Help your anxious dog cope with holiday stress
Nov 13, 2024
The holidays are a tough time for fearful dogs. Between disruptions to familiar routines and scary strangers coming and going, it's no wonder stress levels, and behavior problems, tend to skyrocket this time of year.
Luckily, there is a lot you can do to help your sensitive dog get through the holiday in relative comfort. In this first video, I cover approaches to decreasing anxiety associated with 3 of the toughest holiday challenges:
- Visitors. Give your anxious dog space from visitors. I like to take my dogs out on a walk while people are arriving. My dog Pancake spends a lot of time cocooned in his safe space with white noise and other comforts when family is staying at our home.
- Changes to your dog's daily care schedule. As best you can, keep to your dog's regular schedule of feeding, potty outings, and exercise and enrichment. If anything, I try to give my dogs a little more exercise than usual during the holiday season.
- Increased confinement and separation. Most sensitive dogs need to be separated from guests to some degree. Which often means being separated from you as well. In the video below, I give examples of how I use multiple confinement options to allow Pancake to be closer to where he wants to be (near me), without being scared of all the holiday activity in the house.
I also encourage you to contact your vet well ahead of the holidays to ask about medications that might help your dog feel calmer and more relaxed during the holiday season. My dog Pancake benefitted a lot from extra anti-anxiety medications during our first several holidays together.
One important detail you don't want to neglect, is what your dog will have to do while they're confined or in some way separated during the holidays. In this video, I show how I kept Pancake entertained and relatively relaxed during the holidays at three different stages of his training- ranging from extremely anxious even. hearing voices of strangers in the house, to being able to watch guests move around nearby.
Watch my blog for more holiday-related material for fearful dogs!
