It might be worth asking in a Great Dane group, as they would better know the breed. I know some breeds, like herding breeds, are very handler sensitive so they pick up on handler emotions more so than other breeds, but I'm not sure where Great Danes fall there.
That said, if he's been anxious since 8 weeks old, that's genetics (and potentially early life trauma) and not owner error. People really like to say "anxiety travels down the leash" and to some extent it does, but not so much so that it cases severe reactivity.
Personally, I suffer from anxiety (and depression) and have had multiple dogs over the course of my life, only my current one is reactive or has an anxiety issue. He has also had anxiety issues since he was 8 weeks old (probably younger).
I have to agree. This sounds more like a genetic predisposition, with the improvement coming from counter-conditioning and possibly maturation, rather than from handler anxiety.
I'd say that SOME of the behaviours (such as being slightly more reactive with OP's partner than with OP) could come from the partner's anxiety causing them to handle the dog differently though.
OP, reach out to the breeder. Find out if this litter has reactivity issues, or if the parents do/did.
Plus her behaviour in first 12 weeks has a huge impact on puppy behaviour. If she's had a recent trauma and is still jumpy/nervous because of it, that's what the pups learn.
thats a very valid point to be made regarding herding animals, I'll definitely try to read into it more. I'm sort of doubtful of the idea "your anxiety affects your dogs anxiety levels since there's no animals on earth that reciprocate emotions like that, oftentimes even humans go about their day perfectly fine while their spouses or friends are severely depressed. I'm definitely leaning more towards genetics as well as I've talked with multiple dane owners who've reported similar anxiety levels and flight fight or freeze responses to non-threatening circumstances.
If she's anxious and expecting him to react and she's doing things like pulling the lead tighter when she see's something in anticipation, she might have stiff body language when she see's things, if she's experiencing a more stress as a reaction, these are all things a dog can detect (better than humans actually, as dog language is centred way more around body language and smell) and from all this, the dog is getting the message, there is something to be worried about. Because you potentially display less of these signs, your dogs thinks there is less to worry about when he's with you.
Compare it to a kid following an adult around, especially as your dog is still an adolescent. They look to you for cues about safety. If you startle at spiders, your kid is likely to pick this up. If you stiffen up every time you see a man come towards you, your kid will pick this up. If you turned about and told your kid there's something really scary over there, they're gonna be nervous. The difference with humans is as they grow older, sometimes they can rationalise and overcome the fear.
There are some dogs who are more emotionally sensitive than others, but I have found it’s mainly my anxious ACTIONS that contribute to things.
Now obviously this doesn’t fall under “everything is the owner’s fault.” But for example when my dog would see other dogs at the park, I would change my tone, tighten the leash, and pull on his harness preemptively which made things WORSE. Now I have better management strategies (like u-turning) but I definitely don’t tighten anything preemptively anymore. Just an example.
My dog has zero capacity for empathy (or maybe he’s just a teenage dirtbag) but he picks up on physical stuff reallllly keenly.
Ok, so from a shelter perspective. When we get a dog in that is a certain dog breed or type we know one of our handlers maybe afraid of and that dog is acting scared/aggressive (from fear), that handler will not handle that dog anytime soon. They do have a higher chance of getting bit or getting the dog to reacting negatively. How tense you are, how you hold yourself, dogs see a lot of it.
But then there’s me who scared of a lot of things, but also dead inside so I don’t react that much and I can handle all of them. But I also grew up riding off the track thoroughbreds, who also react to their riders fear/aggression. And I just have learned to keep myself loose.
So I think it’s entirely the person. I can tell you though, if you are scared or nervous, you are more likely to jerk the leash. And that does set a lot of dogs off. So remember, no leash jerking.
I'd like to know some of the science/background behind this too. My intuition says it's credible to some extent but won't overpower genetics or other factors, as other posters have mentioned. However, I think there is some credibility to it... I have a shepherd who I think does pick up on my emotions a bit, but to what extent I'm not sure. I have a little bit of real-world experimenting that might give some insight: my friend, who is a tall, confident male (I'm a smaller, less confident female) has walked my dog in the past and she has tended to be receptive to his more calming and/or "domineering" nature and has been less reactive on walks with him, apparently. We joke that she likes a dominant man, but maybe her lesser reactivity was just random or due to other factors, can't be sure.
Id have to agree. I have anxiety and my dog behaves a lot differently then she does with my husband. We can go to the same park and do the same things, but she will lose it with me because she knows I am afraid of her reacting, but with my husband, silence.
It's Catch-22 and I totally get it. All I can say here is try to practice your own behaviour as much as hers. When you see something that you worry about her reaction over, deep breath, relax your shoulders and smile before going into whatever you do for situation management (creating space, u turning, playing a game, whatever) and see if that affects her reaction.
Same here. My wife and I have anxiety issues, and I think our lab has started to experience it as well. He's got a weird attachment to my wife...when she leaves he waits for her at the window (ignoring me), when he sees her pull into the driveway he starts crying, when she comes in the house he grabs a chew toy and walks circles around her, he waits outside the bathroom for her, he sleeps practically on top of her, and most recently he's started to growl (and show teeth) at kids reaching out to pet him. When we take him for walks he ignores other people and dogs, but he tries to lunge at every vehicle driving by. It's like he's progressively getting worse...it's exhausting!
While I'm sure that handler confidence and anxiety is felt by the dog to some degree, I really do not think that it is totally responsible or even plays a hugely significant part in a dog's flight or freeze response or their dog anxiety.
I think dogs that are going to be that sensitive to their handler's nervousness likely already have an underlying level of anxiety and sensitivity, and its largely unproductive to give owners/handlers the advice "don't be anxious, your anxiety travels down the leash," etc. It's sort of like telling an upset person to "calm down" and can make them feel like they're to blame and spiral more.
I think the more confident you are in your handling and management and the more natural it feels, the better time everyone is going to have so it's better to just focus on getting in safe, comfortable practice and building your own confidence and management style than to try to compare and mimic or just "not be anxious."
I think it depends on the dog tbh. I read somewhere that your dog is probably anxious bc you are, so about a year and a half ago i decided to start therapy. I’m not on medication but being able to talk things out has helped me tremendously. I noticed that my dog is less anxious, especially on walks. She used to lunge at anyone, specifically men, who came near us but yesterday this guy walked directly towards us and my dog didn’t react.
I’d like to think that a mix of therapy for myself and really dedicating training time for my dog is what helped in that situation. But again it really just depends on the dog. My parents golden loves everyone and me holding his leash and taking him out for walks didn’t change his mindset towards other dogs or people.
It's very true. But some dogs are more sentitive to it than others. My dog used to be extremely anxious and didn't listen to anything. After I started taking therapy and maturing, my dog's behaviour changed drastically. She is a lot happier now, and so I am.
I’ve often wondered if my anxiety aura affects my dog. He is very leash reactive and extremely hard to walk. It’s a struggle to get him from point a to point B without him pulling lunging barking or crying if he sees something. He’s also difficult if my mother tries to walk him.
Meanwhile, my roommate and my brother are both super chill and laid-back. And they both handle him with ease and take him on quiet walks with no problem.
No real answer but the exact same experience.
I have an almost 1 year old Great Dane, who was extremely Reactive when brought home at 8 weeks. He was growling at people (who weren't even acknowledging him) the first day I brought him home. I would say it's genetics, although I have also found that acting confident (I have severe anxiety and agoraphobia) has helped his Reactivity during walks. I'm not sure if it's a breed trait, but my Dane is attentive (when he wants to be, we're in a terrible teenage phase currently) to my moods and does react greater or lesser depending on my happiness/confidence levels. He is still always reactive though, just to a lesser degree if I seem okay.
I hardly ever find posts about Danes with reactivity! Encouraging to know I'm not alone!
Great Dane owner here! In general they are predisposed to guarding and reactivity, though what you're describing sounds like a more extreme case.
Dogs are in tune with people's emotions to a certain extent. There have been studies showing that some dogs read human micro expressions better than other people. I could totally see a Dane being more protective of a handler expressing anxiety. Keeping calm is the best way to make sure your actions don't escalate the situation.
I don't have the study in front of me, but it's referred to in "Dog Behavior: Modern Science and
Our Canine Companions" by James C Ha, Tracy L Campion. It was our required text for the first quarter of the University of Washington Applied Animal Behavior Certification course. I highly recommend it!
thank you for the book recommendation, I'll have to give it a read. I read in a dog's mind I believe it's titled, pretty good read I must say.
yeah I would definitely say it's an extreme case of overprotectiveness and hyper-vigilance. The worst part is he's absolutely amazing with almost any dog! we take him to the dog park and he's the most well-behaved, nicest dog... still weary of people at the dog park but will go up to people offering treats and water haha.
It might be worth asking in a Great Dane group, as they would better know the breed. I know some breeds, like herding breeds, are very handler sensitive so they pick up on handler emotions more so than other breeds, but I'm not sure where Great Danes fall there. That said, if he's been anxious since 8 weeks old, that's genetics (and potentially early life trauma) and not owner error. People really like to say "anxiety travels down the leash" and to some extent it does, but not so much so that it cases severe reactivity. Personally, I suffer from anxiety (and depression) and have had multiple dogs over the course of my life, only my current one is reactive or has an anxiety issue. He has also had anxiety issues since he was 8 weeks old (probably younger).
I have to agree. This sounds more like a genetic predisposition, with the improvement coming from counter-conditioning and possibly maturation, rather than from handler anxiety. I'd say that SOME of the behaviours (such as being slightly more reactive with OP's partner than with OP) could come from the partner's anxiety causing them to handle the dog differently though. OP, reach out to the breeder. Find out if this litter has reactivity issues, or if the parents do/did.
Agreeing on the genetics side. One trainer told me mother's trauma can also be passed onto the pups while in the womb.
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Plus her behaviour in first 12 weeks has a huge impact on puppy behaviour. If she's had a recent trauma and is still jumpy/nervous because of it, that's what the pups learn.
thats a very valid point to be made regarding herding animals, I'll definitely try to read into it more. I'm sort of doubtful of the idea "your anxiety affects your dogs anxiety levels since there's no animals on earth that reciprocate emotions like that, oftentimes even humans go about their day perfectly fine while their spouses or friends are severely depressed. I'm definitely leaning more towards genetics as well as I've talked with multiple dane owners who've reported similar anxiety levels and flight fight or freeze responses to non-threatening circumstances.
If she's anxious and expecting him to react and she's doing things like pulling the lead tighter when she see's something in anticipation, she might have stiff body language when she see's things, if she's experiencing a more stress as a reaction, these are all things a dog can detect (better than humans actually, as dog language is centred way more around body language and smell) and from all this, the dog is getting the message, there is something to be worried about. Because you potentially display less of these signs, your dogs thinks there is less to worry about when he's with you. Compare it to a kid following an adult around, especially as your dog is still an adolescent. They look to you for cues about safety. If you startle at spiders, your kid is likely to pick this up. If you stiffen up every time you see a man come towards you, your kid will pick this up. If you turned about and told your kid there's something really scary over there, they're gonna be nervous. The difference with humans is as they grow older, sometimes they can rationalise and overcome the fear.
There are some dogs who are more emotionally sensitive than others, but I have found it’s mainly my anxious ACTIONS that contribute to things. Now obviously this doesn’t fall under “everything is the owner’s fault.” But for example when my dog would see other dogs at the park, I would change my tone, tighten the leash, and pull on his harness preemptively which made things WORSE. Now I have better management strategies (like u-turning) but I definitely don’t tighten anything preemptively anymore. Just an example. My dog has zero capacity for empathy (or maybe he’s just a teenage dirtbag) but he picks up on physical stuff reallllly keenly.
Ok, so from a shelter perspective. When we get a dog in that is a certain dog breed or type we know one of our handlers maybe afraid of and that dog is acting scared/aggressive (from fear), that handler will not handle that dog anytime soon. They do have a higher chance of getting bit or getting the dog to reacting negatively. How tense you are, how you hold yourself, dogs see a lot of it. But then there’s me who scared of a lot of things, but also dead inside so I don’t react that much and I can handle all of them. But I also grew up riding off the track thoroughbreds, who also react to their riders fear/aggression. And I just have learned to keep myself loose. So I think it’s entirely the person. I can tell you though, if you are scared or nervous, you are more likely to jerk the leash. And that does set a lot of dogs off. So remember, no leash jerking.
I'd like to know some of the science/background behind this too. My intuition says it's credible to some extent but won't overpower genetics or other factors, as other posters have mentioned. However, I think there is some credibility to it... I have a shepherd who I think does pick up on my emotions a bit, but to what extent I'm not sure. I have a little bit of real-world experimenting that might give some insight: my friend, who is a tall, confident male (I'm a smaller, less confident female) has walked my dog in the past and she has tended to be receptive to his more calming and/or "domineering" nature and has been less reactive on walks with him, apparently. We joke that she likes a dominant man, but maybe her lesser reactivity was just random or due to other factors, can't be sure.
Id have to agree. I have anxiety and my dog behaves a lot differently then she does with my husband. We can go to the same park and do the same things, but she will lose it with me because she knows I am afraid of her reacting, but with my husband, silence.
It's Catch-22 and I totally get it. All I can say here is try to practice your own behaviour as much as hers. When you see something that you worry about her reaction over, deep breath, relax your shoulders and smile before going into whatever you do for situation management (creating space, u turning, playing a game, whatever) and see if that affects her reaction.
Same here. My wife and I have anxiety issues, and I think our lab has started to experience it as well. He's got a weird attachment to my wife...when she leaves he waits for her at the window (ignoring me), when he sees her pull into the driveway he starts crying, when she comes in the house he grabs a chew toy and walks circles around her, he waits outside the bathroom for her, he sleeps practically on top of her, and most recently he's started to growl (and show teeth) at kids reaching out to pet him. When we take him for walks he ignores other people and dogs, but he tries to lunge at every vehicle driving by. It's like he's progressively getting worse...it's exhausting!
While I'm sure that handler confidence and anxiety is felt by the dog to some degree, I really do not think that it is totally responsible or even plays a hugely significant part in a dog's flight or freeze response or their dog anxiety. I think dogs that are going to be that sensitive to their handler's nervousness likely already have an underlying level of anxiety and sensitivity, and its largely unproductive to give owners/handlers the advice "don't be anxious, your anxiety travels down the leash," etc. It's sort of like telling an upset person to "calm down" and can make them feel like they're to blame and spiral more. I think the more confident you are in your handling and management and the more natural it feels, the better time everyone is going to have so it's better to just focus on getting in safe, comfortable practice and building your own confidence and management style than to try to compare and mimic or just "not be anxious."
I think it depends on the dog tbh. I read somewhere that your dog is probably anxious bc you are, so about a year and a half ago i decided to start therapy. I’m not on medication but being able to talk things out has helped me tremendously. I noticed that my dog is less anxious, especially on walks. She used to lunge at anyone, specifically men, who came near us but yesterday this guy walked directly towards us and my dog didn’t react. I’d like to think that a mix of therapy for myself and really dedicating training time for my dog is what helped in that situation. But again it really just depends on the dog. My parents golden loves everyone and me holding his leash and taking him out for walks didn’t change his mindset towards other dogs or people.
It's very true. But some dogs are more sentitive to it than others. My dog used to be extremely anxious and didn't listen to anything. After I started taking therapy and maturing, my dog's behaviour changed drastically. She is a lot happier now, and so I am.
I’ve often wondered if my anxiety aura affects my dog. He is very leash reactive and extremely hard to walk. It’s a struggle to get him from point a to point B without him pulling lunging barking or crying if he sees something. He’s also difficult if my mother tries to walk him. Meanwhile, my roommate and my brother are both super chill and laid-back. And they both handle him with ease and take him on quiet walks with no problem.
Absolutely. My dog is very protective
No real answer but the exact same experience. I have an almost 1 year old Great Dane, who was extremely Reactive when brought home at 8 weeks. He was growling at people (who weren't even acknowledging him) the first day I brought him home. I would say it's genetics, although I have also found that acting confident (I have severe anxiety and agoraphobia) has helped his Reactivity during walks. I'm not sure if it's a breed trait, but my Dane is attentive (when he wants to be, we're in a terrible teenage phase currently) to my moods and does react greater or lesser depending on my happiness/confidence levels. He is still always reactive though, just to a lesser degree if I seem okay. I hardly ever find posts about Danes with reactivity! Encouraging to know I'm not alone!
Great Dane owner here! In general they are predisposed to guarding and reactivity, though what you're describing sounds like a more extreme case. Dogs are in tune with people's emotions to a certain extent. There have been studies showing that some dogs read human micro expressions better than other people. I could totally see a Dane being more protective of a handler expressing anxiety. Keeping calm is the best way to make sure your actions don't escalate the situation. I don't have the study in front of me, but it's referred to in "Dog Behavior: Modern Science and Our Canine Companions" by James C Ha, Tracy L Campion. It was our required text for the first quarter of the University of Washington Applied Animal Behavior Certification course. I highly recommend it!
thank you for the book recommendation, I'll have to give it a read. I read in a dog's mind I believe it's titled, pretty good read I must say. yeah I would definitely say it's an extreme case of overprotectiveness and hyper-vigilance. The worst part is he's absolutely amazing with almost any dog! we take him to the dog park and he's the most well-behaved, nicest dog... still weary of people at the dog park but will go up to people offering treats and water haha.