Relaxation for dogs - Always chilled?
Does your dog have to be relaxed all the time? Can't he even get excited, or really wound up? Or why is relaxation for dogs so important to me?
I can reassure you: Your dog is allowed to get excited, he's allowed to really let his hair down while playing, he's allowed to be happy, and he's allowed to be lively and active in general.
Relaxation for dogs is about being able to reduce the excitement if necessary or to help your dog relax again after exciting experiences. It is absolutely not about turning your dog into a sleeping pill.
When I talk about relaxation training, it can be about many different approaches. You can help your dog to relax in many different ways.
Handling & Training
The way you handle your dog plays a big role in creating stress. Permanent stress is extremely unhealthy because it disturbs resting phases. Chronic stress not only leads to behavioral problems but also very often has health consequences.
I have written before about the fact that training about punishment is hardly useful in real life. The confusion we create when we use punishment incorrectly is immense. You can learn more about it here: What you really need to know about rewards and punishment
Just now we had the topic of electrocution. You know how in the winter when the air is dry, you get little electric shocks when you touch something wrong? Some people get electrocuted at home, but I got electrocuted more often on escalators or when getting out of the car. The fear of the next electric shock is unpleasant, although these small shocks are not worth mentioning. Still, it sucks, and if you don't know exactly why and when you're getting them, it's stressful because you can't stop it.
Those who have experienced such things may better understand that training via inflicted pain or startle stimuli is unpleasant for the dog, but the incorrect application (applying punishment correctly requires even greater knowledge and skill than positive reinforcement) is relevant to animals' welfare.
According to the Animal Welfare Act, no pain may be inflicted on animals if it is avoidable. Since there is training with positive reinforcement and works really well, you can do without inflicted punishments. This is the beginning of stress-free handling.
If you then make sure that your positive handling is really good, you have achieved a lot! Here you can read about how you can improve your training:
How to train with less stress
Why a marker signal brings you advantages
All other points belong to "Handling", but are listed separately because of their importance.
Where are reinforcers?
Sometimes the excitement is virtually trained. This is when the caregivers unconsciously reinforce the exciting behavior. This can happen by light nagging or scolding when you think that the dog understands that this is not a reinforcement. Many dogs chalk it up to positive attention, especially if they just didn't get much attention beforehand.
The good thing is that we can then quickly train the excitement away. The focus is on desired behavior, that is, the relaxed behavior that the caregiver envisions. This is regularly reinforced.
Of course, not every exciting behavior can simply be ignored, but you must look closely at what the dog's motivation is. Only if the behavior really has the sole purpose of getting your attention, ignoring it will help. Then you should really ignore the behavior completely by looking elsewhere, keeping silent, turning away, and withdrawing from your dog as best you can. If he's used to you reacting in a certain way, he'll soon look back at you and he may be left open-mouthed in amazement that you're not joining in the excitement. This could be the moment when you respond with the marker word and give a reward.
In the future, you can start training even when you know that the unwanted behavior is about to happen. Mark and reward the still good behavior, and you will quickly achieve success.
Overall, calm behavior can also be built up through rewards, but care must be taken to ensure that the rewards do not bring back the excitement.
Stress management in everyday life
Routines and predictive power of the dog
Part of managing everyday life is absolutely how great the dog's predictive power is about what will happen next. The clearer the dog knows what will happen next, the less stressful his daily routine will be.
So the clearer your daily routine is, the better it is for the dog. Households in which one or more caregivers are on shift are certainly more stressful for many dogs than others.
If there are certain sequences, that is very good. It does not have to be fed to the minute or leave the house for a walk at exactly nine o'clock. But if your dog knows: "After breakfast, we'll go out, then there's food, and then I have rest time" - then he can adjust to that, and the rhythm of the day is basically consistent, even if you want to sleep longer on the weekend.
How much walking is too much?
That's another question you should take your time with. There is a relatively narrow path between sufficient activity periods and sufficient rest periods. Dogs are different. So are people. Just as there are people who can really get by on 6 h of sleep, while others absolutely need 8-9h of sleep per day, there is no universal rule for dogs either.
It depends on the stimuli
When to walk too much depends largely on the stimuli your dog experiences along the way, and how he experiences them.
If he has big problems with people, a walk where you encounter lots of people will stress him out, but a walk across lonely fields might not.
If your dog is ambitious about hunting, it may be the other way around. And if both stimuli are relevant to him, he will have much more stress on his walks than a dog that does not react in any way excited to either game or people.
That's why nobody can tell you: "You are walking too long or too short" if he can't judge these things. It simply depends on your dog's experience.
How much rest is enough?
If your dog rests or sleeps about 15-20 h a day, that's about right. Of course, it depends a lot on his age, health condition, breed...
But also the stress level.
Dogs with a very high-stress level can often hardly relax deeply. Then it becomes critical. Because actually stressed animals logically need more rest time as compensation.
Living together with other animals
Living together with other pets can also be a stressor, or simply a positive stimulation, which on the other hand needs rest periods again. Some dogs benefit from contact with conspecifics, others are stressed by it. Especially in the latter case, conscious periods of separation are useful, so that each dog can also relax in peace.
Needs Satisfaction
How many of your dog's needs are being met? How much frustration does he have?
Do you even know your dog's needs? How many of them can you satisfy regularly? Does he often just need to "be good" in situations that are difficult for dogs?
All of these things play a role in the balance between excitement and relaxation.
Announcements
Announcing actions to the dog such as "pet", "eyes" for wiping eyes, "brushing", or even "prick" for "it may hurt for a moment" makes sense for all dogs. Just touching a dog because he is a dog after all is not fair. Especially if he doesn't see a hand coming to touch, it's good to announce the touch. Or you can put the announcement as a question that the dog can answer yes or no. This even gives him freedom of choice. My question, "Do you want me to pet you?" is answered very appropriately by Grace. She either stays where she is if she doesn't want to be petted, or she sorts herself right in with me and enjoys the touch.
Announcements of any kind can be useful because they give the dog back its predictive power in actions that it often cannot anticipate.
Of course, it makes little sense to name everything and anything, because language talents are few dogs. So it is necessary to distinguish the relevant things from the unimportant. And this from the dog's point of view!
End signal
There is an article about "reward stress". There, it's about how dogs sometimes have a constant expectation about the availability of reinforcers. You can read about that here:
What reward stress is and how you avoid it.
The end signal is exactly what you need when your dog remains in constant expectation. Your dog should know exactly when it's worth offering behavior, and when he can dive back into his doggy world. Both are good and important, and each in their own time. Then positive reinforcement training won't be a stressor for your dog, either.
Own calmness
Of course, it doesn't help excited dogs at all if their caregiver is also excited. So it is important to practice calmness yourself. It is not uncommon for the dog to get excited by its humans in the first place. I have experienced this myself with Charly. When he developed his leash aggression, there were often arguments between us and the other dog owners, which certainly did not make things easier for Charly. Today I know that I should not blame other people when my dog acts out. It is my problem and only I can solve it. To blame others because they behaved "wrongly" makes no sense. I'd rather make myself and my dog fit so that we can handle even the strangest situations.
Support your dog when he is stressed
When your dog is stressed in certain situations he needs your help. Sometimes it's not much to do at all. You just need to know the right way to do it. A marker signal helps with good communication, and rewards that match the situation make good behavior worthwhile.
Often it also makes sense to first change the dog's feeling towards the situation by giving your dog good things right away, like treats, play, body contact, more or less distance from a stimulus. A good trainer can tell you exactly what your dog needs if you don't already know.
A conditioned relaxation signal can also assist you very well.
Conditioned relaxation signals
This is the core of relaxation training. Conditioned relaxation signals mean that you link certain stimuli (a word, a scent, music, a place....) to a relaxed state. Conditioning is a linking of two stimuli.
Creating such a link is quite easy and helps you a lot to relax your dog a bit in exciting situations so that he becomes responsive again and reacts to your signals.