Every dog has a different capacity to cope with the events of the day. Some dogs are chill and can cope with lots, some dogs are more prone to rising stress. Age, health, past experiences and breed are all a factor in how much stress your dog can handle.
Trigger stacking occurs when different experiences (triggers) happen close together for a cumulative effect (stacking).
Stress can be positive in nature - nice things that make you or your dog excited, or negative - worrying things that cause anxiety. Most people have heard of negative stress, usually called 'distress', but have you also heard of positive stress, known as 'eustress'? We often either forget or don't realise that exciting things cause as much stress as worrying things so trigger stacking can easily be missed.
"A nice trip to the beach can't possibly stress out my dog!"
"My dog loves coming to the pet shop!"
"We'll go to the woods because you love watching squirrels!"
It all adds up and if your dog isn't given ample opportunities to decompress, calm down, relax, or release the tension from recent experiences, it WILL affect how the cope with the next few experiences.
Did you know that once your dog hits that dangerous threshold, coming back down to a calm and relaxed state can take 72 hours or more! Think of all the trigger stacking that can happen in that time to send the stress levels back up.
Comments