Cortisol vacation for reactive dogs?

[emeko]

Peach has some pretty well documented reactivity issues, and I'm constantly looking for info and resources on how to help my girl cope with the world. I came across the concept of a "Cortisol vacation" this weekend and I was intrigued enough to read up on it more.

The basic concept of it is that every time a dog has a reactive episode it releases a big spike of cortisol and adrenaline, stress hormones, that remain active in the body. Many people are familiar with this through the concept of "trigger stacking", where after one reaction the dog's threshold is lower and they react more easily to the next trigger. The articles I was reading suggest that those stress hormones continue to have an impact long after the walk is done, and can last for days. It was suggested that hyper active, reactive dogs can benefit from a vacation from all stressful stimulus for days, even weeks, to allow the stress hormones to dissipate from the body and restore normal brain chemistry. So a period of time where there are no walks, no high arousal play, no view out the windows to bark at things, no car rides, etc. They suggest calming mind games to keep them from going totally stir crazy, but otherwise basically just out to potty. Oh, and T-touch massage technique for relaxation.

Has anyone in here ever done anything like this? My usual course of action with Peach is to tire her out a LOT, and keep her tired, but these articles suggested that you'll never out exhaust a reactive dog because their hyperactivity is a manifestation of their stress, which I definitely agree with for Peach. The idea of not exercising her for a week seems INSANE to me, but in the study below most owners expressed the same concerns for their high energy dogs, but most were able to do it, and see some benefit.

So just wondering if anyone else has tried this, had any success with it, or has any other thoughts to weigh in with. It's almost tempting enough to try!

An article and a study about the concept:

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/paws4udo...roid-rogers-ca

http://theiscp.com/wp-content/upload...-Thesis-2a.pdf

[mnmouse]

Very unscientific, but in my many many years of living with dogs, I've found the more you do with them, the more you need to do with them. And more and more and more.

I've got a middle aged mellow fellow dane, and a border collie cross who will soon be 14, so they are super happy to explore the pasture a couple times a week. Otherwise, they go out to potty and sniff a bit and they are content. Our three year old blue heeler is pretty mellow for her breed but you can't out exhaust her. The more we do with her, they more we NEED to do with her. So I just swallow my guilt of not engaging her weird little crazy mind and let her chill for a couple days, just hanging out and not doing much. I think it helps, otherwise, we'd be climbing Mount Everest eventually, and she'd STILL want to play ball at the top!

[jrturk]

Someone on this forum once described it in a way that made sense to me, comparing it to a bank account. Stressful situations were like withdrawals, that bring the balance down. If you pile up too many in a row, you get overdrawn and bad things happen. Deposits are good things that make the dog happy, high value treats or car rides, that sort of thing.

So I've used that with Lola, like if I know we're going to have a crazy busy week when they won't get as much attention, or around the 4th of July (she hates fireworks). I'll make sure to do some extra special stuff that makes her really happy, to try to stock up on good feeling hormones to offset the stress reactions.

[emeko]

Very unscientific, but in my many many years of living with dogs, I've found the more you do with them, the more you need to do with them. And more and more and more.

I've got a middle aged mellow fellow dane, and a border collie cross who will soon be 14, so they are super happy to explore the pasture a couple times a week. Otherwise, they go out to potty and sniff a bit and they are content. Our three year old blue heeler is pretty mellow for her breed but you can't out exhaust her. The more we do with her, they more we NEED to do with her. So I just swallow my guilt of not engaging her weird little crazy mind and let her chill for a couple days, just hanging out and not doing much. I think it helps, otherwise, we'd be climbing Mount Everest eventually, and she'd STILL want to play ball at the top!

Yeah, I definitely know what you mean, I've kind of said the same thing about Peach before. And then what you end up with (and what I have) is a really, REALLY strong dog, who is also crazy, and that's when trouble starts.

[NMDane]

All I know is that being the high anxiety person that I am, I totally need a cortisol vacation after my agility/obedience trials!!! I enjoy trialing with my dog, but afterwards my adrenaline is TAPPED OUT!! A few times I entered 3-day trials and was catatonic afterward!!! I would love to play calming mind games and get a massage post trial!!! I'm sold on this idea. LOL!!!

[tmwalsh88]

I actually just talked with behaviorist who essentially prescribes version of this for her fear reactive clients. She even suggests putting an opaque film on the windows so no arousal/barking from people walking outside. She said that once a dog is triggered and by that she meant even the intent stare at something--be it a squirrel, strange person, dog--in a reactive dog can increase arousal and you're basically starting from behind in your training when the dog is at this point. She described it as a 3 second window to essentially break the dog's intense focus on the trigger--with a treat or command, but after that window you've kind of lost your ground and the stress and coritsol is already spiking which leads to high heart rate and arousal--a state that is much much harder to work with when you're training/redirecting behavior. She said it can take up to 20 minutes of quiet time/no additional trigger for the dog's heart rate to go back down to normal. And I think it makes sense when you think about it, especially for fearful dogs who must experience stress, cortisol, high heart rate many times over the day. No wonder fear can turn to aggression. I'd be in some kind of crazy state if my heart rate was jumping around like that every time I saw a squirrel or person I didn't know.