After learning how to tell if your French Bulldog is stressed, anxious or fearful about something, you need to know what to do in that situation. How you handle it will determine what your dog does moving forward. Your Frenchie’s reaction could stay the same, get better or get worse. The following are four things to do when your French Bulldog is stressed.
#1 – Find The Trigger
First and foremost, you must figure out what is causing your French Bulldog to be anxious, afraid or stressed. Sometimes it’s obvious – he’s lunging and barking on his lead at the dog across the street – it’s a good bet it’s the dog. But other times, it may not be as obvious. Pay attention to your dog’s body language to give you clues. Is your Frenchie staring at anything? Running or cowering in the opposite direction of someone or thing? Acting hyper-vigilant (looking everywhere frantically – this may indicate it’s the environment that has him stressed), etc. If you can’t figure it out, have a professional dog trainer help you.
#2 – Remove the Trigger
At the beginning, you need to just remove the trigger for the well-being of your dog. The more your French Bulldog is exposed to it, the more stressed he will become. So once you know what the trigger is, avoid it as much as possible until you have a plan to get him over his fears the right way.
#3 – Don’t Force Your French Bulldog To Confront Her Fears
Many times, people think, “If I force her to the object she fears, she will see it’s fine and not be afraid anymore.” Dogs don’t work that way. If you force your Frenchie into a situation that stresses her, it can escalate to the point where she becomes fear aggressive. She may redirect on you, or attack the object/person/dog that is causing his response.
#4 – Train Him
The only way to help your French Bulldog is to use training to overcome his fears. There are many ways of doing this and what technique you use will depend on the trigger, your dog and you – choose the method that works best for the situation.
