As the darker days draw in you mind find your dog is starting to act a little bit strange. They may be more scatty or anxious than normal.
Dogs are affected by the weather and time changes more than us as humans will notice. Not only will they be affected by the clocks going back, but the darker nights, the weather changes and all that comes with the autumn and winter differences.
Darker nights means wildlife coming out at earlier hours, it means less time for us to walk our dogs during the day. We know ourselves that hearing things that you cant always see can be very daunting, and this will be the same for our dogs. We have to remember that they have a heightened sense of hearing compared to us and they will hear sounds that we cant.
Their senses will be heightened, new smells, less vision and more noises. Think of all that comes with the seasons upon us. Halloween and all the ghost and gouls of the celebration. Dogs will not understand dressing up, and actually it can be really scary for them as they are unsure whats going on. Firework season (we all know in the UK this starts early November and is highly likely to keep going until after new year), bright lights and large bangs. Some dogs are totally oblivious while unfortunately some are literally scared to death. Then we have Christmas, lots of family, noises, food and gifts. While this may be lovely for us, our dogs may not think the same.
Please be aware and take notice of how this affects your dog and how their behaviour changes through the season. We cannot verbally explain to our dogs that its okay, and that these things arent scary. The best we can do is try and make it as positive as we can during this time.
We may need to give our dog a space of their own to deal with all these scenarios.
We may need to change our schedule for the day to make them more comfortable (change walk times or come home from work earlier).
We may need to focus on training, doing some desensitisation or habituation to get them used to everything that is different during this period.
Your dog cant help being fearful with all that is new, but we can help them either be comfortable or learn to be ok.
What can i do to help my dog? Well right now its too late to train for fireworks, and halloween has passed. BUT you can start training towards next year. Start to slowly introduce them to things that may be scary across the year.
Take care this season.
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