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Complete the Stress Cycle – Resilient Dogs | Part 3 of 7
After a stressful event (or many stressors????) we’re hoping for a return to “baseline”, called homeostasis. ☮ Completing the stress cycle is a moment in time when the body and mind come back into balance.
Everything in the Resilience Rainbow ????can help our dogs get to that point.
???? Noticing when that moment happens, when your dog is back in balance, can be truly helpful because then you can analyze:
1. How long it took to get there. Is the time decreasing? Is the dog’s recovery faster than it was?
2. What seems to work the best. Do active or passive activities have a better result?
Looking at your dog’s body language, what are signs that the stress cycle has been completed? What are we watching for?
Here’s Part Two of this series – Safety & Security
Here’s Part Four of this series – Mental & Physical Well-Being
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3 Replies
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Hey @catherine , I enjoyed this segment. What do you think about this — could there be a potential downside to having an active reset (to complete the stress cycle), because it may add more arousal, or fuel to the fire?
In small moments of stress, one of my dog’s signs that a cycle is completed is when he shakes off.
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Yes indeed – Bobbie talked about both – passive and active. For some dogs, getting to do the things they were bred to do actually help them to recoup from stressors relating to things they are not meant to do.
Take a hound, for example. Getting to go on a long tracking exercise can help them deal with city noises. Another example may be a dog bred for herding. Giving them the opportunity to put those livestock in order could help them cope with other stressors in their world.
But say you wanted to use, oh, tug, for example – with a dog not bred for biting/tug behaviors, that level of arousal could definitely be heading the dog in the wrong direction.
Genetics matter, when thinking about using activities to help dogs complete the stress cycle. Sniffing is almost always an “activity” that can help a dog reset, because sniffing is pretty universally “dog”.
And for sure, seeing a dog shake-off is a great signal to look for.
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Makes perfect sense. Thanks!
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