Is your dog acting oddly, acting up, clingy, distant, or plain not themselves?

Is there something off you can’t put your finger on?

Or is your dog, new or old, hard to work out how they are feeling but whatever it is, your gut is telling you it’s not good?

Or even that you want to learn how to prevent stress in your dog before it gets bad… Maybe thinking about your dog this way will help.

Now's the time to learn about 'stress buckets'!

The 'stress bucket' is an interactive mental health calculator developed for dogs.

It name came from something called a ‘stress vulnerability model’, first used in human therapy. When someone gets to a crisis level of stress in their lives, or when someone seems extra prone to getting stressed out so badly it interferes with their quality of life that’s when this ‘bucket’ is full to overflowing. Other names for it are an ‘emotional bucket’ or ‘trigger stacking’, where usually bad experiences pile or stack on top of each other with no let up or release.

The ‘bucket’ fills up with ‘water’ (good and bad feelings/ excitement/ stress) that represents all their worries and negative thoughts as well as happy and positive thoughts. Whichever ones are in there, the problems begin when they can’t ‘empty it’ fast enough- or if they’re struggling badly, at all without outside help of some kind. If they don’t get some sort of help or support to empty the bucket then it will overflow maybe even permanently, and a mental health crisis could result because they feel like they are drowning.

When the bucket is light, everything else happening around you is so much easier to cope with.

But the bucket is always filling up. So it will need emptying for your life to feel worth living. Because you (and your dog) are living things, experiencing good and bad things every day. A little bit of water is fine. It’s actually normal. But it’s never good to be carrying a full bucket round all day.

The bucket way of thinking about feelings can be used by anyone, as a simple mental health assessment tool, one of many out there.

One in four people can have mental health issues in their lives and there is nothing to be ashamed of. And one in ten dogs can also suffer the same problem. We, as their humans, have to help them as they can’t tell us what’s wrong.

Even better, understanding your own stress bucket can help any dog adopter to help their dogs- and it’s another way of looking at how life impacts on us in ways which may lead to mental ill health. In humans the stress bucket can look a bit like this

On our website FAQS we talk about squashing up a squeaky dog toy with all your force in your hands, and noticing how it squeals and how long it takes to get back to normal shape and size, and fully inflated ready to be played with (again). This is used to help people try and understand what it’s like to be a stressed dog newly arrived in your home, while they are doing something called decompressing, as we talk about here in this blog, where that squeaky toy is very slowly re-inflating. This takes time, and the dogs must have time to do it. (And so do you! You need to get used to the new dog in the house as well, no matter how much you’ve been looking forward to them coming home!)

When your dog is new, both you and the dog are stressed! You’ve been through a rigorous adoption process, and often have waited days for the Happy Bus if direct adopting. Both of your buckets will be full when they first land in your home!

So the ‘stress bucket’ is a way to understand our and our dogs’ emotions better. And it shows us a long term trick to keep our dogs happy and healthy and we may well learn something about ourselves along the way!

HOW CAN WE USE THIS BUCKET IDEA THINGY FOR DOGS?

In dogs, being mammals like us, expressions or actions going from being stressed can be similar but not identical. They can’t let off steam with a night out at the pub with alcohol, only to suffer a hangover in the morning for example. But they can make ‘bad choices’ too when stressed, just like us.

Their bucket looks a bit like this, but of course it can vary from dog to dog just like different humans reacting to the same stress.

And one of the main stressors for dogs is, believe it or not, is

too many walks

or too often, or too soon after they first arrive in your home!

Any of our dogs MUST be in DEFRA approved quarantine situation for the first 48 hours anyway (this can be done in your home supervised by us), where the dog MUST NOT leave the property boundary for ANY reason apart from a medical emergency, and NEVER left unsupervised) but we see all the time adopters with other rescues taking the dogs out the day after they arrive! Then you see posts about dogs slipping the lead, ending up under a bus, drowning, and more, because they’re scared to death already, their bucket is full, and the adopter tried to introduce a massive new world to them before they even worked out what a house was, what their name was, or even understand English! Or the rescue is using a dodgy transport who won’t drop to your home, and the dog does a runner while it is being moved to the adopter’s car because the poor dog has been expected to walk across a motorway service station car park full of noise, strange vehicles and smells, and new people, after being on a Happy Bus for three days. Even the short journey, often in a new car (we prefer the foster takes them home as it's less stressful) between homes in the UK for our dogs in foster can take days to process and move past.

However walks of any length, no matter how lying you have had your dog, done when you want to but rarely if ever when they want to or ask will be causing them physical stress on their joints (especially if a long walk in all weathers or one that is not breed appropriate) and mental stress as they simply don’t want to go...

but

they like being with you so see it as the price they pay for having some quality time with you.

Yet many adopters insist their dog loves all walks, every time. And many do, at least most of the time!

The key is being able to

tell the difference between an excited dog and a stressed dog

and both emotions in a dog are expressed in a very similar way-

(Micro (tiny) expressions)

face,

mouth,

ears,

tail,

(Macro (big) expressions)

all over body language.

The pressures of living In the modern world can be stressful for our dogs as well as us without us not knowing what they really like! And even over the past five years new rules and laws have come in in the UK that make ‘owning’ a dog a very different proposition if you’ve not had one for a while. There’s far more noise, there are far more rules on walking them in public (for example did you know it’s now illegal to walk your dog offlead in a cemetery? You can be fined £80 the first time and £1000 for repeat offences), like ID tags, being on the lead, and travelling in a vehicle. There are new rules on how long you can leave them alone at home, and crate them (we are a no crate rescue) than when you may have had a dog last. And, just like us humans, how our dogs cope with these ‘everyday things’ differs from individual to individual.

As we’ve said in many blogs, something we hear a lot is

“Why is my dog reacting out of nowhere to something?”

It’s never out of nowhere. You’ve just not seen the signs and that’s ok, this blog-in fact, all our blogs!- hopefully will help you start seeing the signs to help your dog!

The other is

“How come they’re fine with [whatever is it, a visitor, a walk, a package delivery] one day and not the the next?”

It can be difficult to understand why a dog appears to cope with something one day, but not the next.

So the ‘stress bucket’ is one of way explaining this build up of tension in your dog, or you. The day they were ok with it, their bucket was light. The day they couldn’t cope, it was too full. Simple as that.

WHAT COULD MAKE IT MORE LIKELY FOR MY DOG’S BUCKET TO BE FULL OR FILL MORE EASILY?

To work out what level your dog’s bucket is at ‘normally’ you should take into account

genes (breed mix)
early environment and primary human and dog carers
learning history/socialisation
life experience- as there been abuse? Did they spend a long time in a shelter before you adopted them?
and overall physical and mental health- dogs in pain will get stressed much more quickly

If they are used to having quite a full bucket due to past distressing abusive memories- we at Lora’s Luck call this Canine Transfer Shock- where another human gets the backlash from remembered trauma or ‘very bad times’’.

Do you recognise any of these behaviours below in your or your dog?

If so, you both need a break and a reboot. The rescue is always happy to advise on this in your Adopter Support Portal in Skype.

However, if they are used to having or starting with a fuller than is healthy (for them) bucket every day usually due to bad socialisation (see pic below)-

taken from the mum too soon,

or gone from a bustling shelter to a quiet solo dog home, or a lot more humans about than they are used to, or vice versa
or they are missing their previous human carers or doggy friends/siblings,
or had been the street/ abandoned/ not in a social group of dogs and humans before being rescued
or other (new) home set up they are struggling to make sense of-

then they, and you, can get reactive with each other. If your dog is doing this, and you’ve ruled out (past) abuse, then you may have unlocked a clue about a possible reason for your dog’s actions. This can happen when you don’t know all the background of the dog.

Before they came to the rescue, what might they have gone through?

So hopefully it’s clear now that the water in the bucket is a combination of all the stressors/triggers, ‘good’ or ‘bad’ in your or your dog’s life. Every dog’s bucket will have a little bit of water in it, as some stress is normal in all living things. In our blog ‘What is my dog trying to tell me?’ we talk about the full definition of stress in more detail, so check that out!

The two important things to remember are

Some stress is normal- it helps us decide what to do, what is safer etc
There are two types of stress- ‘happy stress’ (eustress) which we know as excitement and ‘unhappy stress’ which we know better as distress.

It doesn’t help that for both types of stress dogs use very similar body language to show us things they feel every day, so think-

Are they really jumping for ‘joy’, or are they stressed and anxious when they see you after you’ve been away from them for a while? (If they don't calm in a few minutes, it's likely the second one.)

Do they really ‘love us’ the minute they come home with us (no!) or are they being clingy and fear bonding (it’s the second one!)?

And if you’re wondering if your dog is feeling bad or not, if they're in a healthy relationship with you or not, take a look at our Monobonding Model, developed by one of our rescue behaviourists. Follow the arrows round the diagram, starting with a behaviour you recognise- are you and your dog doing any of this?

This is where a dog zones in on a single human family member,(and often ignores or defends against others) in a good or bad way. ‘Mono’ bond means ‘single’ bond and it’s not natural or good for a dog’s mental health to only like’ one human.

Round and round the cycle of insecurity,

frustration,

too much/not enough attention or attention at the wrong time,

and misunderstanding each other

until the human gets defensive and the dog gets reactive (or vice versa!)

Dogs must get socialised with other humans and dogs for a full rich mentally happy life. This condition is part of the Animal Welfare Act for a reason. And we always ask in a solo dog adoption for that dog to continue with the socialising we started- regular waking or visiting buddies (whichever your dog seems to like best, start there), maybe doggy day care, dog walkers and so on. Always check reviews and credentials of such people and places though.

If your dog has fear or monobonded to you, you end up going round in circles, getting frustrated with each other. It often doesn’t end well for the dog or the humans, so the sooner you realise your pup is badly stressed, the quicker you can solve it!

So just like in humans, every time your dog experiences something that stresses them out, their bucket begins to fill. If your dog has no way of coping with or processing each event, or way to release the tension, their bucket will soon become full, and overflow.

It’s at this point that anything will make them reactive.

Therefore it isn’t out of nowhere. Dogs only do this if their low level stress signals (panting, licking yawning, turning away etc) are accidentally or purposefully ignored by their humans, The final straw or drop of water in the bucket could be a totally new experience or one experience too many in too short a space of time, like a walk and a trip to see friends or family, then out for a meal; then yet another walk. On this last walk they get dirty so you decide to bath them. They can’t cope and try to run or lash out. Suddenly they’re an 'aggressive' dog and not to be ‘trusted round the kids’… 🙄🙄🙄

Dogs are never 100% safe, any more than humans are, (maybe more than humans are safe though!!) and if you get a dog thinking they are 100% safe (if got from 8 weeks old, or bought from a breeder for example) are you have no business having one. It’s meant to be a cooperative relationship you have with a dog not you have all the power and they are a well behaved cushion in the corner, always eager to play or go out on a walk with you.

This is not normal. How full is this poor Collie’s stress bucket? What has she gone through to need a muzzle and chain in the bath? Does your groomer do this (it’s very common)? No wonder they don’t want to go…

This is a human’s idea of nice day ending with a soak in the tub; rarely a dog’s. Only bath a dog when they’ve rolled in something awful and never more than six times in a year unless their breed mix needs it more often, they’re a working dog or they’re mud wallowers- even then try and get as much off as you can with warm water, and not use shampoo every time.

Some breed mixes are water aversive as well, like Chis, Yorkshire Terriers, Pugs, Shih Tzus, Boxers, Poms and more. The flatter nosed dogs (posh term is brachycephalic) do tend to struggle more with activities like swimming due to genetic breathing difficulties and can often fear the water.

Of course there are some exceptions to every ‘doggy rule’! Retrievers are gun dogs but some hate water and the sound of weapons being fired, so get sold to adopters as pets because they failed gun dog tests, then they go into a home full of strange new activity and screaming kids due to their reputation well earned of having solid characters- the dog is going to snap, ‘out of nowhere’…

And sighthounds like greyhounds and whippets, Salukis and Dobermans, and lurchers’ chests are usually far too deep to make swimming easy or safe, but some will skip over the water like a stone or at the least, enjoy a good paddle. But sudden movements will rapidly fill their stress bucket, with excitement and stress, because of how we bred them- they may suddenly chase something with little warning in body language and that something could be a bird, squirrel… or small dog making high yips. To sighthounds, squeals like that mean prey and instincts can take over.

Here is a sighthound breed of dog focused on scent.

Smell is how your dog makes sense of the world so let them have at least some sniffing time, then back to controlled walking so they have time to process all those smells and focus on you for a bit instead, on a walk!

But no matter the breed mix, if your dog’s bucket is full, they have not had time between each different environment or experience to get settled when you up and move somewhere or something else.

Often, when a dog seems to cope fine with something one day and not the next, it is down to how full their ‘stress bucket’ is on that particular day. Never forget your dog’s bucket (and yours!) is always filling up, it begins every day from the minute you wake up in your home and their bucket may already be half-full or worse before you leave for that walk, visit somewhere else or try out a new experience with your dog.

HOW CAN I KEEP THE WATER LOW AND HAPPY IN MY DOG’S BUCKET?

Get out a notepad or your device that has a note taking app on it. You can write them by hand, type them out or make voice notes, and make a list of the activities and things (‘good stuff’) that your dog seems to enjoy in life (you can usually tell because they choose to to do it themselves, even if it’s something that annoys you, like sock stealing!) and a separate list of all the things your dog finds stressful and scary (‘bad stuff’). This could take a couple of weeks as you do all these activities with your dog, and take notes

Play- do they want to engage or do they turn away or act surprised you want to play
Go on walks- do they run up to, hide from or ignore dogs and humans you encounter?
Visit people- where do they lie, in the middle of everything or right away from all the new noise? Do they pant, yawn or sleep more than usual?
Get groomed or have a bath- do they turn away, shake, bite the tools, or run?
Go to new or very busy places- do they bow their heads, move away of someone tries to fuss them?
Meet other dogs and pets- do they immediately want to bounce and play in every circumstance? Do they stop and rest or keep playing? Or do they cling to you and avoid going down to the other animals’ level to engage?

and more, with your dog. You may find their behaviour improving as you spend more quality time on their terms with your dog- like we suggest in our play blogs here and here - while you’re doing this! It doesn’t mean their ‘problems’ are over and you can stop though. You should do things with your dog every day, a combination of what you and they like to do. The bucket is still always filling up.

By the way, if you answered yes to any of these questions, and no to whether they stop and rest during play (play blog) your dog’s bucket is too full at that time, and possibly too full all the time.

Managing your dog’s stress bucket is a balancing act but you don’t want to keep those scales level.

You want more of the ‘good stuff’ or eustress going into the bucket, as it this releases the stress built up by the ‘bad stuff’ or distress.

If your dog experiences too much ‘bad stuff’, their bucket will soon be very full at the start of every day, which messes with their coping mechanisms and how long they take to calm down after they got stressed.

If for reasons out of anyone’s control you or your dog have a bad day, you will all need some quiet time to process and make sense of it. Accidents happen, bad days happen, it’s how you make peace with them the best you can that counts. Sometimes you only get over it a little bit at a time, or never quite get over it, and that’s ok. Sometimes this stuff takes time. For you and your dog.

So as you can see, in dogs, being mammals like us, it is similar to how we get depressed but not identical. They don’t let off steam with a night out at the pub with alcohol for example. Or binge watch on Netflix so much because they can’t wind down from work they end up oversleeping (again) and being late for work, which fills the bucket up again. But dogs can make ‘bad choices’ too when stressed, just like us, denoting on how full their bucket was at the time. How the bucket fills up looks a bit like this:

It can take three days and more to get over what we see as ‘ordinary events’ like a walk, vet appointment, social visit, or lots of experiences crammed in one day. Short experiences like walks can take the rest of the day to process, so it’s far healthier to let them sleep after a walk, and not introduce more activities for a while that day, even leave it till tomorrow if the dog isn’t reviving its energy levels.

WHAT SORTS OF THINGS FILL THE BUCKET FAST? (‘Good’ and bad’)

We’ve mentioned some already like new places and experiences, or too many changes of routine in a day, but others that can bring on excitement and stress at the same time are or can be

a trip to the vet (even if your dog loves going it still fills the bucket fast)
Car rides especially in crates (some dogs like the security of them, most don’t)
Lots of sensory stuff going on they’re not used to/as much- (new) noises/ visitors/ smells/ places
playing games (with you or other dogs) that involve a lot of movement, like throwing a toy ball or stick- you could get them used to this excitement build up by throwing their mooring treat for them to catch or rummage around for, and not just asking them to sit for it.
Seasonal big changes involving new noises and smells, for example, Bonfire Night, Diwali, and New Year celebrations. The noise and smell of fireworks as well as the flashing lights cause many dogs great distress as well as wildlife.
Weather changes- dogs sense this well before we do and if they react to extreme weather like thunderstorms, can often start anxiety body language long before you hear or see anything. But any change in air pressure bringing different weather, from hot to cold, from wet to dry, can and will affect you dog. They can get moody, refuse to toilet outside or walk. Some; whether it’s today’s forecast or something that only happens at certain times of year; get so bad they can’t stop shaking, circling, panting and excessively drinking or losing their appetite, or worse. Dogs have been known to die of fright if they are too stressed. But even if they are showing no obvious signs, their stress bucket will fill up, so make sure they have lots of nice things (comfort toys, small treat selection- IF they sit or other basic command, which can distract them from being stressed- background/white noise/ classical/ meditation or nature audios and video), and the option not to engage in any of these nice things if al they want to do is go off by themselves or sleep, to balance out that stress with some happy thoughts.
Too many of these experiences in one day with no ‘day off’ in a safe space from it in between!!!
Fussing them whether they’re asleep or asking for fuss, fussing them in body areas they don’t like (distress), or that get them super excited (eustress), or fussing them too hard… which leads on to…
YOU. Sadly, one of the most common causes of fast stress build up in a dog is their humans. This human caused dog stress is called ‘poisoned cues’- we hope do a blog on this soon but in the meantime, it’s super well explained here. And we have talked in other blogs about whether we ever do anything with our dogs when they want to or is it all on our terms, and if we do, how to change that, in our toys and play blogs among others.

Stress can cause loss of appetite to the point of anorexia, But regardless of why they’re not eating, loss of appetite can have a serious impact on an animal’s health if it lasts 24 hours or more. Very young animals (less than 6 months of age) are particularly prone to the problems brought on by loss of appetite.

Expecting dogs to learn things that you like doing at your pace and not seeing or ignoring their worried body language really fills their stress bucket because they want to please and obey you but you’re making it really hard, ever impossible to do, which causes them mental pain.

This dog is ‘asking’ you for something. Don’t assume it’s a treat, fuss or the loo. They might not understand what you’re saying, but they’re listening really hard to work it out! Help them understand by exaggerating your facial expressions and slow arm gestures when you teach them or show them something new, so they can associate your body language to the action as that’s how they go through life.

When your dog’s bucket is close to full, any interaction, with positive or negative ‘water’, the very next, tiny thing that happens can prove to be the one that makes the bucket overflow, and that is when your dog has a major problem.

Your dog is here. How are you going to help him rip up this sign?

WHAT THINGS MIGHT MY DOG DO WHEN THEIR BUCKET IS FULL?

Really, it’s what you should do if you’re worried your dog is stressed. Start really watching them for something we call low level stress signals.

Look at the FACE- what is different to usual?

EARS

up or down from normal? Forward or back?

MOUTH

open or closed?

Tongue out or not?

Panting, yawning or licking when not tired or hot?

EYES

Whites of eyes showing? Wider than usual pupils when it’s full daylight?

Do they look like they have ‘bags’ under the eyes, squinting or frowning (they copy OUR faces for these expressions and do not do them half as much around other dogs)

Think of how your dog usually is, and look at the

BODY:

TAIL-

up or down (from normal)?

Wagging fast or slowly?

Stiff or loose?

BODY and LEGS

STIFF or LOOSE

Leaning FORWARD or BACK?

Shaking?

Licking or chewing themselves?

FUR

Have they been moulting a lot more than usual?

For more signs click here.

Over time you might notice things like

TOILETING

Does it seems like they’ve forgotten their toilet training? Have they been going to funny places or in the house when they have access to outside? (Also could be protesting a situation you put them in from which they felt they couldn’t escape, or not wanting to get wet when they go to the loo in the rain)

CHEWING

Either themselves, till they draw blood, or things they shouldn’t, especially things you use a lot like a tablet, slippers, remote control and the like.

All these little signs will usually combine into what humans see as “problem behaviours” like:

Pulling on the lead past the first minute or so of excitement ‘joy’, and increasing the pull to go and ‘greet’ any/all the humans and other dogs they encounter when out which can lead to
Lunging (if you don’t work out the best way to introduce your dog to all these fascinating things!) which is not a sign of ‘aggression’, it’s fear and stress, or even overexcitement which gives off the same body language. More on this check our our ‘lunging’ blog
Barking when it’s not needed in your opinion- are they copying another dog even when they don’t know what the alert is, are they a drama queen, or trying to get your attention with negative behaviour, or could simply be the breed(s) of dog you have. Some have been bred by humans to be noisy!
Lacking focus/ ‘forgetting’ well learned training from you when it’s needed- like crossing the road, getting in and out of vehicles, recalling when offlead in safe spaces
Constant on-alert sniffing the air and floor even round the home (have you changed your washing powder? Air freshener? Got a new plant? Decorated?) and even on very familiar walks (have they cut some trees back, have other dogs ‘been’ there and marked the ground?)
Disengaging from their humans, turning away, wanting more time in another room or in the garden away from the family unit than usual, not doing simple commands like sit.
Jumping up any/every other dog and human unasked when out or when visitors come

Here are some (more) common behaviours that you can watch out for too:

NOTE: We prefer the terms ‘fear reactivity’ or ‘stress reactivity’ or even ‘anger reactivity’ to ‘aggression’. Dogs react, they rarely start the issue unless past abuse has made them extra jumpy. But this is a good starting point, as these behaviours can creep up on you without realising! One or two of these, and the dog soon gives up and resets, there’s no issue. But these behaviours in COMBINATION, and when they won’t or can’t seem to stop them, that’s when it’s (or past!) time for the human to step up and get your happy doggy back!

As soon as you think ‘we have a problem here’ what you’re actually saying is ‘my dog’s bucket is full, and so is mine!’

Some of these behaviours aren’t actually a problem at all, in context, but society expects dogs to be perfectly behaved in every situation due to some weird sort of magical human bond where a dog reads human intention and acts on it with no training, so when they do get a bit excited, it’s the humans that can be the problem-

letting dogs off without recall training
expecting them to cross roads or other hazards like stiles, gates, bridges etc with no training
scooping up your dog or hard yanking on the lead to pull them away every time a ‘hazard’ like a human or other dog comes along
Starting training but when the dog seems to ‘get’ it, stop reinforcing it, or move through other training too fast, so it’s not second nature to them. Not knowing what to do stresses them out and fills that bucket in seconds.
or not letting them sniff the same blade of grass for ten minutes!

(OK, so maybe move them on before 10 minutes, but if a dog’s walk is just being dragged past all the smells with a tug on the lead because you only have 20 minutes before work and you need to get them round the park so they don’t chew your couch when you’re out, they don’t process their environment properly and get very stressed indeed. So they are far more likely to chew, you’re more likely to get angry, and the cycle of frustration and reaction of Canine Transfer Shock begins.)

DID THEIR SNAP REALLY ‘COME OUT OF NOWHERE’?

We said ‘no, never,’ in our aggression blog, and the stress bucket backs this up. So no, ‘bad behaviour’ never comes out of nowhere- not if you use the bucket theory. Their bucket was already too full and the events of the day, or previous days just bubbled over, which needed to be urgently released.

The problem can be though that we do not know that the dog’s bucket is close to overflowing. We take them out for a walk, thinking that they are nice and calm, then with no warning you’ve seen - BAM - they are barking and lunging and whirling about at the end of the lead. Or snapping at you and pushing you away.

And they won’t listen to you and calm down- they don’t trust you’ll help them as you missed all their little signals so coming to you for help is against their first instinct at this point.

Take your dog gently home or out of the room immediately, or as soon as it's possible- but don't rush too much. Try not to have a lead too tight as they will sense your stress too. Or if they’re stressed at you, you leave them alone as soon as possible once they’re home if you were out, or another room if something stressful happened indoors, in a safe space like a bed or on/under a blanket they know is only theirs. They can’t cope any more, it hits them like a panic attack, so help them out! And once they’re settled in their safe space and left alone for minimum three times the length of time you were out for including travel, have a think of the events of the past week and particularly the last 72 hours. When you look back over the last couple of days, and list all the stuff you’ve been doing, it could end up longer than you thought!

What might have happened lately? Here’s a sample list of a typical human and dog week (from the stressed dog’s point of view):

She needed to go to the groomers which she finds stressful and you ‘made up for it’ by a trip to the exciting but busy dog friendly cafe to get her a puppacino, not going home for a sleep and a reboot
She had a long happy run in the play park with her buddies and met a new dog
You needed to get some plumbing fixed and get some workmen in, she was fascinated by it all but the noise got a bit much
The grandchildren visited last weekend - and your pup adores them, and plays all day with them.
You were very late home from work one day because of an accident on the by pass, and came in the door so stressed you didn’t do your welcome routine with her

Sounds quite stressful already doesn’t it? Lots of extra noise, some new some familiar, new dogs in her routine and breaks in her routine… and given a treat in a busy cafe when she was already overwhelmed and worried by the groomer visit! Then there are other things that dogs pick up on, to which us humans are usually oblivious! For example

your new oven makes a sound that your dog finds worrying and puts them on edge when they have to go into or through the kitchen for meals and the loo. They may not want to go, or pick over their tea when usually they’re enthusiastic, and you half noticed it but couldn’t work out why…
There was an odd new smell on your walk yesterday but you didn’t have time for her to stop and sniff at ‘everything’ so you pulled her away from it right away despite the fact she was unusually fixed on it. You just figured it was fox scat or something… and maybe it was. But she didn’t get chance to file the smell and it’s been niggling at her. Even worse, you’ve not been on that walk since as you only do that one if there’s only time for a short walk- her other walks were long but familiar.
Heavy rain that has been falling with little break for two days, and it’s amplifying all the noises in the garden, on the car roof, in the porch or conservatory to a level your dog finds uncomfortable and stressful. What’s a pain for you (can’t mow the lawn, that shopping trip is delayed, the rug in the hall gets muddy) is like banging drums in your dog’s head!

Long list isn’t it? When did they get the time to process all this unusual activity, or activity with no breaks? All of these things have filled your dog’s bucket, and they may show unsettled behaviour- not being able to sleep, whining or pawing at you and so on- which you think is them asking for a walk. So the lead comes out but the poor dog is already close to overload so if one thing on this walk happens, like someone beeping a horn, a door slamming or a sudden unexpected smell from a new cat in the road, reactive and unwanted behaviours are super likely to result.

It’s no wonder the dog cracked, and snapped at you, or another dog, or tried to bolt.

These are not behavioural or training issues, they are Stress Bucket issues.

And you won’t get the behaviour under control or the training (back) on track if you don’t empty their bucket and fill it with good times, however much you may feel like getting angry at finding yet another eaten shoe or piddle on the mat.

IS BEING MY DOG’S BOSS NOT A GOOD THING THEN?

Not 24/7 no.

Some give and take is necessary for a healthy relationship with your dog. So even if walking is your dog’s favourite thing to do in the whole world, sometimes it is just not what they need at that time. Living with a constantly full stress bucket is not just detrimental to your dog’s quality of life - it puts stress on your dog’s bodily systems that can negatively impact on their health which ultimately impacts on their lifespan- causing neurological issues that lead to physical and mental health problems. The stress levels if they never discharge them can and will shorten their lives. That is why managing their stress bucket is so important.

Sometimes your dog just needs a chance to relax and empty their stress bucket.

It can take up to 72 hours for your dog’s bucket to empty.

Bear that in mind if a particularly exciting event occurs, or if your dog has had a particularly high volume of smaller level excitements over the previous couple of days.

Don’t automatically reach for the lead. Think:

how does my dog react to walks in general? Do they find them generally positive or negative? Do they ever react negatively to parts of the getting ready routine- putting on collar, lead and harness, watching the human out their coat and shoes on? Maybe they have separation anxiety if so, and they go mad when they realise they’re going with you because they’re scared to be left.
how is my dog ‘looking’ right now? Calm, excited, nervous? If they are super excited, double check- a lot of this is stress but is it good or bad stress? If it’s ‘bad stress’ then bucket is already too full. Put the walk on hold for a bit, be prepared for this ‘reboot’ to take more than 5 or 10 minutes. Distract with a comfort toy like a teddy, any toy that usually relaxes your dog. If a blanket works, use that. Wait until they seem a lot more calm before you go out of the door.
what experiences has my dog had over the past couple of days that might have filled their bucket faster than they have been able to empty it? See above for possible examples of this.
what we as humans have done over the past couple of days that might or might not have emptied the bucket? Were they left alone after that walk or did well meaning visitors keep on going over and fussing your dog in their bed? (For example. Hint- don’t let anyone do this!)
what things might have happened that I haven’t noticed? We have to remember that our eyesight might be better than dogs, but their smell and hearing is far beyond ours. It’s often why they change body language long before you hear a thunderstorm coming.

And the big one:

Is going for this walk in my dog’s best interests?

If the answer is yes, awesome, head on out.

But if the answer is a resounding no, or you are not sure, sit it out. There’s always the chance of a walk another day, or a longer walk in their favourite place after they’ve processed.

WHAT CAN I DO WITH MY DOG TO PROCESS BETTER AND ENJOY WALKS MORE?

The more you know your dog, the more you’ll know if they really want a walk or to leave the home, aren’t fussed but just want to be with you, or really don’t want to go right now but are being obedient.

But what can we do if we don’t walk? Surely being bored at home at the absence of a walk cannot be good for your dog either?

To live a happy and fulfilled life dogs do need stimulation and enrichment. Exercise does of course meet that need, but it is not the only way of providing fun for your dog, to help them empty their stress bucket.

1. Playing games

This can be can be an effective way to provide both stimulation and enrichment when a walk isn’t the right thing that day for your dog.

We feel very strongly as a rescue that ‘good’ play is possible more vital even than walks to ensure good physical and mental health for your dog- ‘we’ can be part of a play engagement with our dogs with or without toys. One of our blogs, as we have said, goes into more depth on this.

This lower level engagement is sometimes all they need that day. But don’t go the other way! Too many toys to choose from, especially when they first arrive, can be just as detrimental to their mental health and ability to process in a health way the events of the day. Our blog here gives you handy hints and tips about toys and when to introduce them.

Choose games and activities that will help with emptying your dog’s stress bucket and with building concepts that will help them on their future walks- make putting on the harness fun but not too much fun else they have a full bucket with excitement. It’s great they’re happy but this can so easily flip to a distress response it’s much better to give them a while to calm down a little before you go. Distracting with a toy rather than a treat is usually better as giving them food brings other hormones into play that also overexcites a dog.

2. Calmness

Your state of mind is way more important than you might think. It is actually the key to emptying your dog’s bucket.

A study in a 2018 found that dogs respond to human faces that express six basic emotions— anger, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise, and disgust—with changes in their facial expressions and heart rate.

If you could make small changes in your actions that stop your dog feeling like this, wouldn’t you try them out?

Yes you are that important to them.

Would it really hurt to let your dog chill out and relax in a quiet space with a filled Kong or a chew instead of going for a walk that minute? Or digging at their snuffle mat? You can use those minutes to chill yourself out too, finish your cuppa, don’t rush around trying to find keys and poo bags. Or put their harnesses on and have quarter of an hour or so chill time, where you calmly do the leaving routines, or just sit back on the sofa (not fussing them up or playing) so they can calmly process that it's nearly walk time. Or have it all ready before so your going out prep routine is also calm and non threatening, and you’ll end up with a much happier, walk- ready dog- and adopter!

3. Smell and Noise

Try and ‘think more dog’ by taking smell and touch (with their noses, paws, tongues) into account as the primary sense, backed up by what they can hear before you introduce something, or something new, into your dog’s day. What they actually see comes last, naturally, just under or equal to sounds usually, as they actually rely on that sense the least comparatively (which is why often blind dogs can lead a happy and fulfilled life).

However, we bred dogs to see ‘better’ (more like us), to feel like us, and to hear and notice movement even better. So often breeding can go against ancient instincts in dogs, which causes them stress. We all knows dogs descended from wolves but when you’re faced with a puggle crying because they can’t get off the sofa, and their toy dropped off, it’s hard to remember this!

So think-did they start acting differently after coming back in from the garden after morning toilet? They may have sensed something was off, like bad weather coming or the smell (and sounds!) of grass being cut or work being done on someone’s home. Try and put 5 or 10 minutes aside to ‘go to dog level’ offering yourself as the comfort toy (not chewing you!). They’ll show excited language at first, but as you sit on the floor (or get lower generally if your mobility doesn’t allow floor sitting) neutrally, just being a ‘human cushion’, they will sense your calmness and copy you, often falling asleep after a few minutes. If they don’t calm, be prepared to cancel the walk for that day and use the time to engage with your dog another way. Even if it’s a sneaky nap together!

Sniffing is a huge stress reliever for dogs. They use smell to make sense of their entire world. So if today’s not walk day, you could try scatter feeding some small treats (or something like a filled hoof… but always supervised! Beware of choking hazards, or multiple dogs competing for them if you have more than one dog. They need to be trained to co-operate) on the grass in your garden, in a snuffle box or mat and the like, but can also provide gentle fun on days when walking is not an option.

4. Focus

A dog who is focused on you when out and about is not bothering about the teens hanging out on the green at the park or the new dog that has appeared round the corner. Your dog has you at the centre of their lives- take advantage of it! Get them to a point where they trust they can come to you no matter what. A good way to do this is start recalling all over the home and garden. Once your dog recalls from another room or the garden when you are in the house, that’s usually a good indicator they are generally walk ready, if they’re a new dog. For a dog who’s been with you a while, you can then help your dog avoid situations that might fill their Stress Bucket with distress by transferring their focus back to you. Here food can work as the strong hormones released by food are usually happy ones and can counter any build of distress.

One game you could try is ‘Magic Hand’ if your dog is food led. With small pieces of food in your hand, hold your hand above your dog’s head. When your dog looks at your hand (which they will! This is why pointing at things is not useful for a dog, they usually just look at your finger), gently let fall a piece of food from your hand for your dog to catch or rummage for in the grass. Don’t throw it as that builds up excitement more, makes them look away from you, and confuses the dog if they are used to balls and sticks being thrown. The dog is supposed to be calming down- this is currently their ‘job’.

Chasing a ball or stick is a different ‘job’ once they are calm on the walk, for an energy release, though some dogs can be quickly removed from the stressor by a long ball throw- they will forget about that dog and go after the ball. This would only work if they are ball focused, and if you can trust your aim to be accurate away from the stressor. Or you watch out for another dog nearby also chasing the ball, which could cause different issues. Ball focus is something that is common in Collie breeds for example.

But too much focus, like on a long lasting chew or toy, can make them stressed enough to resource guard if they’ve been going at it for half an hour or more. It’s not advised to just take a treat away from a dog, but sometimes they don’t want it right there and then but don’t have a cupboard to put it away in, so will stress out till you gently, with high positive tones, remove the item so they can calm down. Never do this with a dog you don’t know or if your dog is leaning forward or over it, or lying on it! Remove the stressors instead (other perts, kids, you!) Leave a nature (not animals) video on the TV, or meditation or classical music (most TVs can access YouTube now, check out videos and see what your dog likes!) and if you can’t leave the room (no other room to go to) or you’re on a walk and can’t just leave the dog in the woods (!) don’t stare at the dog, turn half away so they don’t feel under pressure (but keep checking our of the corner of your eye) try to keep the lead loose but quite short (under 2m, and not an extender unless your dog is less stressed on one and you’re not by the road) and leave the area causing the stress.

We talk about what some call the Ladder of ‘Aggression’ in our ‘Aggression’ Blog, but ‘A’ word is fast fading out of favour with behaviourists, thank goodness, being replaced with terms like escalation (see below), reactivity and stress. Calling a dog ’aggressive’ implies something built into the dog. This is simply not true no matter how much we breed dogs for ‘aggression’, it is a human trait that dogs learn best by example not genetics. Calling a dog ‘escalating’ or ‘reacting’ or ‘stressed’ means they are responding to their environment, taking the ‘blame’ away from the dog and putting it where it belongs- something in the relationship between the dog and their human(s) and/or the dog and their environment. At our rescue we use A ‘Hill of Reaction’ where different events have different effects depending on the dog’s mood. For more on this, check out this blog- essential reading for trying to ‘learn’ what your dog is trying to tell you!

5. Closeness

While you don’t want a clingy dog (you don’t! Cljnginess is not love, it’s fear) you do want your dog to know that where you are is where the fun starts (when appropriate)! Being close to you should always be the most rewarding place to be. With value in proximity to you, you can support your dog through anything that is challenging or worrying them, play with them and have the best fun with them, and just generally be working together as a team, rather than two separate entities walking in the same general direction attached by a lead. This all builds trust between doggies and humans, so they are more likely to turn to you for help or reassurance when highly stressed rather than snap or run away.

Our toys blog, play blog, and healthy engagement with dogs blog can really help you be the best adopter you can be for your dog, and avoid ending up with a clingy, neurotic dog.

But a quick check list to work out if your dog is showing love or being ‘clingy’ is:

When your dog first arrived, did they act like the floor was lava or did they walk in and put the kettle on? (For more on this check out our blog)This is usually bravado if the last one, but because they’re acting ok, it’s easy to cuddle them and walk them too soon, which leads to fear bonding. Their stress buckets are overflowing!
Did your dog want/ ask for/ demand/ jump on you for cuddles from the minute they first arrived?
Does your dog jump up to follow you when you get up, even if seemingly asleep?
Does your dog cry (for hours, a little is normal) if they don’t sleep in with you at night?
As we said earlier, are they really jumping for ‘joy’, or are they stressed and anxious when they see you after you’ve been away from them for a while? (It could be the second one, especially if you’ve only popped to the loo for 5 minutes!)
As mentioned before, do they really ‘love us’ the minute they come home with us (no!) or are they being clingy and fear bonding (it’s the second one!)? (For example.
And do they take ages to ‘calm down’ when they get what seems to be excited about something?

This is just a quick guide, but if any of these start to happen, act fast!

Strip the toys out the beds, just leave one or two
don’t fuss them when they’re in their bed
gentle brief fuss if they come to you for loves, then tell them to go to bed
and make their environment as peaceful and quiet as possible.
If it’s noisy, try to take them somewhere quiet with some familiar blankets, bed or a toy or two.
Make sure their bed is not where people have to directly pass by all the time, a corner is good, another room is not, (unless they like being in the hall, or on the landing etc)
and ignore them/don’t talk to them while they’re sleeping.
Leave them for at least three times the amount of time the stressful experience went on for- like if it was a 10 minute walk leave them alone for half an hour, and so on. Do not give treats as their hunger hormones could spike their stress levels.
Once they’ve obviously slept and relaxed and are showing good body language you can engage with them more like normal (but watch out for stress levels rising again, they may not want as much fuss as you give them in general, or like morning but not evening cuddles (but you haven’t realised), or aren’t morning ‘people’ and dread your morning pick up and hug, but they love you so don’t know how to tell you to back off, so they get wound up.. which is a one way ticket to growling and snapping out of frustration from not being able to tell you what’s up).
And most importantly of all… Tell everyone else in the house to do the same! There’s no point saying no fuss or treats in the dog’s downtime if family members and friends are sneaking them snacks and pats!

All of the recommendations in this blog will give them the time and chance to chill and reboot from whatever is bothering them, as well as giving you a less stressful routine for you to follow with your dog. Everybody wins!

And don’t forget, over 8 out of 10 behavioural issues can have a medical cause- such as pain, illness or genetic/age related conditions

such as breathing difficulties, arthritis or hip dysplasia.

Pain, especially chronic pain (when it’s been happening for a while) will fill a stress bucket up as fast as lightning! And some dogs show great distress even with low level pain, others are so stoic you don’t know they’re sick (and nor does the vet) till they are end stage…So if it really does feel out of the blue after reading this blog, and they start to drastically/ much more than normal escalate stress behaviours in 72 hours no matter what you try, a visit to the vet for a chat and check up, or to confer with an expert is never a bad idea.

Stress, you, and your dog.