How Massage Helps Improve Your Dog’s Anxiety ?
The research says that some anxiety disorders, like noise sensitivity, occur more in older dogs while others, like separation anxiety, occur more in younger dogs.
So, think about your dog for a moment and how they react to different situations in their daily life. Do they exhibit some anxiety problems stated below?
Signs Your Dog Has Anxiety
There are specific signs and symptoms that dogs with anxiety will have. While most of the symptoms are specific to the type of anxiety your dog experiences, the American Kennel Club suggests that there are commonalities between every anxiety problem, including symptoms like:
- Aggression
- Urinating or defecating in the house
- Drooling
- Panting
- Destructive behavior
- Depression
- Excessive barking
- Pacing
- Restlessness
- Repetitive or compulsive behaviors
If your dog has any of these symptoms, it probably suffers from anxiety related to fear, aging, or separation. Whichever the issue, there is a way to reduce your dog’s anxiety!
The first step is to acknowledge that your dog might be suffering, then you can start to work on a plan of action to improve your dog’s anxiety entirely.
The Effect of Anxiety in Dogs
Anxiety over an extended period has adverse effects on your dog’s health. Miguel Ibáñez Talegón and Bernadette Anzola Delgado wrote in “Anxiety Disorders in Dogs” about the damaging effects anxiety have on a dog’s etiology. When your dog experiences constant unresolved stress, it leads to chronic or post-traumatic stress, leading to an imbalance in your dog’s mind.
The less balance there is in your dog’s mind, the more complicated your dog will find to function in its environment correctly. Not only will your dog struggle with basic daily tasks, but it will also struggle to adapt to social situations quickly.
Prolonged anxiety also leads to a buildup of the stress hormone cortisol, which gives your dog’s body energy to fight stressful situations. Unfortunately, cortisol only leaves the body if your dog uses it in stressful situations or through active intervention from the owner.
How Massage Helps Improve Your Dog’s Anxiety
Three powerful hormones are affecting your dog’s ability to relax: cortisol (the stress hormone), serotonin (the happy hormone), and dopamine (the feel-good hormone). So, the less cortisol and the more serotonin and dopamine your dog’s body releases, the better your dog will be able to relax.
Massage helps to improve your dog’s circulation, which in turn helps to decrease cortisol and enhance the release of the happy and feel-good hormones, respectively.
If you apply regular massage on your dog with the Karypet Dog Massager, you ensure that your dog experiences as few side effects of stress as possible.
Remember, though, that you still need to consider training to desensitize your dog from getting anxious in certain situations. The massage device is there to help you improve the symptoms, while the training helps improve the behavior.
