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Part III – Dealing with Pet Behaviour Challenges

Understanding how arousal plays a role in pet behaviour problems

This is next part of the series about diagnosing and defining behaviour problems in pets, to illustrate how I work with behaviour problem cases in cats and dogs.

In the previous part, I explained how any behaviour displayed by your pet is a window into their emotional experience. By understanding what that emotion is, we can then manage the problem more effectively.

Find out more here.

Today I am discussing another crucial element when diagnosing and defining behaviour problems, and that is arousal levels. Arousal means the amount or intensity of an emotion being expressed. This is how active is an emotion in a moment in time. For example, your pet can be startled by a sound and their heart may increase, your pet may be alert for a few seconds, and then calm down when your pet sees it is nothing. This is low arousal of a fearful emotion.

In contrast, if, when your pet is startled, it is followed by trembling, hiding, howling, sweating and so on, this is high arousal of a fearful emotion.

Emotions happen in us and animals all the time. It is something we cannot control. All the emotions serve a purpose, they are either to protect us (like being afraid or frustrated) or to engage with something in the environment (like seeking food or social interaction). When there is an overload of an emotion in a specific situation, it is when many behaviour problems arise. An example of this is when a dog has some food or toy taken away  by his/her owner. Some dogs may be uncomfortable with that situation but continue with their day (low arousal of the fear/frustration emotional system) or they can develop distrust and fear of something being removed (higher arousal of fear/frustration emotional system). In the latter situation as that emotion is dysregulated, that dog can develop aggression when protecting resources.

Why do some pets have high arousal levels and dysregulated emotions?

How intense a pet experiences an emotion depends on many factors. Let’s look at some of them here, click on each tab to read more:

Past Experiences

Negative associations that are linked to certain triggers, can make them more prone to high arousal and dysregulation of emotions.

For example, when a dog gets frightened by a bike and may have some pain associated, will increase the likelihood of that fear response being heightened.

These are factors like genetics, socialisation and general development in the womb of the mother. We all perceive the world a little different and this is down to how the brain is wired. It doesn’t mean that the behaviour cannot be changed, it means that we need to adapt how we want the change to happen to that individual due to these factors.

For example, a dog that has had limited socialisation will have a brain more likely wired to be afraid. So behaviour modification needs to happen very slowly and anxiolytic medications may be needed.

When there is constant exposure to what is causing the problem for your pet, this can make that fear/frustration worse because your pet cannot reset, relax and recharge batteries to help them cope with the stressor.

We all have different ways of coping with things that overwhelm us, scare us or frustrate us. Our pets are the same, our pets do not want to use aggressive behaviours when they feel too scared, or conflicted, it used a lot of energy. Teaching them how they can manage the situation will reduce the arousal level, because they know what to do.

For example, fireworks is a big stressor for most of our cats and dogs. The fear/discomfort is always going to be there, but we can build a safe have, a quieter place where they feel safe and secure building their resilience to coping with the noisy fireworks.

Any medical problem can reduce your pet’s ability to cope with emotions. Particularly chronic conditions. The most common medical condition that we are seeing to influence significantly is joint pain, even though they are not limping, and exercise seems the same. Find out more here about this topic.

Our pets can have a bad day as we do. When a pet is having bad day, they may be less able to cope with things, and may be more reactive, fearful and so on.

The final aspect to consider with arousal of an activated emotion is for how long it stays and whether it happens all the time or only when the trigger appears. When an emotion stays activated for a long period of time, without the pet being able to switch off, then this can lead to generalising that emotion to all sort of situations. This is how anxiety develops.

Anxiety is an emotion in the sense that there is a constant perception of a thread when there is not one, and this can affect the pet’s life considerably. This may lead to them not being able to express other engaging emotions and behaviours like social interaction or play to rebalance. This means that their system is completely overwhelmed and dysregulated.

An example of this is a dog that lives in a city and is afraid of the cars. This dog may only react when a car passes by initially. However, the more he gets exposed to the car without helping him to regulate the fear, the dog can start generalising this fear to other traffic sounds that are similar, making him more on edge. Eventually, this dog can be afraid of leaving the house even if there is no car or traffic sound, just the anticipation of a possible threat, causes the anxiety. This dog will struggle to play or engage outside on walks or with the idea of going outside because of this dysregulated emotional system.

In conclusion, (emotional) arousal is the foundation of the intensity of our emotional experiences. By recognising the balance between engaging and protective emotions and the significance of emotional arousal, we can better navigate our emotional well-being without feeling overwhelmed.

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