Dog anxiety symptoms can rattle our love for dogs, since their anxiety affects our peace of mind. We confront these symptoms by addressing their underlying cause and so keep our sanity. Identifying a dog’s anxiety means anticipating the trigger that leads to fear, which is what makes the dog anxious. When your dog senses danger or vulnerability from unexpected origins, the result is a normal, physiological, symptomatic form of fear. There is nothing unique about this. The key lies in knowing how to identify the source of this fear and eliminate it when possible.
Because dog anxiety will manifest itself in often dislikeable canine behaviors, you should be wary of. Frequent and sudden bowel movements is one of the most common visible signs of dog anxiety, as are the destruction of previously safe property or an incessant noise-making that includes barking, whining or howling. It is well known that separation anxiety is the most common cause of fretfulness in dogs. When unaccustomed to being alone, dogs exhibit an excess of stress. But this could be simply habit and there are ways to combat separation anxiety.
In other cases, however, the situation may be less manageable. Dogs act by impulse driven by urge not reasoning. Their instinct can be idiopathic, meaning it can spontaneously and for unknown reasons begin to change toward uneasiness, and some breeds are more prone to this, including the Siberian Husky, Greyhound, and Chesapeake Bay Retriever. Genetic predisposition seems to explain this characteristic. Understanding this reality, therefore, may help you gauge when dog anxiety symptoms are less normal than their genetic cause would give them reason for being.
List of Dog Anxiety Symptoms
Quite a few symptoms manifest themselves as slight changes in dog behavior. They may go unnoticed to a pet owner because they are not too disruptive at first, though they can worsen. They may include:
- Hiding – Some dogs instinctively look for a way to be alone when they are experiencing anxiety. They usually seclude themselves out of fear, keeping a distance from people and other animals.
- Comfort Seeking – Anxiety can lead other dogs to an opposite behavior, which is to look for attention or affection. They jump on people or barking to be seen.
- Pant and Shake – Panting from exercise is normal, but nervous panting indicates anxiety.
- Excessive Licking or Chewing – Anxious dogs may instinctively lick or chew at their fur.
- Endless Barking and Howling– One of the most common signs of anxiety is disproportionate barking. If a dog after being startled starts to bark, failing to calm down even after the disruption stops, it has fallen into the grips of anxiety.
- Sudden Aggression – Anxious dogs can be trigger happy, becoming aggressive out of the blue, even to their pet parent, suddenly snapping, growling even attacking and biting.
- Undue Energy – Anxious dogs may exhibit sudden increases in strength and appear hyperactive.
- Uncontrollable Excretion – House-trained dogs may all of a sudden vomit, defecate or urinate indoors due to anxiety. In more severe cases, they may even reverse behavior and begin to eat their own vomit and excrement.
- Destructiveness – Another common symptom of anxiety is the tendency to destroy objects that dogs usually do not chew or scratch, for instance, furniture, clothing, plants.
- Panic Attacks – Dogs that experience any of the above symptoms may start having panic attacks lasting indefinite amounts of time.
Symptoms of anxiety may result in dog injuries. Lacking in self-control, an anxious dog may attack another or run onto oncoming traffic. Much like in humans, anxiety in dogs affects their sense-perception and brain-to-limb coordination abilities.
Causes of Anxiety in Dogs
Among the most common causes of dog anxiety you find:
- Illness or pain, such as skin irritations caused by pest infestation or allergies. Nutritional imbalances can drive a dog to eat its own poop.
- Confinement leading to the dog sensing the danger of entrapped, where a threat arising cannot be dealt with through a possible get-away.
- Aging that accompanies nervous system and bone structure decay, leaving the dog too weak to respond to sudden fight-or-flight conditions.
- Phobias from terrible, earlier experiences that may have traumatized the dog and taught it to fear similar conditions approaching.
- Lack of training and socialization to expose the dog to doggy etiquette and human commands.
- Isolation from the pack, where the dog, as a social animal, senses it no longer has connection to a familiar group and its surroundings.
- Stress can stimulate displacement activity in dogs, such as scratching or preening that bring comfort or a more cockeyed behavior such as eating feces. Under stress, a dog facing motivation to do one thing but being confronted with having to do something else, will displace through anxiety the motivational activity to display symptoms of angst.
Dealing with Dog Anxiety Symptoms
There are various remedies to deal with the fear that lies at the heart of dog anxiety symptoms to eliminate them. The prevention of anxiety in your dog requires 3 fundamental commitments by a dog’s caregiver. One of these commitments is to train your dog on socialization skills to remove unhealthy social habits by exposing the animal to a healthy social environment. This include giving your dog proper exercise opportunities for both its physical and emotional well-being.
Secondly, always ensure to avoid dangerous situations whenever possible, keeping the animal from facing what it may consider risky or provocative. Lastly, commit to responding quickly to a fearful situation for your dog, to ensure you maintain control over the unstable animal at those times when the it displays dog anxiety symptoms. Find the source of that anxiety and remove the dog far from it.
Dog Training and Counter-Conditioning for Dog Anxiety Symptoms
Through appropriate training and counter-conditioning, you can also gain greater ability to respond more swiftly to such risky situation when they come upon you and your dog suddenly. An obedient dog taught to obey your immediate commands is a dog that has a guaranteed purpose established, as the moment you speak to it, the dog will know who is in charge and what to do next.
It may seem severe, but abstain from coddling a dog, as it conditions the animal not to know how to react to situations where it is given a lot of freedom where to act. Coddling means not only to be overly affectionate but permissive even indulgent in allowing the dog to do as it pleases, following few rules with no consequences when broken. Dogs require social structure to know how to behave, else they reluctantly take a leading role in how to respond to environmental stimuli which, without guidance from someone else, may lead to severe bouts with stress and dog anxiety symptoms.
You can be most effective at dealing with these symptoms by resetting the dog’s mind while in the throes of anxiety through the use of distractions away from whatever is making the dog nervous. According to Modern Dog Magazine, part of dog obedience training requires improving a dog’s ability to focus by use of distractions.
You start where the dog is most comfortable and then you teach it commands to obey. Next, you introduce distractions within that environment and you ensure that the dog continues to learn to obey your same commands having introduced those distractions. Then you take your dog out to where it is most likely to face anxiety-provoking situations and you ensure it learns to hear and focus on your commands in that more stressful environment. Little by little, through the use of commands and distractions, your dog becomes readier to face sudden stressful situations under your control the moment you start seeing dog anxiety symptoms creep up on you both.
Dog Anxiety Medication Treatment
As earlier mentioned, pain in dogs will produce dog anxiety symptoms. Depending on its threshold for pain, a dog may perceive discomfort with the least of stimulus or, conversely, it may take a lot for a dog to feel pain. But the moment the sensation reaches the brain, the symptom will manifest itself to match the level of perceived pain. Trauma, such as dislocations, fractures, muscular tears or open wounds, will be more obvious reasons for a dog’s discomfort than, for example, ischemia (loss of blood to a tissue) that can lead to necrosis (death of tissue mass). Tissue inflammation from infections or the introduction of pathogens into the blood stream via contaminated foods or exposed tissues will also manifest symptoms as the dog’s unease increases. These are conditions needing medical intervention.
If you are not in a position to speak with a vet about a prescription medication, you may wonder about using over-the-counter medication for your dog. This is not a decision lightly to be made. According to doctor of veterinary medicine Jennifer Coates, over-the-counter pain medication (known as OTC’s) can be deadly when improperly used on animals, no matter how tempting the idea of ending a dog’s misery may be.
Vomiting and often bloody diarrhea may develop from their use, since OTC’s such as aspirin or ibuprofen inhibit certain enzymes that both reduce tissue inflammation but also the adequate flow of blood to the kidneys and the mucus that lines the stomach against acid erosion. Consequently, the dog may experience liver or kidney failure and die after exhibiting symptoms of severe digestive disorder. Even acetaminophen (Tylenol) for dogs, though not as dangerous, can destroy liver and kidney cells when ingested in excessive dosage. It is best, therefore, not to experiment with your dog. Take the animal to the vet if dog anxiety symptoms display elements of discomfort most likely rooted in physiological problems requiring prescribed medication or professional treatment.
At your vet’s clinic you may become familiar with some of the more routine medications to handle dog anxiety and remove its symptoms in extreme cases, where training and counter-conditioning are not measuring up to requirements. Something to consider is that none of these medications are quick fixes. A dog under treatment for anxiety enters a program that takes several weeks to produce results.
The effectiveness of medication may take an entire month to become evident in the dog anxiety symptoms that took you to the vet to begin with. Adding liquid Alprazolam to food or feeding it as a tablet to the dog at the earliest sign of anxiety works to sedate the dog’s nervous system. Buspirone is prescribed for dogs that become anxious while in a social setting, as in while visiting a dog park, rather than over noisy thunderstorms or firework celebrations. Fluoxetine is recommended for severe cases of separation anxiety and should be tapered off after more than two months of use.
If you prefer going the organic route rather than using synthetics, then nutritional supplements containing L-theanine and s-adenosyl-methionine may be an alternative for you. Both work by increasing the levels of serotonin, dopamine and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in the dog’s nervous system, causing it to level off for mild to moderate cases of anxiety.
Counter-Anxiety Tools to Combat Dog Anxiety Symptoms
If your dog suffers from occasional, mild anxiety or phobias, consider using non-invasive products to calm it down. Every dog is different. In some cases, medication is all that may work. But for other dogs, pheromones therapy through the use of anxiety collars or dog-tuned music through special dog speakers may work best. Pet-tunes Bluetooth Speakers, for instance, or the Ultra Calmer Canine Stress Relief Sonic Collar come preloaded with music for canines (yes, believe it or not, there is such a thing) to ease dog anxiety and your own. 
The speaker is designed to transmit music at the right tone or decibel frequency that could help a dog calm down. Charge it once and it can last for up to 10 hours playing a variety of melodies that basically put the dog to sleep!
Anxiety collars, such as the VPL 3 Pack ADAPTIL OnTheGo Collar for Large Dogs, mimic the pheromone that nursing she-dogs release to comfort their pups. Pheromones are a chemical that members of a specie share to communicate between them. An organ located between the nose and the mouth of a dog acts as a receiver of this chemical. The right type of pheromone helps relieve dogs from anxiety. Some pet products allow you to use sprays, wipes, diffusers and collars to transmit a chemical that imitates natural, dog-appeasing pheromone.
Similar to pheromone therapy, aromatherapy is another alternative to dealing naturally with dog anxiety symptoms. Using scented air produced through the use of essential oils and something like an Essential Oil For Dogs Starter Kit that comes with a locket diffuser to hang around the dog’s neck, may help reduce the stress for your dog, depending on the oil you use. For example, lavender oil is useful for numbing fearful or hyperactive dogs. Eucalyptus oil has soothing effects on the skin, if the dog is anxious over ticks, fleas or insect stings and bites or rashes. Frankincense oil, being less potent than eucalyptus, is a safer essential oil and more versatile for treatment of wounds that may provoke restlessness in your dog. Chamomile and cardamom oils sooth the nerves and help with nausea or digestive disorders, reducing cramps and normalizing the appetite, if this is what is making the dog uneasy. You can gain greater insight about the correct and safe use of essential oils for your dog by reading Julie Summer’s book “Essential Oils for Dogs” (click the book image to get pricing at Amazon).
Sometimes a good hug is all it takes to tranquilize a dog. Thundershirt produces a Classic Dog Anxiety Jacket also known as a dog anxiety vest that, through consistent deep body pressure, helps relieve dogs from their momentary anxiety. 
But let’s say you don’t have the means to purchase one of these anxiety vests. Never fear! (Who wants that anxiety anyway?) You can make one yourself. It’s easy! Just watch the video below and follow these simple steps next time you know a storm or fireworks display are on their way.
Dog Anxiety Symptoms Can Be Dispelled
Be patient and test the various solutions that we’ve offered to you in this article. If you come to understand your dog’s body language to pinpoint the source of its anxiety, you’re half way toward managing its condition to bring peace to the two of you. Provide the dog with proper nutrition, ample exercise and obedience training to care for its body and mind, and the dog will be better prepared to overcome its anxiety through your swift intervention. If you need inspiration about how to prove yourself a true dog lover, here are 101 tips to turn you into a superb dog wellness expert.
Still, in extreme cases, take the dog to the vet to evaluate whether there may be need for dog anxiety medication and keep an eye on the treatment to ensure it’s not more prolonged than necessary. Alternatively, use more natural substitutes, such as supplements or pheromone and aromatherapies to treat the dog more homeopathically for its anxiety, including the use of music, anxiety collars and dog anxiety vests, which you can even make yourself if pushing ever comes to shoving and you’re tired of the hassle. After all, it’s ease and relaxation that we’re all after with our dogs, is it not?