If you know how to tell when your Poodle is stressed, you are probably wondering how you calm her down. If your Poodle gets stressed, anxious, or afraid about things or people, or even certain environments like the pet store or park, how you react will directly impact what your Poodle does. If you do nothing or the wrong thing, it could make her anxiety worse and may even lead to fear biting. The following are four things to do when your Poodle is stressed.
#1 – Find The Trigger
First and foremost, you must figure out what is causing your Poodle to be anxious, afraid or stressed. Sometimes it’s obvious – if he’s lunging and barking on his lead at the dog across the street, it’s a good bet the trigger is 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 Poodle staring at anything? Running or cowering in the opposite direction of someone or some object? Acting hyper-vigilant (looking everywhere frantically – this may indicate it’s the environment that has him stressed)? 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 Poodle 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 Poodle 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 Poodle 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 her response.
#4 – Train Him
The only way to help your Poodle 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. Definitely get the help of a professional trainer that has experience overcoming fear using positive methods. Correction will only make your dog fear the situation or thing more.
