Anxiety is a well known mental health disorder that can be characterized as a sense of worry or fear that occurs in certain situations. Many people have experienced anxiety at one point in their life whether it was caused by stress from school, environmental factors, phobias or other influences. It is extremely interesting how far research has come because today there are so many resources and studies that help explain anxiety. A lot of symptoms that are experienced due to anxiety can be related to the fight or flight reaction which is a topic discussed in class. Although this information is mostly well known about anxiety in humans, there is the question of whether or not dogs experience anxiety. Also, how does the anxiety in dogs relate to anxiety in humans? Can anxiety be dealt with in similar ways in both species? This topic is not directly related to the material learned in class because nothing was mentioned about disorders in dogs but it does relate by showing that understanding psychology can help in everyday life. By having an understanding of psychology and why certain disorders affect people, you can compare it to common situations that you might face at home such as anxiety experienced from a dog. This paper is going to compare specific triggers of anxiety such as phobias and separation in both humans and dogs. In correlation to the specific triggers, they will be compared to the symptoms that occur which are caused by the sympathetic nervous system. You can also use the idea of classical conditioning which was covered in class to help lessen any symptoms shown by dogs.
It is extremely common that people experience anxiety due to phobias. A study conducted From the Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, Ollendick and King (1998) explains that children “inhibit feelings of anxiety that might be elicited by the fear-related stimuli”(p. 158). This supports the idea that when people have an extreme fear of something it can result in anxious behaviors. Anxiety related to phobias can be closely compared with anxiety expressed in dogs when faced with a negative environmental stimuli. A common fear that may provoke this reaction is thunder. In a study conducted on the anxiety levels of dogs during situations such as a thunderstorm it was written that, there are a few different stimuli that are common to associate anxiety with sound phobias. Some examples of situations what provoke this reaction are guns, thunder and fireworks. The reason why these stimuli create a phobia in dogs is because they are highly sensitive to sounds (Souza, Maccariello, Dias, Almeida & Medeiros, 2017, p. 209). This shows that dogs do experience anxiety and it can be compared with humans because dogs fear loud noises which can cause them to react similar to phobias in humans.
Another experience that can help support the idea that dogs experience anxiety is separation anxiety. Separation anxiety is a common in dogs and according to an original paper Stone, Otten, Soenens, Engels & Janssens(2015) claims that “separation anxiety is prevalent in young children” (p. 3192). In addition, separation anxiety is “one of the most common canine behaviour problems and can have serious negative effects on dog welfare”(Amat, Camps & Manteca, 2014, p. 263). This shows that it is safe to say that dogs can experience anxiety especially in situations that are common for human anxiety. In both situations, phobias and separation, dogs act out in ways that can be paralleled with human experience. Now that the existence of anxiety in dogs has been supported by research it is important to explore the symptoms that dogs feel during an anxious situation and compare that to human symptoms.
Any situation that provokes anxiety in humans can result in symptoms such as rapid heartbeat, irritability, the need to go to the bathroom frequently, and trembling. These symptoms can be explained by the sympathetic nervous system that causes a fight or flight reaction in certain situations. These symptoms are also common in dogs which is explained in a case explained by Lem (2002) where a 2 year old male pointer exhibited symptoms of separation anxiety such as barking, whining, and damaging the house whenever he was left alone (Lem, March 2002). These symptoms show that the dog was anxious when left alone. The constant vocalization from the dog can be compared to when humans cry during times of anxiety or become irritable. A sympathetic response is shown because the dog was damaging the house which represents the fight stage. A dog does not have the ability to speak so the barking represents the dog trying to get attention to remove them from the anxious situation. Similarly, when young children have separation anxiety, they cry and scream until the parent comes back.
When discussing phobias that create anxiety in dogs, such as thunderstorms, a dog can be conditioned to act a certain way to prevent any anxiety. Similar to the idea that was discussed earlier that when humans deal with a fear it is recommended that they condition themselves to think of a more positive situation (Ollendick & King, 1998, p. 158). This is a form of classical conditioning because the unconditioned response is anxiety and the conditioned response is positivity towards the new situation. According to the Humane Society of the United States, when dealing with a dog that experiences anxiety from thunderstorms,“Behavior modification techniques are often successful in reducing fears and phobias. The appropriate techniques are called ‘counter-conditioning’ and ‘desensitization.’”(Humane Society, 2017) These modifications can eventually result in the dog relating thunder to a positive stimuli which will decrease any anxiety. Classical conditioning is used to redirect a unconditioned response to a conditioned response by the use of a conditioned stimuli. The original experiment by Pavlov involved dogs as the subjects which can be related to this topic. Even though Pavlov’s experiment did not deal with anxiety, it proves that classical conditioning has a strong outcome when using it on dogs.
In conclusion, anxiety is a disorder than many people experience and it is highly discussed in today’s society. Although it seems that we know a lot about anxiety in humans, there are a lot of unknowns when discussing anxiety in dogs. It can be said that dogs do experience anxiety because when comparing situations that the anxiety occurs in humans, such as separation anxiety and phobias, they parallel the situations when dogs experience it. Dogs and humans also have very similar symptoms such as vocalization and irritability. Overall dealing with anxiety can be a difficult task because it occurs in situations that no one can completely cut out of their lives. For example no one can hide from their phobias forever and no one can avoid leaving your dog alone. An important way to try to minimize anxiety in both humans and dogs is by conditioning them to relate their phobia, or being alone, to a positive stimuli to result in a response that does not involve feeling anxious. Despite everything that has been learned, there are still a few areas that should be explored such as how effective is classical conditioning in both dogs and humans actually is. In some situations dogs and humans are extremely traumatized to the point where anxiety is experienced in most situations. In severe cases like this can classical conditioning help suppress the anxiety? Or is it too powerful to be redirected by a conditioned stimuli? It is also important to learn about the differences between anxiety in dogs and humans instead of only focusing on the similarities.
References
- Amat, M., Camps, T., Brech, S. L., & Manteca, X. (2014). Separation anxiety in dogs: The implications of predictability and contextual fear for behavioural treatment. Animal Welfare, 23(3), 263-266. doi:10.7120/09627286.23.3.263
- Humane Society “Fear of Thunder and Other Loud Noises.” Retrieved from http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/dogs/tips/fear_thunder_loud_noises.html (2017, April 20)
- Lem, M. (2002). Behavioral modification and pharmacotherapy for separation anxiety in a 2 year old pointer cross. The Canadian Veterinary Journal Mar; 43(3), 220–222.
- Ollendick, T. H., & King, N. J. (1998). Empirically supported treatments for children with phobic and anxiety disorders: Current status. Journal Of Clinical Child Psychology, 27(2), 156-167. doi:10.1207/s15374424jccp2702_3
- Souza, C. F., Martins Maccariello, C. E., Martins Dias, D. P., dos Santos Almeida, N. A., & de Medeiros, M. A. (2017). Autonomic, endocrine and behavioural responses to thunder in laboratory and companion dogs. Physiology & Behavior, 169208-215. doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2016.12.006
- Stone, L. L., Otten, R., Soenens, B., Engels, R. E., & Janssens, J. M. (2015). Relations between parental and child separation anxiety: The role of dependency-oriented psychological control. Journal Of Child And Family Studies, 24(11), 3192-3199. doi:10.1007/s10826-015-0122-x