09/07/2025
Great article from one of my favourite dog trainers - Jack Fenton - Dorset Dog Trainer
Today, I was involved in a car crash. Here are some things you can learn about your dog's anxiety.
Firstly, everyone is fine. No physical injuries. A tree fell into the road while a student was giving me a lift into town, and we drove straight through. Most of the wood was rotten and broken, but a headlight was still smashed, the grill was pushed in and there were quite a few dents.
It would be easy to write this off as a simply scary event, and call it there. I, right now, feel fine about it.
But the body keeps score of the things that happen. And mentally? I might not later.
There's a couple of reasons for this. We witnessed a stressful incident in class with a dog walker and some cyclists, and I got some annoying personal news mid-class. All these things in isolation are stressful, but added together over the course of a few hours? It's a lot.
Your dog is the same. A build up of stressful events can make something that they might be able to brush off 'stick' inside their mind.
It is also unfair to say the event was 'fine'. It was, but it was still frightening, and while consciously I feel okay subconsciously my body might not. So I'll need to bear in mind my anxiety if there are any issues when I get in a car again, even though I feel like that is unlikely.
Again, your dog is the same. They might have an incident that they brush off at the time, but it doesn't mean it might not creep up down the road.
Finally, I'm not going to avoid cars.
If I said 'I'm not going anywhere near a car for a while', I risk creating an issue when there isn't one. I'll be aware of how I feel when I'm in a car, but to completely avoid them would lead to more issues (especially when I do feel alright at this point).
Seeing a pattern? Your dog is the same.
If we completely avoid dogs, or people, or cyclists, or children, we can exacerbate the problem. Should we through our dog into social situations immediately? No!
But they still need safe exposure. Hiding won't solve anything.
Keep in mind that a stressful incident is never just in isolation, that what we might view as a non-event now might not be, and that we shouldn't avoid situations where our dog has been previously stressed. We just need to adjust how we approach them for a while, until we know they're okay!
