5 Tried-And-Tested Ways to Keep Your Dog Calm

If your dog is a bit boisterous sometimes, you’re not alone. Keeping pups calm sometimes feels like a full-time job for many pet owners. 

The good news, though, is that adding some calming energy to your dog’s life isn’t rocket science. All you need to do is enact some basic tactics, and you’ll often find that you can go a long way. 

Here’s what to do: 

Exercise Your Pup Regularly

Top of your list of priorities should be to exercise your dog regularly. The more you can get them using their muscles in the morning, the calmer they will be for the rest of the day. 

Dogs love it when you take them out for 30 minutes to an hour. This seems to be best for most breeds, unless you have an extremely young and athletic dog that needs to burn off more steam. Just taking them to the park and letting them run around is often all you need to do. 

Create a Safe Place For Your Dog to Live

At the same time, you also want to make sure your dog actually feels safe where they live. Some dogs lack calmness because they are scared. 

Creating these safe spaces is always a challenge because you don’t always know what you need to do to make your dog react favourably. Mostly, you can fix the problem by providing them with a bed, crate or blanket, but it depends. 

Usually, all your dog needs is somewhere they can retreat and be in private. Just providing that often solves the problem and reduces worry. 

Provide Calming Supplements

You can also try using pet supplements that have a calming effect. These are often made of natural ingredients and soothe your dog safely from the inside out. 

Supplements are inexpensive and easy to add to your dog’s food or as a treat. They are also generally medicinal or herbal, meaning that they should be safe in small quantities. 

Play White Noise

If you think that sounds coming in from outside might be the problem, try playing your dog some white noise. Keeping a high level of sound in their environment that’s non-threatening will often calm them down and reduce the amount of barking they do at the window. 

If you can’t find any white noise to play (or want to avoid listening to it yourself), then calming music also works quite well. Any binaural beat should be fine. 

Use Desensitisation Techniques

Lastly, you might also want to look into using desensitisation techniques. These are effective because they train your dog to ultimately accept the stimulus instead of constantly getting freaked out by it. 

For example, whenever your dog feels nervous because the doorbell rings, give them some tasty food. A simple treat creates a positive association in their mind, encouraging them to feel good and stay calm. 

You could also train them by adding calming music or white noise when the door rings or someone walks by outside. Again, this training has the same effect. 

This is a collaborative post.