Dogs feel the stress

Dogs take their cues from you. When you’re having a great day, your dog can feel it and expand the joy. When you’re having a tough time, the dogs sense that, too. Dogs feel the stress you feel. How they react varies according to their personalities.

If you notice your dog acting oddly, check them. And check yourself. Could they be picking up on your tension? 

The past week or so has been challenging around here. The weather has been consistently frigid, with wind chills below zero. There’s still snow on the ground, and compacted into slick paths in the yard. To top it off - because of a water main failure, our entire town was without running water for three days. 

Not much fun

Needless to say, it’s been a rough go. All the everyday things you don’t think twice about became exceptionally difficult. The morning routine takes at least twice as long when everything you do requires planning. Every morning we wash Tango’s face. Necessary to keep the beard and mustache on his 15 ½ year old face smelling fresh. 

Strategic use of water was required. We were able to get some bottled water, but as you can imagine, the stores in our town of 60,000 rapidly ran out. Cooking was difficult. Carry-out impossible - the local restaurants were shut down. No running water.

The dogs know

All of the dogs picked up on our stress. Their reactions were completely in keeping with their personalities. Tango couldn’t settle. This was a big one. At his advanced age, we can usually count on him to sleep most of the day. Instead, he was wandering around. He doesn’t see well anymore, so he’s constantly underfoot or crying out because he was lost.

Booker (Fran’s 12-year-old Boston Terrier) is always “special.” Not in a good way. He does best when we keep to a schedule and he knows what to expect. When his routine is disrupted, he gets loud. A little bit of play-bowing and barking is adorable. A constant stream is headache-inducing.

Torque (Hope’s 10-year-old French Bulldog) is the most easy-going of the crew. Even he was hyper-aware and edgy.

Simon (Fran’s six-year-old Boston) is quite possibly the most intelligent dog we’ve ever had. He’s also the bossiest. When things around the house are upset, he thinks it’s his job to keep everyone else in line. We’ve tried to convince him we can handle things without his help. He doesn’t believe us.

Try to chill

One good answer for dealing with stress is exercise. It was out of the question. We couldn’t work out because we couldn’t shower. The dogs couldn’t go on long walks because we had sub-zero wind chills. If we’re honest, even if our dogs were fluffy, thick-coated Nordic breeds, we wouldn’t have gone for walks.

By the second day, we kind of figured things out and the tension diminished. It wasn’t gone, but the household was more functional. The dogs started to adjust, too.

Those issues, both weather and water, are solved. And we’re all just exhausted. Dogs included. Next time your dog is being weird, do a self-check. Because dogs feel the stress.