Okay, so you might be thinking this is a little ridiculous. Before I started to notice anxiety in my own dog, I didn’t even know this was a possibility for dogs. But after seeing dog anxiety symptoms in her, I am certain that this is something that many pups struggle with. And what’s worse is it’s a struggle she cannot verbalize.
But what a marvelous thing is we can recognize anxiety through physical communication. What a gift that is!
My dog, Samantha, is a lhasa apso. And we’ve had her for quite some time, but it’s taken my mom and I until now to recognize that she might have anxiety.
Take yesterday, for example. So it was around 7am, and my mom let out Samantha to go outside for a bathroom break. 3 minutes later, she heard a scream, that sounded not really human and also not really like a dog. Samantha’s screams are not the most attractive things in the world.
So my mom freaks out, because she realizes the screaming is coming from our dog (even though it sounded like it was coming from a gremlin), and she ran out to look and see what was going on. She was surprised to see Samantha underneath a deer, the deer was basically not taking any of her sh*t.
She limped back to the door while my mom was screaming, because who wouldn’t freak out at the sight of that? And Samantha was shaking. My mom and I just pet her in silence for a brief time after that, trying to calm her down.
Though she doesn’t think she is small, she is. This deer is well, a deer. Probably 6 times the size of our little 25 pound dog (okay, she’s 5 pounds overweight, but we are really working on it).
One of the key signs of anxiety in dogs – aggression – came in full form during this moment. She did not want this deer walking around her darn premises. So she stood up and went full force. Not the brightest move, but she couldn’t help it.
Not only is this a sign of anxiety, but many others I’ve noticed in her. And if she’s struggling with it, other pups are too. So if you’ve ever had some kind of reaction like this from your pup, or you’ve questioned whether or not they struggle with anxiety, consider the warning signs below.
1. Excessive Licking and Chewing
Around every night, Samantha will be barking at us for no darn reason. We think it’s food, so we grab her some puppy chow and hope she cuts us some slack. After she eats, she starts barking again, usually. After the 80th night of this happening, we decided to try something different and give her attention instead.
And when we started to pet her in these manic barking episodes, she finally calmed down. But something worse happened. While we were giving her attention, she started licking us. And it wasn’t just for 2 minutes, like a little message of love. But it was close to 30 minutes. And after 5 minutes when your hand is starting to get wet, you don’t think it’s so cute anymore.
2. Hiding
When we got our new dog, Duke, Samantha was pissed. Duke is a hunk – I think all the girl dogs in our neighborhood want to date him. He is an English retriever, and everyone knows him. He is friendly and so lovable.
But when he first came through our household, Samantha took a long time to adjust. And in fact, this was a big time for her anxiety to come to the surface. One time, I was walking by the bathroom closet, and I heard whimpering. But the door was barely open, so I didn’t know what the heck it was. I looked in and was surprised to see Samantha curled up in the sheets, shaking. She was clearly really struggling. To say the least, my heart broke for her (and if your heart doesn’t almost break when reading that, I question whether or not you have a soul).
3. Shaking
Which brings me to my next point – shaking. Whenever we take Samantha to the groomer to get her hair done, she shakes like an old laundry machine. We have to hold her really tightly for her to feel secure. I also think she’s vomited before – but that’s not a relevant sign of anxiety. Worth the mention, though.
4. Aggression
And lastly, this is the one I see most frequently in our lil dog. This is the one that causes her to chase after deer (thinking they totally have a problem with her, when really they just want to eat some roses), and also keeps her barking every single night around 10pm. Samantha is aggressive with a lot of things. And also, on top of these incidents, whenever we pick her up, she makes a gremlin-growl kind of noise. And sometimes she bites us. She makes it a point when she does not want to be picked up, when we really just want to show her some love.
I would really not be doing this noise justice if I didn’t try to emulate it for you. So here’s a clip from Stephen Spielberg’s “Gremlins” to show you what she sounds like when pissed off (warning, if you’re a kiddo, please don’t click on this video).
So, what do you do if your dog has anxiety?
There are many things that can be done for your lil pup. Here are a few to consider:
- Control the behavior
- Meaning, don’t pick her up at night if that’s when she wants to kill you.
- Give rewards for positive behavior
- Cookies will certainly do. Or hugs and kisses – you decide.
- Seek help from a canine professional.
- Furthermore, consult with a vet.
- Consider anti-anxiety medication and supplements that will help your dog with her struggle.
- Yes, they exist!
So hopefully by now you are feeling more relief about your dog. I know this post is a little light at some points, but your dog having anxiety is something to really consider helping. Your dog is someone who is always there for you in rough times, so it’s the least you can do to help your dog out with their issues as well.
