People frequently ask me to help them solve their dog's sudden behavior issues. Most of these dogs are adults, ranging from 2-8 years old, and suddenly, they develop some form of behavior issues such as chewing, biting, pulling on a leash, and reacting to other dogs and people.
There are primarily two main reasons this could be happening. I go through a couple of scenarios in this article.
Reason 1) Something in the dog's life has changed. It's usually their regular routine and/or structure. Dogs get used to a certain amount of exercise, mental stimulation, play, socialization, and sleep. When something suddenly changes, they might develop behavior issues such as chewing, barking, or reacting on the leash.
Maybe you were bringing your dog to the dog park or to daycare, and they get used to that routine. This socialization helps make your dog a balanced, stable dog. It gives them some of the things that they need. Well, if you're unable to bring the dog to those socializations regularly like you used to, the dog is going start to develop behavior issues inside the house and on the leash. That's a message to you to say, Hey, look, you've changed my lifestyle, and I'm not happy about it. And you need to pay attention to those things.
Dogs are used to getting a specific amount of exercise. If something has changed in their routine, they will likely take that out in a behavior change. This will show up as a mirrored image back to you that you have changed something in their routine, and they're not happy about it.
For example, you are an accountant, and it's tax season. you used to take your dog for more walks and spend more time with your dog, but now you're working 12-hour days because you're getting taxes prepared by April 15th for all of your clients. You're not able to spend as much time with your dog, and they don't like this. Your dog will start doing things inside the house, such as chewing on things, peeing in the house, and not being so happy on the walk because they're not getting as many walks.
Reason 2) Something in your life has changed. This usually is in the form of stress, anxiety, or worry. This can also happen when entering a new relationship or bringing another dog into the household. Dogs react to everything energetically, and when something intrinsic in the owners has changed, it will be picked up by your dog.
Maybe you're having challenges with your relationship, issues with your job, or your health has changed. For various reasons, the dog is going to pick up on this because they're attuned to the intrinsic energy inside your body. You need to check what type of energy you're bringing back into the house and make sure it's not affecting the dog.
Another thing that happens is if you get in a new relationship and that person's suddenly coming over a lot, you need to take an evaluation of that and see how that new energy coming into the house is affecting the dog. Also, other dogs will affect other dogs. I see this a lot... an owner has one dogs and they got another dog, and now all of a sudden everything's chaos.
Dogs are a mirror image of our lives. They let us know when something is not right because they have instincts that are far greater than ours. Dogs feel, hear, smell, and see in capacities that we cannot even comprehend.
Watch this video below as I explain this in more detail.
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