Don’t worry, I’m not here to sell you a CBD treat. I’m here to provide you some strategies for helping your pup slow their roll, calm down, settle, relax, or whatever else you’d like to call it. I won’t shame anyone using herbal treats for the purpose of helping their dog settle. I’m just here to take that instinct a step further to develop enrichment strategies!
What are the best calming treats for dogs?
At Pet Harmony, we love a long term calming project. These are items we provide to our pets that generally have the following characteristics:
- They work on it independently.
- It’s interesting enough to the dog that they are willing to work on it for a while.
- It takes some time to work on (this usually means it takes time to consume).
- The outcome of the activity is de-escalation / down regulation / relaxation.
For most dogs, activities that involve chewing and/or licking are your best bet for a long term calming project. So the answer to the question above might be a treat that takes some time to chew and lick!
If you or your dog is new the concept of the long term calming project, here are a few blogs to give you come background and discover your dog’s preferences:
- Calming Enrichment for Dogs: Leveraging Long-Term Calming Projects
- For the Dogs Who Don’t Like Peanut Butter
- How to Teach Your Dog to Calm Down
The thing about outcomes, though, is that you have to observe them. Just because my dog looks like he’s in a trance while he’s licking frozen goat milk out of a toppl, does not mean that every dog will have the same experience.
Petey the Wondermutt licking frozen goat milk out of a WestPaw Toppl, with an 80’s New Wave soundtrack to help him relax.
How to find out what helps your dog relax
I’m about to tell you that it’s really important to learn your dog’s body language. Shocking, I know. If you want to get a better understanding of what helps your dog relax, learning their body language signals will help make it clear. Building on that, learn your pet’s baseline, or what they do when they are functioning within normal parameters. Then you’ll know what it looks like when they are amping up (we call this the ladder of escalation) or calming down (ladder of de-escalation). With this understanding, you can observe if your dog needs some help relaxing.
Just like we create spaces for ourselves that help us unwind and relax, we can do the same for our pets. The following content can help you create an environment that encourages relaxation:
I think it’s hard for my dog to relax
If your pet seems to struggle to relax regardless of the enrichment activities they complete or the comfy spaces they have access to, it might be time to bring in a behavior professional. Here are a couple of blogs to help you understand where to start:
Here’s to harmony,
Tiffany
Now What?
Take some time this week to watch your pet when the rest of the household is settled and relaxing. When and were do you notice them settle? What do they need before they can pick a cozy spot to chill? Once you have this information, try giving them one of the long term calming projects you learned about above before the humans settle. Notice if anything changes about their behavior after they finish their project!
If you feel like something is still missing from your pet’s ladder of de-escalation into relaxation, reach out! We’re here to help.
PS: Capitalism
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Results are not guaranteed because behavior, human, canine, or otherwise, are not guaranteeable.
