Just like people, dogs have very individual temperament traits – while one person stands firmly in life with all four paws and cannot be shaken by anything, the other is more cautious, insecure, or even anxious. On the one hand, innate character traits play a role, but on the other hand, it is also very important what experiences the four-legged friend can already have in the first weeks and months of his life. First of all, fear is a natural emotion that protects animals and humans from actual dangers. However, a dog that is constantly afraid is under constant stress and needs help to overcome this fear. You can find out everything about anxious dogs in this article.
How to recognize fear in dogs
Dogs cannot speak with words, yet they have many ways of expressing themselves and communicating with us. In addition to their body language, which actually uses the dog’s entire body from head to tail, they also use acoustic signals to reflect their current mood.
For a harmonious coexistence of humans and dogs, it is extremely important that we understand each other – so if you own a dog, you should be able to correctly interpret the body signals of your four-legged friend in order to be able to react accordingly.
The dog is scared – body signals
When a dog is scared, it usually shows one or more of the following body signals:
- Posture slightly hunched to crouched, weight shifted to hind legs
- Tail held down or pulled underbelly
- Ears set back, close to the head
- Head lowered or drawn in
- Corners of the mouth pulled back (“grinning” facial expression)
- Eyes wide, gaze averted
- Hair on the neck and back may stand up
The dog is afraid – behavioral signals
The dog also shows its fear with its behavior:
- He’s trembling visibly
- He pants or licks his tongue over his snout
- He whines, howls, or even barks loudly
- He reacts aggressively (“fear biter”)
- He tries to hide or run away
- He raises a paw or throws himself on his back
- He defecates or urinates or vomits
If a dog shows such fear signals, he is in an acute stressful situation. The trigger for this fear is not always obvious to us humans. It is important to react correctly now in order to interrupt the dog’s chain of reactions as much as possible.
How do you recognize fear in dogs?
Dogs show their fear through various body signals such as crouching, tails in, trembling, whimpering, or even vomiting and diarrhea.
How the dog deals with its fear
If the dog cannot get out of its fear state, it will exhibit one of the four behaviors described below, which scientists refer to as the “four F” (English) or the “four A” (German):
Flight (= run away): The dog tries to avoid the trigger for its fear. This can range from cautiously retreating to fleeing in panic.
Fight (= attack): If the dog sees no other way out or is cornered, it will growl, show its teeth with the corners of its mouth wide open and will eventually snap or even attack.
Freeze (= fear-stiffness): The dog practically freezes in its position, no longer moves when it looks at the ground or to the side, which literally stares into space.
Fiddle about (= silliness): The dog reacts in the fear-triggering situation, for example with an active request to play, jumps at people or other dogs, runs in circles, and behaves extremely exuberantly and excitedly. Through such leapfrog actions, he tries to defuse the situation that is threatening to him.
A dog owner who knows his four-legged friend well and correctly interprets the signs of his anxiety behavior at an early stage can help him to master the threatening situation and to overcome it quickly. The most important thing is to remain relaxed and confident because this way the dog can orientate itself towards its human and at best relieve the tension.
Common anxiety triggers
The causes that can lead to fearful behavior in dogs are very complex and not always understandable for us humans. Often they are actually very subtle and are related, for example, to bad experiences that the dog has had without his human knowing about it. A lack of experience in the important imprinting and socialization phase of the puppy can also lead to certain stimuli later triggering fear in the adult dog. It is therefore particularly important to familiarize the puppy with as many different environmental stimuli, noises, people, other animals, etc. as possible in the very first weeks of life.
Some of the common fear triggers in dogs include:
The dog is afraid of noises
Many four-legged friends are afraid of loud noises, such as the clattering food processor, the coffee grinder, or the vacuum cleaner. Even misfiring in the car, a shot or a rattling tractor driving past can frighten some dogs. Dogs also perceive sound frequencies that the human ear cannot hear – it is difficult for us to understand a fear reaction in these cases.
Thunderstorm as a trigger
Many dogs are very scared when there is sudden lightning and thunder. In fact, the atmosphere during a thunderstorm is very special, as they say, “There’s something in the air”. A dog reacts to these signs in nature much more sensitively than we humans do and can perceive this special weather situation as very threatening, especially if its people also behave insecurely.
What is a fearful dog?
An anxiety dog is a dog that reacts with excessive and irrational fear constantly and in a wide variety of situations. Such a dog is under constant stress and absolutely needs help, possibly even medication in addition to fear-reducing training.
Fireworks
Very few dogs remain relaxed and unperturbed in the face of the annual New Year’s Eve fireworks display, most four-legged friends reacting to the loud bang, whistles and hisses of rockets, developing smoke, and flashing lights with extreme anxiety. In addition to the brightly colored lights and the smell of fire and brimstone, our dogs also perceive a much larger range of noises than we do, they are almost overwhelmed by an incredibly loud and complex noise that can even lead to physical pain in the dog’s ear. For this reason, many dog owners are always in favor of starting the new year without a firecracker.
Unknown Items
Some dogs become unsure when they see a previously unfamiliar object. It can be a large rock that hasn’t been there before, a rubbish bin on the dark footpath, or a fluttering flag on the pole. A newspaper fluttering past or a gnarled tree stump can also upset some four-legged friends.
Strangers
A dog that usually only comes into contact with its familiar people can react anxiously to strangers. Above all, dogs that have grown up without human contacts, such as many stray dogs imported from abroad, usually get along well with other dogs, but first, have to learn the fearless handling of people with great effort. Very often only very limited personal habituation can be achieved in these dogs.
How do you calm down a stressed dog?
A stressed dog is often difficult to talk to. Soothing words, encouraging caresses or distraction by a sudden change of direction or a game can help the four-legged friend to get out of the stressful situation.
Other dogs/animals
Dogs that have only experienced social contact with people can react very insecurely or anxiously when meeting conspecific or other animals. If a four-legged friend has had bad experiences with a certain dog, for example, was attacked or bitten by it, then the fear behavior is either directed at this one dog or at all dogs that are similar in size, shape, or color.
The dog is afraid of driving a car
While many dogs love to drive and jump into every open trunk, others feel extremely uncomfortable, tremble, salivate or even have to vomit every time they drive. On the one hand, the unfamiliar movement of the car can lead to nausea, on the other hand, it is particularly important for such dogs to gradually get used to being transported in the car.
Separation / Being alone
Many dogs find the temporary separation from their people uncomfortable or even frightening. They react, for example, by howling, barking, restlessness, being unclean, destroying objects, or even harming themselves.
Health problems, pain
The fear triggered by pain or acute physical impairments is innate and can hardly be influenced in a regulatory manner. If a dog shows massive anxiety symptoms for no apparent reason, a veterinarian should definitely be consulted.
Why is a dog afraid?
There are many different fear triggers in dogs, some of which are inherited, some of which can be acquired through bad experiences or a lack of getting used to certain stimuli during puppyhood.
What does anxiety have to do with stress?
Stress is an automatic reaction of the body and/or the psyche to different external stimuli and enables a living being to adapt to changing situations or environmental conditions. When there is stress, adrenaline is released in the body, which, among other things, causes the muscles to tense and alertness to increase – this can have both positive and negative effects. Even the prospect of your favorite game or going for a walk leads to positive stress.
While stress does not always lead to fear, on the other hand, fear always triggers stress symptoms. Constant negative stress on the dog can also lead to feelings of fear arising in the first place or to some situations being perceived as overly threatening and frightening.
As a dog owner, you should be able to recognize and combat stress factors. In addition to the body signals of fear already mentioned, there are others that a stressed dog can show:
- Sweating under the paws
- Dilated pupils, big eyes
- Tense muscles, especially in the head
- Increased heart and breathing rate
- General restlessness, hyperactivity
- Fatigue, apathy
- Increased salivation, licking, or yawning
It is important to identify the stress factors and eliminate or minimize them if possible so that the dog can recover and relax again. If this is not possible, you must slowly and carefully get used to the stressful situation – a dog that suffers from extreme separation anxiety, for example, should be left alone in very small increasing steps and over a longer period of time for initially very short moments and be rewarded extensively and to be positively encouraged.
What to do if the dog is scared?
If your own dog shows fear, it is particularly important to appear confident and confident to show the dog that you have the situation under control and that nothing bad is to be feared.
How to help the anxious dog out of fear
The top priority for the owner of a particularly anxious dog is to keep calm and thereby give the four-legged friend security. It is absolutely counterproductive to scold the dog for its fearful behavior or to drag it through a fearful situation on the leash. A confident demeanor, a friendly tone of voice, and a relaxed posture give the dog the feeling “There’s actually nothing to fear here!”.
First of all, the concrete triggers for the dog’s fear should be found so that they can be worked on in special training sessions. If your four-legged friend is very afraid of certain loud noises, it can help to record them on a tape and play them softly to the dog at first, while at the same time he is being fed or allowed to play with his favorite toy.
It is also important to give a fearful four-legged friend more self-confidence. This works best in a quiet environment and in stress-free situations. By training simple tricks, the dog has a great sense of achievement. Even walks in unfamiliar terrain, during which a few simple exercise units such as “sit”, “down” or “stay” are carried out, for which there is always a particularly great reward, help the dog to find its inner balance.
Even a special diet as a supportive measure against anxiety can help. Certain vitamins or feed additives can have a positive effect on the dog’s nervous system and metabolism, which can contribute to inner peace and relaxation.
If all this is not enough to help the dog out of its fear, there is still professional support from a dog trainer or a veterinarian specializing in behavioral science. Under certain circumstances, this will also decide on the professional use of medication in order to enable the dog to live a life without permanent stress.
