Why does my pet do that?
Like humans, many pets will experience anxiety at some point in their lives and understanding what triggers behaviour is the fi rst step in helping your pet and family have a stress-free life.
A trigger is a stimulus that sets off an instinctive positive or negative emotion that prompts a reaction. It tells us to be prepared because something uncomfortable, scary, interesting or exciting is about to happen. Intense or erratic behaviour is nature’s way of giving a warning sign that something is out of balance, so should never be ignored.
When animals respond to a trigger, the thinking brain gives way to an emotion, learned behaviour is gone, and your pet acts instinctively, absorbed by the moment, no longer hearing or noticing anything else.
To control undesirable triggers, it’s important to know the pet’s threshold and to pay attention to your pet’s body language. Knowing when your pet is about to get excited, uncomfortable or scared can help you work on avoiding, desensitising or counterconditioning triggers to the point where the trigger is removed or results in a different emotional response from the pet.
Triggers can be a good or bad, for example the sound of car keys may make a dog very happy and come quickly if they associate keys with going to the beach or very unhappy and retreat, if they associate keys with being left home alone.
Triggers can also be obvious, like the car keys or thunder, or subtle reasons for a change in behaviour. This requires a thorough investigation to establish socialisation, physical, mental, emotional, environmental and situational factors, negative experiences and most importantly, what changes have occurred.
Pets are creatures of habit, so change is very unsettling and frequently the cause of misdirected energy resulting in uncharacteristic behaviour. Mood can be affected by illness, injuries, aging (eyesight, arthritis, teeth), changes in eating habits, type of food or medications.
Also, ask questions like:
are exercising, playing, cuddling and sleeping habits the same and enough?
have there been any changes of ownership? House moves?
have adult, babies, children or animals been added to or subtracted from the household?
is there any tension in the house? Are pets receiving more or less attention?
are there new animals in the neighbourhood or pack?
are they sharing a life with or limited by an animal that has aged or become more vulnerable? Has the human or animal’s daily routine changed?
By asking these and more questions, we can identify potential reasons for the development of triggers, habits and behaviour patterns and work with our pets to create a stress-free life.