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Dog Anxiety and Stress: Symptoms, Causes, and Ways to Help Them Cope Part 1: Common Forms, Symptoms and Causes

May 8, 2023 • Dr. Sydney McCauley, PhD, PAS, Dpl. ACAS

I sat down and did an interview with Allison Andrukonis, PhD to talk about dog anxiety.  Dr. Andrukonis has spent a lot of time with shelter animals, looking at how the stress of these environments affects not just the animals but also the staff that cares for them. We talked through how to recognize signs of anxiety and stress in hopes to help dogs cope.

Q. What does anxiety look like for dogs?  What are the common anxiety disorders in dogs?

“Anxiety is presented similarly between dogs and humans; in that it can present both physiologically and behaviorally.”- Dr. Andrukonis

Physiological anxiety response is known as the autonomic arousal, or response of the involuntary processes in the body.1While some indicators of autonomic arousal between dogs and humans are similar, such as increased heart rate and increased respiratory rate (panting in dogs and hyperventilating in humans), there are some that differ.2,3 These signs may include excessive salivation and trembling.  Behavioral arousal, also called hyperarousal, is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system branch (“fight or flight”) or the autonomic nervous system.1 Common signs of a dog that has anxiety are pacing, excessive vocalization, restlessness, and excessive licking.3,4

“Similar to humans, anxiety in dogs is a response in anticipation of a perceived threat.” -Dr. Andrukonis

Just like humans, the perceived threat can vary across different dogs. When anxiety is allowed to grow endogenously without environmental conditions to justify it, it becomes pathological and starts to become uncontrollable by the dog. 

Q. How do we recognize anxiety in dogs?  Can it be a cover-up for a broader issue? If so, how should we proceed/try to navigate these problems?

“Anxiety in dogs can be recognized by observing the behavioral indicators of stress/anxiety.” -Dr. Andrukonis

Specifically, separation-related problems are often identified through the presence of destructive behaviors (particularly near the door/ where the human enters/exits), vocalizations, urination/defecation, and overactivity. It is important for owners to recognize the trigger (e.g., thunder, separation from the owner) for the anxiety/stress behaviors if they want to fix or improve the situation.

There are many underlying events that may have led a dog to develop anxiety. Significant changes in a dog’s life or even situations that can produce chronic or post-traumatic stress can alter a dog’s homeostasis and create an adaptation disorder. These changes can lead to an anxiety disorder.5 There are several factors that predispose animals and humans towards anxiety, such as genetic and epigenetic factors. Intrinsic factors can play a role in anxiety, for example, the same receptor in the brain involved in human anxiety was found in dogs and involved in the pathophysiology of anxiety disorders as well.6 Stimuli, or lack thereof, coming from the environment (epigenetic factors) have a large impact during early development. In the same way, the lack of control in an environment acts as an influential factor. All of these imbalances can be responsible for the growth of psychological conflict, creating anxious responses, and may limit a dog's interaction in its environment at equilibrium.4 Knowledge is key to understanding how all of these elements work together to correctly diagnose the underlying cause and apply the ideal therapy for that dog. Working with a veterinarian or Board-Certified Veterinary Behaviorist, or a Ph.D. Companion Animal Behaviorist in conjunction with a veterinarian will help gain not only the appropriate diagnoses for the dog, but the appropriate therapies to alleviate the symptoms and possibly provide better-coping mechanisms.

Common forms of anxiety disorders in dogs are:

Separation anxiety can be defined as a disorder related to a dog's behavior that appears when the dog is left alone at home or separated from its owners.7

    Symptoms can include8,9

Generalized anxiety can be defined as a disorder where the below symptoms may present themselves frequently in an environment that lacks stimuli or has very few.

    Symptoms can include9

Aggressiveness can be defined as a reactive sate of a dog that is characterized by a higher probability of triggering aggression.10 Aggression in dogs has been linked to anxiety that they are suffering from.11 The American Psychiatric Association does not consider aggressiveness in humans to be a separate diagnostic category and is explained to be one of the main problems in many psychiatric disorders. According to Dodman and Shuster (1998), this also applies to veterinary medicine.12

    Types of aggressiveness in dogs

    Symptoms of aggressive behavior can range13

Obsessive-compulsive disorders can be related to states of anxiety and are reactions that form when the stress factor is chronic or unpredictable. When this happens, dogs tend to show excessive behavior responses to try and reduce the level of excitement and the harmful effect of the prolonged physiological response.14 Since the abnormal or excessive behavior is repeated, they can turn into learned responses when a dog deems them efficient enough at reducing the negative emotional response and stress-related response. This substitute behavior is known as displacement activity.15

    Types of obsessive-compulsive disorder in dogs

    Symptoms for stereotyped behaviors can include

The understanding of anxiety disorders in dogs is important for managing dogs to avoid fear-induced aggressions as well as from a welfare standpoint. Documenting a dog’s behavior and the potential stressors/stimuli that created the behavior can help a veterinarian understand any underlying issues and help diagnose the potential disorder. Additionally, this information can be helpful in aiding in a therapy that is right for that dog.

References 

  1. Ogata, N. 2016. Separation anxiety in dogs: What progress has been made in our understanding of the most common behavioral problems in dogs? J. Vet. Behav. 16:28-35.
  2. Kostarczyk, E. 1986. Autonomic correlates of alimentary conditioned and unconditioned reactions in the dog. J. Auton. Nerv. Syst. 17(4):279-288.
  3. Tiira, K, Sulkama, S, Lohi ,H. 2016. Prevalence, comorbidity, and behavioral variation in canine anxiety. J. Vet. Behav. 16:36-44.
  4. Miguel Ibáñez Tn, Bernadette Anzola D. Anxiety Disorders in Dogs. In: Vladimir K, ed. Anxiety Disorders. Rijeka: IntechOpen; 2011:Ch. 14.
  5. Brousset, D, Galindo, F, Valdez, P, Romano, M, Schuneman, A. 2005. Cortisol en saliva, orina y heces: Evaluación no invasiva en mamíferos silvestres. Vet. México. 36(3):325-337.
  6. Vermeire, ST, Audenaert, KR, Dobbeleir, AA, De Meester, RH, De Vos, FJ, Peremans, KY. 2009. Evaluation of the brain 5-HT2A receptor binding index in dogs with anxiety disorders, measured with 123I-5I-R91150 and SPECT. J. Nucl. Med. 50(2):284-289.
  7. Sherman, BL, Mills ,DS. 2008. Canine anxieties and phobias: An update on separation anxiety and noise aversions. Vet. Clin. N. Am. Small Anim. Pract. 38(5):1081-1106, vii.
  8. Overall, KL, Dunham, AE, Frank, D. 2001. Frequency of nonspecific clinical signs in dogs with separation anxiety, thunderstorm phobia, and noise phobia, alone or in combination. J. Am. Vet. Med. Assoc. 219(4):467-473.
  9. Overall KL. Clinical behavioral medicine for small animals. Mosby-Year Book, Inc.; 1997.
  10. Pageat P. Patología del comportamiento del perro. Pulso Ediciones; 2000.
  11. Gobbo, E, Zupan, M. 2020. Dogs’ sociability, owners’ neuroticism and attachment style to pets as predictors of dog aggression. Anim. 10(2). doi:10.3390/ani10020315.
  12. Dodman NH, Shuster L. Psychopharmacology of animal behavior disorders. 1998. Blackwell Science.
  13. Landsberg G, Hunthausen W, Ackerman L. Behavior problems of the dog and cat. Elsevier Health Sciences; 2011.
  14. Dantzer, R, Mormède, P. 1985. Stress in domestic animals: A psychoneuroendocrine approach. Anim. Stress. 81-95.
  15. Mason, GJ. 1991. Stereotypies: A critical review. Anim. Behav. 41(6):1015-1037.

 

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About the Author

Dr. Sydney McCauley is a Board-Certified Companion Animal Nutritionist and earned both her bachelor’s and doctoral degrees at Virginia Tech in Animal and Poultry Sciences. McCauley’s research was in nutritional physiology with a focus on understanding the effects of low birth weight on glucose, fatty acid, carbohydrate, and amino acid metabolism in skeletal muscle and overall metabolic homeostasis during neonatal development.

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