ARE YOU ADDRESSING YOUR DOG'S MENTAL HEALTH?

Most of us are aware of the implications of bad mental health in humans and its impact on thier behaviors.  For example, an individual with anxiety may shake, breathe fast and shallow, have an increased heart rate, and hightened negative emotions.and show distressed  behavior such as uncontrollable crying, increased fear of people or situations, and in some cases self harm.  Some behavioral issues arise as an attempt to control thier environment in order to decrease this feeling.  For example, some suffers refuse to leave thier home and start showing antisocial behavior like lack of eye contact, weak voice, or head forward posture. 
  How do we help our fellow humans suffering from something like this? Using human psychology, we would comfort that person with hugs or an empathetic ear, they could go to therapy, find support groups, and practice calming techniques and exercises. These solutions can help someone suffering from this to be able to manage it, make it less severe during an episode, and gives them tools to access when they are in the midst of an episode to self soothe or reach out for support.

How can we do this for dogs?

Let's use the same example.  An anxious dog may shake, breathe fast and shallow, an increased heart rate and may or may not show distressed behavior in the form of anxious barking, digging, running in circles, fear of people and situations, reactivity, and sometimes self harm.

How would we help this dog?

Using human psychology, we would comfort that dog with affection, we would tell them "it,s ok", give them a treat or toy, and offer empathetic feelings.  The problem is our intentions and our messages are crossed.  Our intentions are to comfort but the messages not delivered in the way a dog understands. I. Order to get your intentions to match your actions we have to think in dog terms.  For example providing affection to an anxious person offers comfort, in contrast for an anxious dog this affection means you like it when they are anxious because they only repeat states of mind they get attention for.  If you talk to them it increases the anxiety because they again are getting attention for being in an unbalanced state of mind.  So our intention to comfort a dog has in fact increased the anxiety of the dog.  It is important for us to think in terms of our intention and how it is recieved.  The anxious dog is always on high alert, reactive, can fear bite ect.  This unhealthy unwanted behavior can be fixed by taking our human intention and putting it in terms a dog understands.  In this instance it is best to stay calm, ignore the dog until it is able to calm itself down, then when the dog is physically relaxed then you give all the affection in the world.  Now you are giving attention to a calm healthy state of mind.  If we are thinking in human terms it might be viewed as unfeeling to ignore a dog in this fearful stressed state.  However silence helps dogs relax, words can increase fear, and you are not withholding affection you are just saving it for the appropriate time in order for your intention of providing comfort is communicated in a way the dog understands so you get the empathetic result you want. 
This is just an example of how our understanding of human empathy and its intentions are not being communicated the way we would like our dogs to recieve it.  To love a dog in the healthiest way it is important to understand how they want and recieve love, and to show your love on a way they can understand.

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