Our pets provide unconditional love and companionship and it is very easy to take this for granted.
While most of us are tuned into our own stress levels it is easy to overlook the needs of our pets, particularly dogs.
Stress symptoms in dogs can take many different forms and those that are easy to recognize are as follows:
1. Unusual irritability manifesting itself in unexpected growling or biting (particularly upsetting when to the hand that feeds them);
2. Excessive drooling or licking specific parts of their body. Returning time and time again to the same area can indicate a tick or injury;
3. Uncharacteristic moodiness or sadness. If your dog stays a long time in the one place and does not respond to calls or instructions it can indicate severe pain or stress;
4. Frequent vomiting or bowels movements that are irregular and unusual;
5. If your dog keeps their tail between their legs this can be indicative of stress;
6. The easiest symptom of all that suggests a problem is when your dogs turns their back on food they would normally enthusiastically consume;
7. Blueness around the gums can be indicative of heart problems.
If you detect any of these problems and your dog does not respond to attention or normal reinforcement you should consider taking them to your local Vet.
I acknowledge that this is not a definitive list so if you know of others then please add them using the form at the bottom of this post.
Dogs can’t tell us verbally they are stressed but to the attentive owner it is usually obvious when things are not right.
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