Just like humans, dogs can suffer from social anxiety. They might be fine in their comfort zone – their home, their yard – but start to show nerves as soon as you take them out the gate. As dogs fundamentally want to please us, they can be very good at hiding their fears. Anxiety in dogs may be fairly common, but no one wants to think they’re stressing their furry friend out every time they go for a walk.
One problem is that dogs can exhibit a wide range of signals when they’re nervous, and they can range from obvious to subtle. For example, if your pooch sees something he’s not sure about he might do anything from standing completely still with a tucked in tail to growling and throwing himself towards the trigger, depending on his personality. If you’re used to the latter, learning ‘how to calm a reactive a dog’ is possible, it just takes work and routine.
