How To Calm A Dog Down?
11 Top Tips To Get Rid Of Anxiety
by Ditte Young
How to calm a dog down is a question I often get. Dogs are pack animals that live by their instincts. They can fight, flee, or freeze when they get insecure. If they fight, they start to seem aggressive and bark, laying down their ears or showing their teeth.
If they flee, they run away; if they freeze, they get stiff as a stick and do not move as they paralyze themselves. Here are 11 great tips on how to calm a dog down in various situations.
Table of Contents
How To Calm A Dog Down?
You are the dog owner, the most important person to calm your dog. It has been proven several times that dogs have numerous emotions, and I will help you how to handle a dogโs anxiety.
Some dogs are anxious dogs from birth because of their breeding. But you can also have a nervous dog if it has a sensitive personality profile.
As a professionalย dog communicator, I often see a pattern in their behavior, where it often seems like a scared dog or nervous dog. Many behavioral problems are related to sensitivity, such as separation anxiety or dogs being afraid of sounds. ย
Body Language
You can use your body language as pet parents to calm your dog down. The minute you start breathing and relax your own body, you calm dogs down too.
They sense your frequency, energy, and body language if you are stressed, calm, happy, or sad and they can either mirror your state of mind, or they react to it. It is easier to get dogs calm than you think.
If you straighten your back, you take leadership energetically, and your dog will sense on you that you are in control. That has an amazing effect to get dogs calm fast.
Physical Attention
Some dogs are afraid of meeting other dogs. You will see it immediately in their body language and tone of voice when they bark if they are stiff in the body or start to be aggressive in their behavior.
I always recommend pet owners have a leash on their dogs if they cannot practice the call of their dog. But you also meet other outgoing dogs, want to say hello, have aggressive behavior, or run toward you and your dog if it is not on a leash.
I recommend you use your body language and straighten your body and back to show your dog and the other dog that youโve got this. You can also give your dog physical contact as a calming signal.
You can sit down with it and talk to your dog with a calm tone of voice. In that way, you calm down and distract your dog, so it is only you and your dog in a bubble. Touching your dog slowly also brings physical attention to it and gives it your caring and presence as a calming signal.
Want to get to know your dogโs personality profile and learn what you can do to help calm down your furry friend? Then have a look at my online course โDogs: Personality profiles and behavioral issues,โ where you’ll learn exactly what you need to know about your dog to give them the best life possible.
Play Classical Music
Some dog parents know their dogs hate being home alone. I help many dogs suffering from home-alone problems. The behavioral problem is often caused by the dogs having either had too many homes and been replaced too many times or the dog hasnโt been mentally prepared to move away from its mom and the pack to another family.ย
If you have a sensitive dog who is also afraid of loud noises, it will instinctively react to the tiniest sound, such as the garbage truck driving by the house or the mailman who puts mail in the mailbox.
Music therapy can be a great help for dogs who suffers from the following:
- Home-alone problems
- Are alert to sounds
- Hyper dogs
- Are afraid of fireworks
The tones from classical music help to bring down the nervous system of an anxious dog. It may help with the same rhythm or frequency as a heartbeat.
I highly recommend you test this if you have a dog with anxious behaviors. Some dogs find it helpful to have a white noise machine in the background, so it puts an overlap to their already increased sense of hearing.
Aromatherapy
Dogs have a sense of smell that works 10.000-100.000 better than human beings.
For some dogs, aromatherapy can also help them. You can get several devices with synthetic pheromones that calm down your dog.
You can also use essential oils to calm down your anxious dog or hyperactive dog too. Lavender has a calming effect on dogs, as it does on humans.
Provide Quiet Space
Some dogs need quiet space to rest completely. Remember, if your dog is in the living room with you, it constantly follows your tone of voice, the noises around you, the smell in the house if you cook etc.
Your furry friend might look as if it is asleep, but maybe you already know that it is not in a deeper sleep than if you drop something or the mailman comes by, your dog immediately runs towards the door or window to check it out. If you have a hyperactive dog, it can be very stressful for your dog when guests come over.
In those cases, it often helps your dog to:
- Mentally prepare your dog by telling it who is coming and how long they are going to stay
- Train your dog in what you want it to do when guests are entering your home
- Give your dog a quiet space, where it doesnโt have to be aware of you and these extra people
Some dog owners think the dog is suffering by being left alone, but that isnโt the case, especially not for sensitive or hyperactive dogs.
Calming Vest
Some dogs are not aware of their body. They can be over-sensitive, they can be hyperactive dogs, they can be smaller dogs, or just not as aware of their bodies as we think they should be. A calming vest can help anxious dogs with being aware of the dogโs body and will feel like a protection for it.
The world is a big place, and if your furry friend is insecure or a hyper dog, it can calm down your dog to know where it starts and where it ends. We do the same with babies. We put a blanket around it to create the emotion of being in the motherโs wound. Your dog will experience the same.
If it is highly sensitive, I recommend you find a vest with no stitching on it or zippers. You can purchase these popular vests in many online shops now.
Socialization
It is important to socialize with your dog when it is a puppy. Many dog parents take their dogs to puppy training, and I highly recommend you in doing just that. In the training and socialization with other dogs, your dog learns how to interact with other dogs.
It is essential for your dog to socialize since it is a pack animal and because it learns how to interact and communicate in a way only dogs do both with their body language, energies, and mental.ย
Exercise
If you have a hyperactive dog, it is important to exercise your dog. I recommend you look into what your dog was bred for to give you an understanding in what is its nature. If you have a hunting dog behavior will come with that.
And if you have a shepherd dog, another behavior and need for exercise will come with that. Many dog owners I meet think it is enough to exercise the dog by walking the dog around the block. In many cases, the dog will not be stimulated enough and will become under-stimulated and act as a hyperactive dog.
I recommend bigger dogs to have 1 hour of exercise during a day where they can run free and 2 smaller walks in the morning and in the evening.
No Eye Contact
Dogs have taught themselves to look human beings in their eyes after we socialized them. But their nature points at eye contact as a signal of attacking prey.
If your dog is anxious, I recommend you not to stare at it but instead remain calm and use your body language, quiet tone of voice, and calm energy.
If you meet an anxious dog, I also recommend you not to look it into its eyes but focus elsewhere to avoid it feeling too threatened by your presence.
Anxiety Medication
Some dogs need anxiety medication if they have developed a severe anxiety disorder. The veterinarian can recommend different medications or therapies to help your dog. I find it useful during New Year’s for the dogs who are afraid of fireworks to calm them down and slower their senses.
I think it is possible to train your dog to avoid your dog getting anxiety medication. However, the situation varies from one dog to the other and the dogโs story. And it also requires a lot of work from the dog owner to change that pattern in the dogโs nervous system.
Some dogs will need medication for the rest of their lives, and some dogs can be weaned off it over time with a focus on a lot of training and treatments such as healing, trauma therapy, telepathy, etc.
The standard medication for anxious dogs is usually:
- Xanax
- Lorazepam
- Amitriptyline
- Fluoxetine (Prozac)
- Clomipramine
- Trazadone
- Benzodiazepines
- Gabapentin
You can get the medication as droppers, or you can find them as pills you can hide in dog treats for your dog to eat it.
Behavior Consultant
I believe that most behavior problems can be solved with the help of a professional behavior consultant and a lot of training and love from the dog owner. As a behavior consultant, I recommend you stay in mind: Happy dog parent โ happy dog. Your dog picks up on your energy, your mood, your temper, and your energy.
Depending on the personality of your dog, most dogs are caring animals and want to play with you, make you happy, or comfort you when you are sad. If you take all the energy depending on your mood swings, there is not enough energy or time to have a happy dog in balance.
A behavior consultant can provide you with the proper tools to you and your dog to calm down your dog and have a happy dog.
Why Is My Dog So Hyper?
99% of the time it is caused by your dog being under-stimulated. When you buy yourself a dog, I recommend you investigate what it was naturally bred for. When you are aware of that, you also know it needs speed, fresh air, and run freely, or wishes for going to the dog park, or if it manages to have fewer walks and can be carried in your bag all day long. Most dogs require training both mentally and physically.
To train your dog mentally it needs to solve a task for you. That could be throwing the dog treats in the backyard for it to find it. In that way, your dog can be occupied and use its sense of smell for many minutes depending on how big your backyard is or how many treats you gave your dog. I recommend you take your dog to the dog park as well to meet other dogs. Your dog uses all its senses while being around other dogs, which stimulates its brain and cognition as well.
The best way to stimulate your dog physically is to let it run free. It can be at the beach or in an open field. Your dog has the option to run at its own speed and loosen up tensions in its body you might not know of. It is important that you can call back your dog if you do this.
Additional reading:ย How to stop a dog from peeing in the houseย andย why is my dog shaking?
How To Calm A Scared Dog Down?
Your dog needs a pack leader.
It requires you as the pet parent as you are, so you must be grown up and consider that your dog needs help from someone who can either explain what is happening or tell other people or dogs off.
To calm a scared dog down, you can use your tone of voice, body language, and energy.
How To Help A Dog With Separation Anxiety?
Many dogs suffer from separation anxiety because they, at an early age, experienced being moved away from their dog mom and the pack onto a new home, which they werenโt prepared for.ย
Or they suffer from separation anxiety due to moving too many times.
It takes a lot of training to turn this behavioral problem. Still, it can be done with focus, training, and help from a behavior consultant or animal communicator who can provide the proper tools for your dog.
How To Calm A Dog Down During A Storm?
If your dog is afraid during a storm it is typically because it senses that things move outside of the house and it can be afraid of the loud noises that will follow during a storm. Remember that dogs ears are highly sensitive to any sounds and will sound louder than what you and I can hear.
Your dog also picks up on your state of mind and energy. What do you feel during a storm? You can calm down your dog by telling it that you are safe in the house and be aware of being calm yourself until itโs over.
How To Calm A Dog Down During Fireworks?
Many dogs are afraid of fireworks because of the loud noises and sudden flashlights in the sky which they donโt understand. To many dogs, firework seems like a warzone they canโt get out of.
To calm down a dog during fireworks, you can:
- Do sound training with fireworks sounds many months before it starts
- Play classical music
- Prepare your dog several months before the end of December that this is going to happen soon
- Make sure that your dog can lie under a couch or bed when the fireworks start
- Tell your dog that it is happening outside of the house and not inside
- Calm your dog down by being present and calm yourself
- Provide anxiety medication to your dog if your training is not helpful
How To Calm A Dog Down In A Car?
Some dogs have the resilience to drive in a car.
Believe it or not, they experience being car sick as well. If that is the case, you can go to a dog physiotherapist or cranial sacral therapist to check the proprioceptive sense, which controls the balance of your dog.
When I helped to calm the dogs, most dogs showed me that they were afraid of not knowing where to go or if they would return home. In these cases, it has been replacement dogs who have had way too many homes.
You can tell your dog for how long you are going to drive, where you are taking the dog, and when you are returning home again and see the result immediately.
Animal Telepathy Mastery
If you want to learn behavior techniques to calm down dogs, and if you want to learn from the most recognized animal communicator and dog whisperer in Europe, now here is your chance.
You can now participate in Animal Telepathy Mastery from anywhere in the world.
This is for you who:
- Want to give your dog the best life possible?
- Have a dog whoโs insecure
- Want to know how dogs are engaging
- Wants tools for behavior modification
- Want to be acquainted with the particular types of dog personalities
- Have a rescue dog with traumas
- Want to make a living by helping animals
- And so much moreโฆ
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Ditte Young
Want to learn telepathy with animals?
