Nervous Dog

There are dogs that express their nervousness by barking, jumping, pulling from the leash, coming and going by the garden. On one floor life is difficult. The dog gets on the couches and gets of immediately. It sleeps a little. This agitation irritates the owner who scolds at the dog or just dodges it. Then the dog tries to get the owner's attention and moves even more. It is precise to find a solution rapidly because this nervousness, together with destruction is a frequent cause of separation. Anxiety is frequently associated with predisposing causes. The dog is not capable of controlling itself when it sees its owner, when it is in a new place or when the situation is unknown. Living with the owner seems impossible and the owner prevents the new situations. Sometimes the first cause of agitation is a bad socialization. The puppy that hasn't seen other animals during that phase of its life will get excited when it is in contact with another animal and will have difficulties in controlling itself in the presence of several people. Children will easily make the dog nervous. Some breeds have more predisposition than other to get agitated. It is preferable to choose a very calm breed when we have young children and older people in the house. The Fox Terrier and Bracos are usually nervous, even though it cannot be applied to every dog. The young dog is energetic than the adult, but agitation has some limits. A puppy that devours instead of eating and moves non-stop can be considered an abnormally agitated animal. If the owner's life style does not go with the dog's necessities, agitation increases. The case of the dog that needs to do more exercise is very frequent.

What to do? If our dog is one of these breeds that is preset to this type of behavior we will have to favor the learning of different orders that help the dog calm down (like: Sit!, Lie down!, To your house!). The game must be controlled by the owner, who will be able to interrupt it when he thinks is the right time. We can make games and exercises that obligate the animal to stop the activity when it hears the (STOP!) order. This will allow us to prevent excitation. When an animal is excited, we have to stop paying attention to it and congratulate it when it gets tired and lies down. We will avoid noise and screaming. Before any new action we have to calm the dog down. For example, before we put the leash on it we will make it sit down. Many owners end up giving in and say that it is impossible to put the leash on the dog. The same thing happens with the food: the excited dog barks and puts its paws on the table. We will wait until it is completely calm to feed it. The games sessions must be well structured. For example: we will throw an object for the dog to go fetch it. We will control it if we ask it to leave the object at our feet. We will not take care of it or congratulate it until it has dropped the object, lied down and calmed down. The principal idea is to limit the causes that initially motivate the dog's excitation and do nothing when the dog is excited. Later on we will progressively increase the situations of risk and always congratulate the dog when it is calm and reacts calmly.