog that is relaxed, that is wagging his tail.

Dog that is in a house and does nothing, just goes to its place and relax. It's a balanced dog. If you send a message to a dog, the dog would totally ignored it. Dog is very calm. But if I throw the balls one by one the dog will get stressed. Because as soon as the dog catches the ball, another one flies.

Exercising can help

The important thing about canine sport is that it makes your dog think. Commands like: jump, come here, go there, turns this way, go to the tunnel, go up, go down, touch something which teaches your dog to think. Dog learns things.

That's the important part: the fact that the dog feels useful and has a better bond with the owner. It's not important if the owner is an athlete or not. It's not relevant.

Mental Health is also important for dogs

If you have a dog, you're responsible for its well-being. Well-being is not just feeding and taking your dog for a walk. It's emotional well-being, which is showing affection and love to your dog. It's physical well-being which is taking it to the vet, for a walk, throwing balls.

But it's also mental well-being that is when the dog feels useful, feels good, is proud of itself, and knows that it does something useful for its owner.

If you have a dog, I'm sure pulling a leash sounds familiar to you. But we can educate our dog to walk without the leash. Nuria is going to give us some tricks so it stays by our side.

How to teach a dog to walk without a leash Something as simple as the dog walking next to us, is really a very complex order, because the dog has to watch us all the time while walking. We should start to teach it from a young age, with reinforcement either with the snack or with the ball.

And when I withdraw my hand, I make him sit down. I can reward him, in this case with the ball because he already knows that he can't go. If we have snacks, we would give him snacks. And we continue walking.

And I make sure the animal has focused on me all the time thanks to the rewards. When I stop I make a small gesture back to stop him and reward him. This way I'm going to walk for 5 - 10 minutes, not the whole walk. Only for few minutes.

The dog needs to understand how to walk next to you. It's much more pleasant when the dog walks next to you than constantly pulling a leash.

When you remove the ball and you're no longer using it, are you doing it progressively? Of course, first, the ball is here, where he can see it.

Then the ball goes down, down, and then, for example, I put it here. When he's used to not seeing the ball and then sits down, I give him a ball. And then I take it again. Ball can disappear and I'll give it back at home or in the field.