Minimize Stress for Your Romanian Dogs at Christmas

Meesh Masters Author

Christmas & New Year can be a frazzling time for everyone, especially our dogs. Grab some tips on how to make it easier for your Romanian dogs

Christmas is usually a busy time of year for everyone, so much to do and so many people to see, I thought it might be helpful to give you some tips on how to minimize the stress of it all for your Romanian dogs, so hopefully they don't end up overwhelmed and behaving in ways that cause more stress for everyone! 

This information can of course be applied to any dogs, especially nervous, anxious or fearful dogs.

Many of our Romanian dogs struggle how busy our lives are at the best of times, so the Christmas period can send them into a real spin! Their routine’s get messed up, there are all sorts of strange looking objects getting put out or put up, furniture being moved around, trees living inside the house 🙄 and those flashing lights! Not to mention the weird and wonderful people that keep floating in and out of the house, some of them even stay for ages! The horror!

The weather is usually shite, and everyone has a million things to do, so walks may be a bit shorter or irregular. They might be left alone for longer periods than they are used to and of course, many of them are super skilled opportunists, and with all that food flying about it can be all too easy for them to get their paws on a whole bunch of stuff that’s not good for them.

Many people are unaware of how change can have a significant impact on our Romanian dogs and that all these kinds of things can really ramp up their stress and anxiety levels, which of course impacts on their behaviour.

Whether your dog already has any existing challenges or not, you will definitely want to be looking at providing them with additional support and management over the festive period.

I’ve put together some tips and advice that I hope will help you do just that, and limit, as much as possible, escalations in stress levels (at least for your dog!)

So how do you prevent Your Romanian Dogs escalating up their stress tree while you enjoy the festivities around your Christmas tree?

ROUTINE & PREDICTABILITY

Try to stick to your dogs normal routine as much as possible. Throughout periods of change and upheaval this is one of the best ways to support your dog and help them retain some emotional balance. 

Aim to stick to the usual feed times, walk times and periods your dog would normally spend resting to ensure they continue to get their all important restorative sleep, let's face it, we all get grouchy and short fused when we haven't had enough sleep right?

Predictability is a key factor in minimizing stress for our dogs. Helping ensure their lives continue to be predictable for them can go a long way in keeping anxiety escalation to a minimum and improve your dogs levels of tolerance and resilience to deal with unexpected and 'extra' things that may be happening.

CREATE A QUIET SAFE SPACE

Create a safe space away from all the action where your dog can go an enjoy some naturally calming enrichment activities in peace (snuffle mats / Likkimats / Chewing activities) or simply have some much needed quiet rest time, without having to worry about being disturbed.

If your dog is not used to spending time in a space away from activity in the house, I would highly recommend spending the next few weeks establishing a 'safe space' for them, where they can go and won't be affected by people or festivities. 

If this isn't something you have done with your dogs up until now, then just the fact that you put them away when people come is something that could be distressing for them, and that's without the added anxiety and stress if your dog doesn't like strangers being in the home. 

A howling, barking dog in the next room is not what you want at Christmas! 

So lets get them used to that experience now, and practise it over the next few weeks, helping your dog get comfortable with being in their safe space WITHOUT the added upset of strangers in the house.

This will make it a lot easier on you all over the festive period, if you find your dog is struggling to cope, you can simply give them a break and know they'll be happy and relaxed. 

You may need to build up the time your dog spends in their safe space gradually if they get anxious about being separated from you.  You could start by spending short periods of time in there with them at first, just hanging out but not interacting, meditating or reading, so they get used to relaxing and sleeping in that space.  

If your dog doesn't get upset about being separated from you, you could simply use self-soothing enrichment to help them get settled in their safe room or area for short periods regularly, so they'll be super comfortable with it by Christmas. 

Start leaving them in their safe space, just for a minute to begin with, if they're ok, add on more minutes one at a time. If your dog gets very upset, barking or crying the second you walk out and shut the door/baby gate, you will need to work through a slower process of acclimation to a safe area and may well benefit from some 121 professional help to do that.

It can also help, when establishing that safe room or space to play calming music every time you pop your dogs in there.

My go to calming music is Solfeggio Healing Frequencies but your dog may prefer something else.  You can find some more information on Solfeggio frequencies HERE and how they work, and there are lots of options of Solfeggio frequency music on Youtube.

CLICK to listen to one of our favourites here in The DOG's Pov household

REGULAR PRESSURE BREAKS

Even if your dog is fine with visitors and happy to have a busy household, just like with children, our dogs can become over stimulated, over aroused and over tired! 

They don’t know when they need a break so it is up to us to support them and ensure we help them get some rest so they don’t get stressed and cranky!

This is of course especially important for dogs that are nervous, anxious or fearful. These dogs will need more down time and perhaps quiet company in their safe area as well, to help them fully relax.

Even if your dog is fine with visitors, still make sure you give them regular pressure breaks when you have guests, especially if it's a lot more than they are used to at once. 

Take them out for a walk, put them in their safe area or even take them in the garden for a little while (weather permitting) and do some scatter feeding and let them have a lovely mooch round so they can decompress a little from all the excitement and cafuffle. 

This little piece of proactive management can go a really long way in helping prevent our Romanian dogs feeling the pressure of the busier than normal Christmas period.

VISITOR MANAGEMENT

Make sure all your visitors understand very clearly that when your dog is having quiet time, whether you put them in their safe area or whether they took themselves off to lay down THEY ARE TO BE LEFT ALONE. 

This is especially important for any visiting children to understand, but everyone needs to know when Fido is resting, he does not want to be touched.

If you have a dog that is not entirely comfortable with visitors, then I would recommend you find a way to secure them in their safe area so nobody can accidently encroach on their personal space.

Even if your dog isn’t shut away, it’s important that everyone clearly understands that if your dog has taken themselves off to lay down, or they are simply laying quietly in their bed, they are to be LEFT ALONE. 

Sorry, I know I keep shouting, but I can’t stress this enough.

With elevated stress levels it can be all too easy for everyone to miss signals that their dog has been starting to feel uncomfortable, overwhelmed or stressed. When you miss those early signals a dog gives that indicate how they’re feeling, THAT is when a ‘bite comes out of nowhere!’… but it doesn't, your dog had probably been trying to tell you and your visitors for quite some time how they were feeling.

It is your job as their guardian to help them out, and ensure you manage their environment and support them as necessary to keep everyone safe.

If you have a dog that is fearful or reactive to visitors in the home, Christmas really isn’t the time to be trying to do training or visitor habituation with them, unless you have already done all the foundation work and your dog is already able to remain under threshold when visitors are in the house.

This kind of behaviour modification requires that you be 100% focused on your dog when visitors are present, hence why it’s not really the best time. Have your management protocols strongly in place, support your dog and minimize their stress in any and every way you can, using all of these recommendations and then crack on with their training once the holidays are over and it’s quieter.

PLENTY OF SELF-SOOTHING ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES

Have plenty of self soothing enrichment activities either prepared or readily available to provide your dog with naturally calming things they can do to help them relax. 

Sniffing, licking and chewing are all naturally calming activities for dogs. Even simply taking them in the garden for a pressure break and tossing a big handful of treats around the garden for them to snuffle up can help them rebalance emotionally and reduce stress build up.

Snuffle mats, likkimats, Kongs, chew toys, puzzle toys are all excellent enrichment activities. Get creative and I’m sure you can come up with many of your own DIY versions of these.

HELP THEM REBALANCE & LOWER STRESS LEVELS

If there are going to be situations or events that are likely to stress your dog out, again get ahead of the game and proactively set up calming activities or situations that will balance these out. 

So for example, if you know your dog gets a bit unsettled or over aroused when visitors come, once they've spent a little time being the social butterfly, take them out for a slow, sniffy pressure break walk somewhere quiet to toilet and get some mental stimulation that will help them relax.

Then bring them back and pop them in their quiet space for a little while, with something to lick or chew and some calming music playing. You can then let them out again after a short while to come and join the fun, rinse and repeat as necessary.

If your dog is not reactive or fearful with strangers, of course let them mingle with your visitors (with pressure breaks) and after your visitors have left, spend a little time with your dog doing relaxing activities such as scent games or find it games followed by some TTouch or massage to help them release any excitement tension that may have built up and rebalance any elevated stress/arousal levels.

This will help them get into a ready to relax and sleep state, rather than just leaving them all 'buzzed' and expecting them to then go and relax.  Think overtired children!

This is something that is especially important if you have a puppy or adolescent dog in the house as they can have a hard time coming down from exciting over stimulating events.

AVOID EXCESSIVE OR OVER AROUSING EXERCISE

It’s a popular misconception that taking a dog out for a super long walk or playing lots of fetch with them will tire them out. 

This is not always the case and for the majority of dogs (especially sensitive ones or reactive ones) it can actually have the opposite effect and leave them amped up, wired, anxious or full of energy, but with no outlet for it once they return home.

Scent games or problem solving games and training activities are more tiring and relaxing than overly stimulating walks. Or slower, quiet sniff orientated walks will be something that tires and relaxes your dog more than running them ragged.

Did you know that a dog can't 'scent' and breathe at the same time, which is what makes this activity so effective at tiring them over fast paced exercise, which actually stimulates cells to generate MORE ENERGY. 

Research has proven that sniffing and scent collecting has a positive physiological impact on your dogs breathing rate, heart rate and stress levels.

In addition sniffing activates a dogs 'seeking' system in the brain, which is also the part of the brain that releases the neurotransmitter, Dopamine.  Dopamine is responsible for 'good feeling's' and regulating anxiety, 

And if all that wasn't enough, spending time with your dog also provides them with the valuable benefit of one on one connected time with you, which they of course love! (and may not get quite so much of over the festive period)

FOOD MANAGEMENT

If you feed your dog (or your guests feed your dog) or they accidentally get access to food they don't normally have or that isn't good for them, they are more likely to get upset tummies.

It could also result in them becoming hyperactive and even more unsettled, over excited or reactive than they normally might be. 

We are what we eat and so are our dogs, especially our sensitive Romanian dogs. Food and diet have a major impact on behaviour (think children on blue smarties and coca cola!) so be sure to set your house and kitchen up right so your dogs cannot get access to all the Christmas goodies!

Of course, in addition to this, many of the foods we have more of over the Christmas period are poisonous to our dogs, so an even more important reason to make sure your food management is top of the tree! (See what I did there) 

Things like mince pies, Christmas cake, Christmas pudding, chocolate, alcohol, onions, grapes and Xylitol, which is found in many sweets, are all highly toxic for dogs.

**If your dog does ingest any of these food items, please contact your Vet immediately.

DOWNLOAD A PDF HANDOUT OF THIS POST TOGETHER WITH YOUR CHRISTMAS CHECKLIST POSTER TO SHARE WITH YOUR FAMILY

Don’t forget, The DOG’s Point of View Community Facebook group has lots of tips, information and resources for Romanian Rescue or foreign rescue adopters. You are very welcome to join that group HERE.

If your dog does find having visitors to the house a huge challenge, then you might benefit from signing up for the DOG's Point of View Mini Workshop for Dogs that Overreact to Visitors. Whilst this isn't an in depth training plan by any means, there is a LOT of information in it that will be useful in helping you to make sure you set your dog up right over the Christmas period.

It includes a 2 hour workshop recording, a 30 page PDF workbook and supporting resources to help you implement some of the approaches discussed during the workshop.

Once the festivities are over, then you can focus on working closely with them to help them become more relaxed when you have guests over. 🥰

With All of That Out of The Way, all that Remains is for everyone here at The Dog’s Point of View to Wish You a Very Merry Christmas & A Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year. xxx

Categories: Fearful Romanian Dogs, Living with Romanian Rescue Dogs, Understanding Your Romanian Dog