In another article, I talked about why it’s important for dogs to sniff when out on a walk, and how sniffing lowers a dog’s pulse rate, helping her to be calmer.
It turns out that although dogs shake for different reasons, one of them is that, just like sniffing, shaking also appears to release tension and lower their pulse rate.
I’ll go over the other reasons a dog shakes in another article, but I really wanted to explore how by shaking itself, a dog appears to be calmer and less anxious. I also want to share how I’ve adapted this observation to create an effective way to help a reactive dog calm down once the trigger’s gone.
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RESEARCH ABOUT DOGS SHAKING
In their citizen science experiment, the Dog Field Study, researchers concluded that when a dog ‘shakes it off’, it results in a lower pulse rate. This ‘shaking it off’ behaviour was often seen when the dog’s pulse rate was particularly high.
Here is a link to the video of their observations about how shaking affects a dog’s pulse rate.
Tap twice to load then open Video...
Think about your own dog, and when he or she vigourously shakes. Does she do it right after something else happens? Did she see a squirrel, or a cat? If her reactivity is bicycles, for instance, did someone ride past?
You might notice that whatever the trigger is that upsets your dog, she does a full body shake for a couple of seconds after the trigger’s gone. This kind of shake looks like what a dog does after getting wet, not if she shivers because she’s cold, for instance. This shake helps her by releasing some tension and lowering her pulse.
ANIMALS IN THE WILD AND SHAKING
As I researched the phenomenon more, I came across the work of psychologist, Peter Levine. He saw that animals in the wild don’t show signs of stress. He describes how an impala freezes and goes into an unconscious state once it is caught by a predator, such as a cheetah. If the cheetah doesn’t eat the impala right away, let’s say she takes it back to her lair to eat it later, the impala might still escape with its life. If it wakes up from its unconscious, frozen state before being eaten, there’s a chance it will get up and run away to safety. (from the book Peter Levine: Waking the Tiger)
Levine says:
“When it is out of danger, the animal will literally ‘shake off’ the residual effects of the immobility response and gain full control of its body. It will then return to its normal life as if nothing had happened.” [my italics]
Peter Levine
So, how do these observations about shaking help us as pet parents with nervous, stressed or reactive dogs?
APPLYING THIS TO A REACTIVE DOG
Aside from drenching our dogs with water after we see a trigger, we can’t guarantee that our dogs will shake, thereby losing the potential for their pulse to lower and for them to return to a calmer state.
My dober-daughter sometimes reacts when she sees other dogs. Her dog-dog reactivity is something we’ve both been working on for some time, and she responds much more calmly now when we come across another dog. Both she and I have learned how to manage these occurrences better. If you have a reactive dog too, you’ll know that any techniques that help you and your pup feel calmer are very welcome.
First, I give Toxa time to recover once we get distance from the trigger (another dog). Very often, she will indeed shake. I’ve even started to coordinate a voice command ‘Shake!’ when she shakes, to encourage her to do it in future.
After shaking it off, she can usually resume the walk fairly calmly.
If she doesn’t ‘shake it off’ afterwards, I’ve noticed that she pulls on the lead and continues on the walk in a heightened, hyper-alert state. Many dog trainers describe this as a dog’s ‘bucket’ getting too full as the tension and anxiety continue to build.
A TECHNIQUE YOU CAN TEACH AND CUE FOR LOWERING TENSION IN DOGS
However, I’ve been experimenting with another way to get the same results as the shake.… I ask her to do a jump.
Of course, you’ll need to teach your dog to jump on the spot for this, but that’s a fairly easy behaviour to teach on cue.
Her jumping seems to get the same results as shaking. If she still seems tense, I ask her to do a couple more jumps, until she is calmer. After that, she continues without pulling and her behaviour is indeed calmer.
Both the shaking and jumping are full-body, physical activities, and in my observations, they both seem to have the same desired effect of reducing my dog’s tension. Result!
So, if you’re looking for ways to help your reactive dog with her reactivity when out on walks or in the face of her triggers, let her shake to her heart’s content, and try the jumping technique. Let me know how it works for you!