Resilience

 

We often talk about building resilience in our dogs but what is it and how can we do it?

 

The dictionary description is that resilience is the ability to adjust or recover from adversity, major life changes or to recover from illness or a crisis.

 

Resilience can prevent trauma; help overcome it or create healing from psychological or physical trauma.

It is not just about early experiences although we can try to give our puppies the very best start in life. The amount of resilience a dog has is influenced by his genetic makeup, early exposures, and the current situation. Resilience can be damaged by life experiences. All dogs need resilience to cope with life but dogs who have experienced trauma need it even more. Resilience comes from the inside.

 

Resilience requires:

• a dog to feel safe – avoid dogs being overwhelmed in situations. If they become overwhelmed, remove them from the situation. Find out what the triggers are and try to avoid as many of them as you can while we build confidence. Try to walk in quieter places if your dog is worried by other dogs or people.

 

• a dog to have social support – this can be a human or another dog. This doesn’t mean simply hugging and reassuring a dog when he is fearful. It means being there and responding to his needs, being trustworthy, predictable and fun.

 

• a dog to be able to make choices – use positive reinforcement and find ways to give your dog choices in their life. If a dog does not want to engage in training or an activity and walks away, let him! Dogs need to be able to say no. Use the consent test to see if he wants physical touch and affection.

 

• a dog to feel more confident – use scentwork.

 

The more control a dog feels he has over his own environment and the ability to be able to communicate his needs, the easier he will find it to make better decisions and the more resilient he will be. Every single dog has the ability to become resilient.

 

Remember the 5 C’s

Calm, Connection, Choices, Consistency = Confidence

 

Tiira K. (2019). Resilience In Dogs? Lessons From Other Species. Veterinary medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 10, 159–168. https://doi.org/10.2147/VMRR.S189566