The emotional bucket (Trigger stacking)

Have you ever said "That was out of the blue!" or "They're not normally like that!".

A build up of things that have caused your dog to feel uncomfortable, aroused or overwhelmed can result in a drastic change of behaviour. It can take 72hours for stress hormones to leave your dogs body.

Looking at the bucket in the picture you can see that it isn't just 'stressful situations' that add to your dogs emotional bucket.

When your dog is faced with situations that are high stimulants/arousals it can become difficult for us to enjoy the little things together.

We never want our dogs to feel overwhelmed right? because we love them and want to protect them. So rather than thinking 'Why are they not listening to me?' try thinking 'What has made them get to this level of arousal in the first place'. Maybe that squirrel running across the field or those fireworks from last night? Within the 72hour period, look at what your dog has been faced with and if in-between they have had time to decompress.

I always like to compare dog behaviour to human behaviour so we can get a better understanding… You've had a busy day at work. Your manager has been questioning your work and you're tired from lack of breaks. You've also had a disagreement with your partner and everything starts to stack up. Then at the end of the week, you knock your cuppa onto the floor. You snap and end up crying in hysterics! You're not crying because you dropped your tea, you're crying because it all got too much.

So how would you prevent yourself from getting into this state? Some calming methods maybe? Yoga? Breath work? A bath?

How can we help our dogs from reaching their threshold? Our dogs may enjoy things like chasing their tennis ball but don't confuse these fun and arousing activities with the calming activities that they may actually need. In order to take away from your dogs bucket from spilling, they will need things such as; Scatter feeding, a snuffle mat or a loosely filled kong in their safe space.

Once you learn What are arousals for your dog Vs What is calming, you can help your dog have a more stable and relaxed mind which will result in a calmer environment and easier training.