Understanding Fear, Anxiety & Stress in Dogs
How We Help You And Your Reactive Dog.
Is your dog reactive, fearful or anxious? I’m Merran Spath, a qualified dog behaviour trainer (NZCAM CBT)
If your dog barks, lunges, freezes or shuts down, life can feel confusing, exhausting and sometimes a little frightening for both of you.
These behaviours are symptoms, not the cause. They are how your dog shows fear, anxiety or stress, frustration and sometimes pain or discomfort, which is why we work alongside your vet where needed.
At The Dog Behaviour Academy, we help you understand what’s really going on for your dog, then build a practical, individual, force-free plan so you can both face the world with more confidence and fewer overwhelming moments.
Understanding Fear, Anxiety & Stress
Understanding Fear, Anxiety and Stress
What fear, anxiety and stress are and how they can affect behaviour.
Behaviour is communication & information
Barking, lunging, freezing, avoidance, hiding, pulling away etc. are responses rather than the underlying problem.
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Helping You Understand Your Dog
Establishing a Baseline
We help you build a predictable routine so you can see your dog's true baseline - making it easier to notice when something's changed
Recognising Stress
Learn to observe and understand your dog's body language and spot subtle changes in behaviour.
Observing Behaviour
We teach you how to observe and understand what your dog's communicating.
Understanding Triggers & Arousal
Trigger Stacking
Understand why your dog can cope brilliantly one day and struggle the next
The Arousal Ladder
Get a clearer picture of where your dog sits on the scale from calm to overwhelmed, and why that matters.
Timing & Learning state
Understand why when you respond matters and how we help you build that awareness together.
Building Coping Skills
Enrichment & Sniffing
Discover why the right kind of mental engagement can do more for your dog's confidence than exercise alone
Building Curiosity
See how the right experiences, introduced the right way, can turn a nervous dog into a more confident one over time.
Positive Reinforcement
Understand what motivates your individual dog and why it matters more than any generic training formula and how we help you find it.
Applying What You've Learned
Reading Your Dog
Build real confidence in knowing what your dog's body language is telling you, moment to moment.
Knowing When to Act
Understand why timing is everything and how we help you develop the judgement to act at the right moment
Timing Matters
Learn to identify the "right" moment to act - a skill we help you build.
Building Your Confidence
Feel supported through the hard moments, so you're not navigating challenging situations alone.
The Goal - A Dog Who Can Cope
Our goal is to help your dog build resilience: to recover more quickly from challenging experiences and to find other ways of coping with them. Just as important is helping you understand what your dog is telling you, so you know how to help.