Dog Training Queens Park – Call Today – Are You Stressing Out Your Dog?

Dog Training Queens Park – Are You Stressing Out Your Dog?

Does your dog seems high strung? It might be time to look in the mirror. Here’s advice from Eazy Dog Training Queens Park.

You may be stressing out your dog. This sounds awful doesn’t it? Let’s be a bit more specific. Your personality and lifestyle might be stressing out your dog. Sounds a bit better? Let’s look into this topic, shall we.

New research shows that the stress level in dogs mirrors the stress level in their owners

Dogs, just like us people, suffer from stress. Stress comes in a variety of types, but the length of it is the most important factor to consider. Stress can sometimes be severe but short in duration, like in a dog fight. It can also be long-term, like continuing separation anxiety. It is the long term stress which is the most dangerous since psychological research on humans has shown us that this can cause a variety of physical and mental issues. Same goes for dogs, in fact, the same types of pharmacological agents are used to treat stress in both humans and canines.

Dogs under stress secrete the same hormones that humans do

The critical marker for stress is the amount of cortisol that is released into the blood system by the adrenal glands, a crucial part of the body’s response to different kinds of stressors. This is same with both dogs and humans.

The research team studied 58 dogs, all Border Collies and Shetland Sheepdogs and their owners. The scientists were looking for any association in the ongoing stress levels of the humans and canines, and if found, why would such a relationship exist.

The major finding was that dogs and their owners indeed had similar stress levels

Dogs with high levels of continuing stress tended to have owners with similarly high long-term stress levels. Dogs with low extended levels of stress tended to have owners who also seemed to be relatively stress-free. Interesting, isn’t it?

However, statistical analyses showed that the dog’s personality was not having an influence on the owner’s stress level. But the personality of the human seemed to be important!

In short, the study concluded that long-term stress hormone levels are indeed synchronised between dogs and their humans. And it is the dogs who are responding to the stress levels of us, rather than owners responding to the stress in their dogs. In other words, if your dog seems stressed, you may want to take a look in the mirror!