Calm Your Dog (and yourself!)

Some practical and commonsense tips to help you to achieve a calm and balanced dog!
Exercise your dog! - This subject is covered by our walking the dog page, but it is the most fundamental thing that you can do to calm your dog down! If you do not burn off the dogs energy, particularly high and working energy type dogs, then you are asking for trouble. You must MUST always exercise your dog' every day without fail unless you have an issue to prevent you doing it and then someone else should do it for you!

Calm yourself down! - Before you can ask your dog to be calm you need to be calm yourself! In fact, the worse your dog gets, the calmer you need to be! When your dog gets stressed or over excited, if you start shouting and puling at the dog, it can be interpreted as you joining in with the dog, so if another dog is approaching, your dog starts shouting, you start shouting at the dog and the bad energy that is flying around just fuels the fire. So, hard as it is, calm down, take a deep breath and think about what you are going to do to get your dog to concentrate on you and defuse the situation.

Ride the wave! - Your dog may explode in a wave of anxiety, fear or even aggression when you ask it to do something that it may not want to do! As stated above, calm down and ride the wave letting your dog expel the fear or anxiety whilst you plan your next move. You should aim to correct your dog before the episode occurs, so the moment your dog thinks about getting anxious or aggressive, that is the time to put in a correction to get your dog to focus on you and curb that behaviour.

Corrections - When we talk about corrections, this can be anything from a mild rebuke to a spray collar and everything in between. You need to understand your dog and find out what makes them tick! I was having my hand nibbled by an Airedale who was barking and confronting me in front of his owner and did not respect a hand correction to his side and so I asked the owner to put the lead on and the dog instantly became docile and compliant, so the lead was all the correction that that dog needed. Don't go over the top, use whatever is needed to get the job done and refocus your dog. It might be a favourite toy or a food reward. It can be a physical correction or a verbal one. Do not stop though or you will allow the dog to succeed in what it is doing. If every time you confront the problem with corrections, eventually the dog will understand that the behaviour is unwanted. If you correct early and then reward, you will solve the problem without fuss and it will quickly disappear.

Confront the fear! - Use every opportunity as a training opportunity. The classic is to say my dog doesn't like other dogs and then never go anywhere where other dogs are! If your dog doesn't like other dogs, enrol him in a class with lots of other dogs, seek out opportunities to allow your dog to play with other dogs or at least be around them without fear. Don't run away from a problem, solve it. A Border Collie I was looking after would almost crawl on its belly when lorries or even fast cars went past. I took the dog to a busy junction near the house and stood away from the pavement but near enough to the road to get a reaction from the dog. Ignoring the anxiety we stood for 20 minutes during which time the fear became less and less. Repeat this regularly and involve treats or even a game with a favourite toy until the dog becomes desensitized to the irrational fear! Don't ever give affection whilst the dog is under stress or you will reward that behaviour and the dog will worsen and never improve.

Tools to help! - There are a number of products on the market which can support you if you have problems with your dog whether through anxiety or aggression. See our herbal treatments page for information on what they all do! The products on this page are all designed to help quieten the dogs mind and allow you to carry out the techniques we have discussed above. Firework and loud noise CDs can be used to de-sensitise the dog from the fear of loud and unexpected noises. Use them as instructed at a low volume and then gradual raise the volume whilst the dog is feeding or doing something pleasurable. Also make sure the dog is out and about in situations where loud and unexpected noises may be so that it realises that there is nothing to fear! A dog that is under severe stress will not be acting rationally and can explode in fear, anxiety or aggression as it panics. Use whatever tools you need to ensure that you always succeed when dealing with your dog.

Seek professional help! - If you don't feel able to deal with the issue you always have the option to seek professional help and there are many people who can help you! Please feel free to contact me about any problems or issues you may be having and I can point you in the right direction if i can't help you myself.