Now that you know how to tell that your Dachshund is stressed or afraid of something, you need to know how to react to the situation. If you do the wrong thing – including doing nothing – it can make the situation worse for your Doxie and next time his reaction to the same trigger may even worse. The following are four things to do when your Dachshund is stressed.
#1 – Find The Trigger
First and foremost, you must figure out what is causing your Dachshund 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 Doxie 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 Dachshund 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 Dachshund 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 Doxie 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 Doxie 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.
