Arousal p1

Author: Denise Partlow

Instagram: @modernk9 Carolinas

A lot of times we can describe this as the moment your dog went from 0–10 or from calm to excited/reactive in an instant.

Arousal can be linked to a dog’s nervous system. When a dog experiences a stimulation within the environment, the nervous system becomes electrically charged. This prepares them for the fight or flight mode. In the wild, this could be a very useful system, but in our human world we often find it quite concerning and problematic.

A dog can become highly aroused for many different reasons such as the mere site of a dog or a rabbit. It can be from a car pulling up to the house. It can even happen when dogs are playing with their owners.

For some dogs they can become aroused at a low level and it ends there but for others as they experience more stimuli or as they become hyper-focused on a stimulus, the charge builds up.

When a dog is highly aroused, it prohibits them from making good decisions. In that moment they are experiencing a surplus of energy AND that energy must go somewhere.

For a lot of dogs, the way that they release that energy is through redirected aggression. You may have seen this in a scenario such as:
a dog is barking through the fence at another dog and then redirects that aggression onto whoever is close by.

It can also be when you’re playing with your dog and they bite you just a little too hard because at that moment they cannot judge the pressure they are applying.

You may even notice this during training. When your dog becomes electrically charged and you go to hand him a treat, he takes that treat a lot harder than he normally does leaving your fingers sore.

The next post will discuss different ways you can begin to manage or lessen your dog’s arousal levels.