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Anxiety in Dogs (part 1)

Roger was our beautiful Golden Retriever that loved life and everyone that he encountered. He would greet you with his big brown eyes, wagging tail, and a stuffed toy in his mouth whenever one was available. Roger loved the beach, swimming, squirrels, and spending time with his family. He passed away way too early, and he is dearly missed. Marks's Happy Pets (www.markshappypets.com) blogs are dedicated to Roger, and they are written in his voice. Please enjoy.


Anxiety in dogs

As a Golden Retriever I like to pride myself on being happy and relaxed at all times. After all, I feel that it is very important for me to make my humans laugh and smile whenever possible. And let me tell you that I am pretty good at it! I always greet them with a big tongue and wagging tail. I fetch the ball for them every time they throw it (well, sometimes I get distracted and don’t bring it back). And I try to not drool on them too much when they are eating yummy things right in front of me. I seem to make my humans particularly happy whenever I let them dress me up in silly costumes!

Although I try to always be happy and playful, I sometimes find myself getting a bit anxious. And I know that these feelings are normal because my brothers, Hank and Charlie, and all my doggy friends experience anxiety as well. So, I am working to spread the word about doggy anxiety since it seems to be such a common problem.

Puppies make me anxious- please give me space!

I am not too proud to admit that I get anxious when new dogs, particularly little puppies come into my home. My humans bring a lot of foster dogs into our house, which can be great but sometimes it can be a little scary for me. Like the one time that my human dad walked in with 3 little Husky-mix puppies named Dasher, Dancer, and Cupid. Oh my, those little fellas were a bit crazy and every time I looked down they were running under my legs or trying to nibble on my feet! One foster pup named Em was always nipping at my bum and would trot away with tufts of my fluffy, golden hair hanging from her mouth. My humans would help reduce my anxiety and give me a break from the chaos by letting me go somewhere quiet like the bedroom or the backyard. And sometimes the little guys would be put inside a playpen in which case I might sneak up and have a sniff at them from a safe distance.

Visitors and the doorbell make Charlie crazy- just give him a job to do!

My brother Charlie gets anxious quite a lot. Whenever the doorbell rings he will bark and bark, and he keeps barking when the visitors come into our house. I just run up to the new humans so I can get pats. Charlie thinks that I am crazy to trust strangers all the time.

My humans recently found a great way to keep Charlie from barking every time the doorbell rings- they trained him to run and get one of his stuffed toys instead of barking. This was very clever because us dogs love to have a job to do! And Charlie takes his job very seriously and will quickly run to his toybox to accomplish his mission. And then Charlie is put in charge of fetching or playing tug with his stuffed toy for a short time when the new humans come inside. All Charlie’s anxiety seems to disappear when he is responsible for his toy! Charlie told me the other day that he has actually started to like the doorbell because of all the fun he has when it rings!

Well, I have a lot more stories to tell you about doggy anxiety, but my paws need a rest from typing so much. And, it is about time for my daily run in the park! So, please come back soon to hear about more great ways to help doggies deal with their anxious feelings.


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