Clean Run - December 2014 - 54

By Denise Fenzi & Deborah Jones, Ph.D.

Developing Stress Tolerance
It is impossible to give your dog (or
yourself!) a stress-free existence. Stress
happens. Granted, there are certain
stressors we'd be best to simply avoid
or minimize, but that's not always possible. Instead of avoidance, we need a
plan for preparing our dogs to deal with
stressors in the best way possible. This
concept is called "stress tolerance," and
it happens when our dogs learn that
stressful events are no big deal; they are
simply inconveniences that can safely
be ignored. In addition, it is possible to
continue playing, training, and working
in spite of the presence of stressors.
Stress tolerance must be learned, and
this training should start early in a dog's
career. Teaching stress tolerance is a
long-term process that should be ap54

proached in a systematic manner. Rather than teaching all of the performance behaviors and then spending a few weekends trying to familiarize your dog with dog
shows, start early and acclimate your dog in small doses to the realities of performance competition. Of course, your plan will be detailed and specific to your situation. If you have a current performance dog, you
are likely already exposing your dog in training
to the stressors involved in trialing. This doesn't
require much extra eﬀort on your part; just taking
the youngster along to hang out is a great start. If
you are not regularly training or attending shows,
then you need to make a concentrated eﬀort to
take your young dog to all sorts of typical training
and trial settings.
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Here we will present and discuss specific ideas for dealing with stress-related
issues in dogs. A savvy trainer should
be able to either avoid problems by
planning ahead and doing some proactive work, or minimize problems by
responding quickly and appropriately
to stressors as they occur. Ignoring
or punishing stress signals is not the
way to develop a happy and confident
working dog. By using scientifically
sound positive training methods we
can make a huge diﬀerence in a dog's
stress reactions by improving his ability
to manage and work through them.

STRESS
REDUCTION
TECHNIQUES

These early exposures should be all about fun.
Bring out the cookies and toys. Play games. Take
a walk and let your dog familiarize himself with
the environment by looking around and sniﬃng.
Sit and relax while you massage or pet your dog.
Your goal is to help him become comfortable and you can do this by being low-key
and relaxed yourself. These initial experiences are vitally important because they
set the tone for your dog's future emotional reactions to training and showing.
Don't worry about having your dog actually do anything. At this point, providing
fun and pleasant experiences in training and trial settings is much more important
than teaching any specific behavior. Remember, teaching behaviors is easy; getting
and maintaining a great attitude is much more diﬃcult.

Training Stressors
Learning
Learning can be stressful. Remember algebra class? Well-developed training plans minimize stress for the dog. You should decide in advance what you wish to work on and
how you will approach that goal. Break training down into very small and manageable
pieces. It's okay if your dog occasionally struggles or needs time to think in order to
move forward, but most of the time training should feel seamless for the dog. In fact, he
should barely be aware that he is learning. With time, most positively trained dogs develop a good deal of confidence in their ability to succeed which minimizes the stress they
experience while learning. Another advantage to having a well-developed training plan
Clean Run | December 14

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Clean Run - December 2014

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