Dog Anxiety // We Can Do Better

We love our dogs. We love having them with us in our homes and towns.

However, several things about our human environments can cause trigger anxiety with the animals we love. As we have moved to more urban areas, the genetics of dogs have not had much time to adjust to the sights, sounds, and smells we take for granted. Let alone the normal anxious experiences like visiting the veterinarian's office.

For example, from your dog's Point of View 

• With much more sensitive hearing, imagine what all of these new, novel gadgets we have around our lives sound like (whine of EV, Roomba)
• Imagine your loved one sometimes being gone, sometimes being home, but with very little consistency, like what happened for many our dogs with mixed WFH during the pandemic

The human world was designed for humans. It wasn’t designed for our furry friends and how they view the world with the limited context they have. 

We are excited to help. 

In recognition of Dog Anxiety Week, we are doing a mini-series of posts to talk about this over the next few days, along with our advisor Marty Becker, DVM @ Fear Free. 

We’ll start with three over-arching points before diving into specifics in later posts

1. In-home enrichment lowers anxiety. At worst, it helps dogs expend energy and keeps dogs from using that same energy for destruction. At best, it provides engrossing engagement that mimics natural drives 
2. Practicing basic obedience behaviors is proven to lower household – dog AND human – anxiety. It improves communication, which intuitively lowers anxiety among all parties within a household 
3. Early evidence shows that devices like Companion might be powerful in tools for helping combat more acute anxieties like separation anxiety, afflicting 10Ms of dogs in the US. In one of the few items Companion made public before launch, the team captured a case study of one of the rapid turnarounds of a severely afflicted dog (and pet parents) we witnessed. You can find the published study here.

More to come!

Sincerely,

John @ Companion and Dr. Marty Becker @ Fear Free, LLC