A Good Diet Can Help Reduce Stress In Your Dog By Kelly Marshall At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Canine nutrition experts recommend that you should feed your stressed dog a high-protein diet with moderate amounts of fat and high-quality carbohydrate. In fact, stress in pet dogs may be caused by the following reasons:

a.physical conditions

•surgery
•pregnancy
•mange
•dermatitis
•diabetes
•other diseases

b.social conditions

•monotony
•confusing and inconsistent treatment
•excessive activity
•excessive noise
•lack of proper routine

Increased potassium in the diet further calmed excitable types if a high-protein, low-carbohydrate diet was fed. However, this sort of dietary adjustment needs more serious investigations by canine nutritionists and behaviorists.

However, the effect of changes in diet takes at least a few days to become evident. In some cases, the effect may become visible only after a few weeks. Further, the benefit of the improved diet may be offset by negative changes in external social environment.

Experts in canine nutrition suggest the following diet:

1.High protein diet
2.Moderate fats
3. high quality carbohydrates in moderate quantity
4.High potassium

The following dramatic changes in excitable animals when diets are adjusted by feeding properly supplemented higher protein and lower carbohydrate levels are: Conditioning to commands and signals is better retained and the dogs are less hyper-reactive to incidental, unexpected, startling stimuli from the environment, such as other dogs barking .

However such a diet does help bring in the following changes in highly excitable animals:

a.Better response to commands
b.Improved retention of signals
c.Reduction in hyper active response to sudden stimuli

The improved diet should be reinforced by high quality multi vitamin/mineral/amino acid/enzyme additions. This will help the dog overcome thiamine & niacin deficiencies. It will improve reflexes in the dog. Feed supplements to the dog even before the problem starts

Till recently, it was believed that high carb diet was good for domestic dogs. However, it is now believed that such a diet may be causing increased susceptibility of dogs to nutritional problems. Clinical work & growth of market for specialized diets has resulted in the change.

Pet owners are no longer trying to save money on the pet’s diet. They are seeking specialized diets for their pet dog. How to determine whether your dog is need of such a diet? Check for the following:

•Sudden personality
•Bursts of activity
•Tendency to avoid known people
•Extreme sensitivity towards light, sound or touch
•Reactions not based on compelling cause in the external environment.

If your dog exhibits any such symptom, contact your vet for a complete physical checkup and evaluation of the diet of dog.

Help Your Dog Overcome Initial Hesitation Towards Leashes

Pet owners mistakenly presume that tugging on the leash will make the dog move. This behavior confirms to the dog that the leash shall be used to control all his movements. Being as stubborn as the dog is not going to help.

If your dog lags behind, just stop and continue facing away from the dog. Maintain a gentle pressure on the leash and praise the dog if there is even a small movement forward. Whatever you do, do not pay attention to the dog. This will reinforce his behavior.

Another option is that you can kneel down facing away and simply ignore the dog until it starts moving. Keep praising every single step that the dog takes.

It does not matter how long it takes for him to start walking, (although it should not be more than a minute or two), he eventually will. Then, walk another few feet away and repeat if he stops. If your dog is afraid of leash walking, you will need to take him out for numerous confidence building training sessions on leash. You do not want to take him with you on an errand when you may be in a hurry and get frustrated with your dog. Once you have taken the time to teach your dog to enjoy leash walking, he can come along with you on all your errands.

Be patient and wait for the dog to start walking. Repeat this process every time the dog stops until he gets the message. Be patient and make slow progress if your dog is not comfortable with the leash. Build the dog’s confidence and soon you can him out on errands as well.

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