THE OM

Think about how your dog behaves, do any of these sound like your dog - all or some of the time?

Gets terrified when there's a storm? Follows you around like a shadow, and doesn't have lots of periods of independence? Barks, scratches, chews things, or makes an escape, while you're away? Cowers, growls, avoids or even attacks other dogs? Gets freaked out or startled (more than you'd expect) by loud household sounds?Is frightened meeting new people, at first? Humps madly??

And how do they go at the vet? Do they:

Get scared when they get looked at?Act really excited and jumps up and down? Need a muzzle to be looked at? Cower and hide under the chair in the waiting room? Try to escape out the door of the vet? Squirm madly when they get an injection?

These are all signs of anxiety. Left unchecked they only get worse. Anxiety is not something that dogs grow out of. And research trials show that you can help reduce this anxious behaviour with the right dietary supplements.

Experts say that when a dog bites, it's never really out of the blue. Long before that event, there will have been signals. 

Turid Rugaas, a canine behaviorist from Norway, developed the Stress Escalation Ladder, to illustrate what signs we see in our dogs as their stress elevates - so we can intervene, before they get out of control.

For instance, did you know that your dog yawning means they are stressed and not tired? They are things that dogs do, like yawning, looking away or licking their lips, that tell you that they're a little anxious right now, and they're trying to settle themselves down again. In fact, calming signals are the second stage of the 'stress escalation ladder', and often go unnoticed or are misunderstood.

Did you know that anxiety is a type of stress?

Stress of one kind or another – fear of thunderstorms, separation anxiety, stranger fear – can set off a complex chain of events.

For example, a dog with thunderstorm phobia living in a storm-prone area, would have a stress response every time there’s a storm. A dog suffering from separation anxiety would react every time they were left alone.

These dogs can suffer chronic, repeated and uncontrolled stressful episodes that would often build and worsen over a lifetime.

This can shorten your dog's life...among other things. Chronic stress is associated with high levels of cortisol in the blood stream, which in turn has been related to a number of human disorders including obesity, insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease, immune disturbances, altered endocrine responses and nervous system disorders.