DOGS, CATS AND OTHER PETS CAN GET ANXIETY – AND IT’S USUALLY NOT THE OWNER’S FAULT

When Tian Chee Lu adopted elderly rescue dogs Max and Chopper during one of Melbourne’s lengthy COVID-19 lockdowns, the positive mental health impact was instant.

“You come home from a bad day and they comfort you. All they want is cuddles and love,” Ms Lu said.

But within weeks of the adoption, she noticed Chopper was not coping.

“She was really anxious around other dogs,” she said.

“The moment Chopper saw any other dog… she would beeline for them and then she’d react, bark at them, and run away.”

Ms Lu took Chopper to see veterinary psychiatrist Jacqui Ley, who diagnosed her with an anxiety disorder.

As in humans, anxiety is a natural emotion. But roughly one in five dogs have an anxiety problem, Dr Ley said.

Some anxiety symptoms in dogs are similar to human anxiety, for example, elevated heart rate and blood pressure.

There are also behavioural signs, which vary, but often include hypervigilance, restlessness, pacing, aggression, trembling, panting, excessive grooming and barking or howling.

“For animals with anxiety disorders, they will display these behaviours in situations that are not necessarily anxiety-provoking,” Dr Ley said.

But a dog displaying symptoms of anxiety does not necessarily have an anxiety disorder.

“We see a lot of anxious behaviour in dogs that are experiencing pain, especially low-grade chronic pain,” Dr Ley said.

She said it was important that concerned dog owners see their veterinarian to rule out other health issues.

Do anxious humans lead to anxious dogs?

Research suggests dogs can pick up on chronic anxiety and stress in humans and experience correspondingly elevated stress hormones.

But Dr Ley said that does not mean owners are passing on their own issues to their dogs.

“If you have two anxious individuals together, they will tend to ping off each other … but you can’t make a neurotypical animal anxious without working incredibly hard at it”.

While the causes of dog anxiety are still not fully understood, genetic and environmental factors, as well as trauma, can contribute.

Environmental factors can include a lack of routine, punishment-based training methods, excessive noise and disruption, as well anything else that hinders a dog from getting its basic needs met.

“That can be really confusing for them and that can be anxiety-provoking,” Dr Ley said.

A lack of training, however, is not a cause of dog anxiety.

“A lot of people are told that you haven’t trained your dog right — you’ve let your dog sleep on the bed, on the couch … but none of that plays a role,” Dr Ley said.

“If the dog has a problem, the dog has a problem. Just like if the dog has diabetes, the dog has a pancreas that’s not working properly.

Pet anxiety often treated the same way as humans

But it is not just dogs. Cats and other pets — including birds, lizards, turtles, rabbits, and snakes — can also get anxiety disorders.

But anxiety does look different from species to species.

“There’s a number of animals out there whose anxiety disorder is not being picked up because they’re not actually showing it to people,” Dr Leys said.

Cats are one example. Already secretive by nature, cat anxiety often manifests in hiding behaviours or in spraying or urine marking around the house.

Treating anxiety, though, is similar for most pets.

“They need to be diagnosed and treated just like any other health problem,” Dr Ley said.

Many dogs and cats are prescribed the same anti-anxiety medications that humans take, most commonly antidepressants.

“Just like in people, there are some who do need the full gamut … they need medication, they may need time out from their world, and they need therapy to help them learn how to cope,” Dr Ley said.

While Australian data is limited, American surveys suggest around 8 per cent of dog owners in the US give their dogs anti-anxiety medications.

Mindfulness minus the yoga mat can help dogs

Chopper has now been seeing Dr Ley for six months for her anxiety. Her treatment has included medication, relaxation techniques, and behavioural exercises.

“[The treatment] has really focused on building a better bond between me and Chopper, so she can trust me to decide for her whether a situation is threatening or not,” Ms Lu said.

“That means that if I do find myself rounding a corner face-to-face with another dog, I have certain things that I can do or use to get her attention back and calm her down.”

Relaxation techniques are a key part of treating anxiety in dogs, but they do not resemble the mindfulness exercises a human might try, Dr Ley said.

“We can’t say to them, ‘take a deep breath and count to five’. So what we actually do is, we ask them to do something that’s very simple,” she said.

“[We] ask them to sit, look and stay, and we give them a little reward for doing each of those things … and then we repeat.”

This repetition helps the dog relax, as well as strengthens the bond with its owner.

Ms Lu said Chopper was now much calmer, although she still does not get along with all dogs.

“But when we see dogs on the road, she’s much less reactive and much more under control,” she said.

“She’s a lot happier. I think she’s got more time to enjoy the little things in life.”