By Polina Semenoff, CPDT-KA
Spring has sprung! While spring is a reminder of how change can be beautiful, sometimes we are not ready for the change that the seasons bring for our dogs. A majority of the time, these changes for dogs are environmental and can cause skittish reactions to holiday decorations, unfavorable behaviors around guests, or difficulty understanding any of our schedule changes.
A lot of the time we overlook how these transitions can affect our furry companions. Some dogs are very sensitive to certain types of environmental change and genetically, some may have an even harder time based on their breed. For example, a herding dog around children could pose problematic behavior or a bulldog breed in the heat could just have a hard time participating in certain activities. Depending on the particular change that is happening, we will determine the best mode of action or preparation needed to set the dog up for success.
The challenges in environmental change that springtime brings could put dogs in a stressful state of mind especially if you don’t know what is bothering them. The more of these little stressors that occur over time could lead to a reaction that may seem to come out of nowhere. It is important to look at what is changing in our dogs’ environment at each season so we can better prepare ourselves to help our dogs adjust.
For springtime especially, more people are spending time outside – as well as their dogs! However, even such a simple thing could be a trigger for our dogs because they just got used to walking or doing outside activities in the winter with fewer people and dogs to worry about. This could possibly be termed as a lack of neutrality when it has to do with excessive excitement or heightened fear around the increase in people and dogs outside. A change in behavior like this can show that your dog needs your assistance in managing their emotions. It is very important to consider your dog’s emotional state of mind when reacting to triggers in order to be able to properly tackle the issue.
Aside from simply having more people outside enjoying the emerging beautiful weather, these people may also be looking very different. Some may have hats, some may be moving at different speeds (jogging or walking), some may have wheels (bikes or skateboards), some may have a backpack because they’re walking to school, some may have a walker or a cane, and even just being different in size (women vs. men vs. children), etc. could affect our dogs’ reactions to them. On top of that, there are various other dogs also enjoying the outdoors with their owners. All dogs are different! They all have different personalities, preferences, past traumas or experiences, and learned behaviors that lead to not inherently getting along with every dog they encounter. It is important to know these things about your dog so you can help them tackle day to do day stressors and strengthen your bond together.
To dogs, people aren’t just people, and other dogs certainly aren’t just other dogs. If your dog seems to be having big feelings when seeing people or dogs outside or even just passing by your yard, let My Dog’s Got Class help you dissect what’s going on so we can help create a management, training, and desensitization plan for you!
