The Surprising Link Between Dog Training and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for OCD and Anxiety
- Jane Watkins
- Apr 11
- 6 min read
Hello, thank you for stopping by to spend some time with me.
Why this blog post about anxiety is unusual
I realise this is not your usual therapy blog post! Mixing it up a bit! I have questioned the wisdom of writing this at all. My anxiety is really noticeable. Will I be judged for writing something that could be construed as unprofessional and ridiculous. But heck, I am not a starchy therapist. I live a messy life too with problems and difficulties just the same as you do. I like to keep therapy real cause all my clients are wonderful messy, real people too. So this is written from the heart in the hope it might help at least one person.
So how is there a link Between Dog Training and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for OCD and Anxiety
How my recent life experience has shaped this blog
Since about September of last year, I have skated with despair, deep misery, anxiety, hopelessness, sadness, fear and so many other emotions I am not going to make an endless list with. There have been chinks of light and joyous moments, but all surrounded by this darkness.
Various really difficult life events, stalled plans, huge mountains to climb, seemingly impossible challenges without a solution and loss to top it off. There has been the joy of our new rescue dog, Pip at Christmas and then along came our red setter puppy about 6 weeks ago. Pip settled in very quickly but after a month started to have real difficulties. We think he was masking the first month and then crashed and burned having finally found safety. Things have happened to my life with Pip that I had never imagined. My world has become very small, to the inside walls of my house with all the blinds closed.
Pip, appearing confident and happy. He is in this moment, but other moments show a different story of past trauma and current anxiety about his world from that.
How anxiety gets started
Our Pip, above, has had some huge struggles. Struggles, for a dog, I had never considered or even had any thoughts about before he joined us last December. Looking at this photo, you would never know how much he is currently struggling with life. Like many humans, he masks what is really going on for him. Here, he is the picture of confidence and happiness. The reality is so different.
He has been pretty beaten up by other dogs and now the huge reactivity shows. He lunges and barks really loudly if he sees another dog. He will bark the house down if anyone passes by. He is not an aggressive dog, he is a very anxious dog. Scared something terrible, as he has experience in the past, is going to happen again. I will now, always, sympathise with other dog owners I see having the same struggles.
I am sure this will resonant with many humans out there? both from human experience and maybe their own dogs?
Steps to recover from anxiety
We have not left the house for many weeks now to reduce his stressors to allow him “empty his stress bucket” as our behaviourist advises us. This is to enable him to engage in training (dog equivalent for human psychological talking therapy) so that he can be in the world with the joy and confidence he deserves. The parallels with human psychology are amazing. I actually use the “Stress Bucket” idea with my own clients.
What is a stress bucket?
You may or may not have heard of the stress bucket idea. Briefly, it describes the container we all have that we put all our “stuff” in. Everyone’s containers are of varying sizes. Some people have large and quite empty buckets and others fuller and/or smaller buckets. When the bucket overflows we feel overwhelmed and things go to s***. We get depressed and/or anxious and then get into all kinds of unhelpful behaviours to try to make ourselves feel better. Often, those behaviours have unfortunate unintentional consequences. It is those behaviours we target in therapy, in essence. To understand what is in the bucket, empty it and then introduce more helpful responses to our thoughts and feelings.
Enabling space for therapy:
Unbeknown to me, it is exactly the same with dogs! The reason for being in the house, with closed blinds is to help Pip empty his bucket so he can then manage his big feelings. He will be able to do that as he has space in his bucket which will help him to calmly assess things. For humans, we would probably not say stay in a dark house, but is it the same principle. This is often the starting point of therapy, to empty the bucket a bit.
Progress in therapy:
n the last couple of days we have the house blinds open when they are both awake. To see the light from the outside world is beyond amazing. Small things maybe, but never considered as this special before. This is because Pip’s bucket has emptied enough, reduced his anxiety a bit, for him to not be paying attention to the window. In human terms, a bit more space to process things away from at least one fear, maybe. Hard to give a precise example in a general piece of writing! But happy to discuss your bucket with you!
How anxiety/OCD can start in childhood:
Having always had dogs from puppies and being able to lovingly and patiently form them from the start I had no idea how much dogs who do not have this nurturing go on to struggle in adulthood. It saddens me so much to know that when Pip cried as a puppy no one came. He has run into doors, got under my feet and must have felt that and never made a sound. He learned it made no difference in his early days. Breaks my heart.
How many humans have also lost their voice because from an early age no-one listened, taught them about emotions and how to manage those big feelings, that feelings are ok, how to talk about them or feelings were dismissed or said to be silly?
Parallels between dog training and CBT! (I bet no one has searched for that on google!!)
I have come to realise that dog training to dogs is like psychological therapy for humans.
Therapy for humans helps them to thrive and be who they want to be.
Dog training has the same effect on our dogs. I feel stupid for not realising that a long time ago. I have, of course, trained my dogs in the past and they have thrived. But with Pip, it has been on a different scale. He has not responded to any usual training. He is beginning to now, with the help of a wonderful vet behaviourist, but it has been a long road to find the right help.
If you would like to explore your "bucket" with me on a free 20 minute call, please don't hesitate to get in touch, here
Other blogs posts that might be of interest:
With all my best
Jane
Cognitive Psychotherapist and in the messiness of life.
Did you know that we now believe that low-self esteem is a learned behaviour? This is incredibly good news! It is exciting to know we can unlearn it! Much anxiety and OCD stem from low self-esteem. Not all, but there is usually at least some elements of that in my experience over the last 20 years of helping clients.
Do you find yourself second guessing everything you think and do? Worrying about past conversations, at 3 am? Feeling negatively judged by everyone. Having to seek reassurance again and it doesn’t help and you can see how irritated that person is by it? Terrified of compliments as you fear you are rubbish? Feel helpless to the critical voice in your head? All these and more are suggestive of low self-esteem.
If you would like to access more things I write about, then do come over to Substack and find me here for lots of free resources in the Self Esteem Hub. Click here to go directly to the Self Esteem Hub:
The self-esteem hub is currently undergoing a facelift, please bear with me. All current content is available to everyone for no cost.
Comments