Understanding Stress and Cortisol in Dogs
Cortisol and stress are often seen in a negative light, largely because many of us are over-stressed, or have toxic stress. But let's take a moment to reframe this hormone and see it for what it truly is: the body's stress-fighting hero.
What Is Cortisol?
Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands in response to stress. It is part of the body’s natural stress response system and plays an essential role in managing stress. Cortisol works by increasing glucose in the bloodstream, providing the energy needed for a quick response to stressors. It also helps suppress pain, inflammation, and the immune system temporarily, allowing the body to focus on overcoming the immediate challenge.
Cortisol follows a natural rhythm, with levels being highest in the morning and gradually decreasing throughout the day. When we talk about cortisol in the context of stress, it's important to remember that it’s not the cause of stress, but the body’s way of managing and coping with it.
Stress in Dogs: A Normal Response to Life
Stress is an unavoidable part of life for all animals, including dogs. In fact, even simple things like waking up in the morning, meeting a new person, or going for a walk can trigger the release of cortisol. These are examples of tolerable stress, the kind of stress that the body can manage and recover from. It’s when the body’s natural response to stress is balanced and healthy.
This process of adjusting to new stressors is called allostasis. It allows the body to adapt to change and maintain balance, even in stressful situations.
Tolerable stress—the kind of stress that the dog can experience and recover from—can actually be beneficial. Overcoming stress helps build stress resilience, or the ability to bounce back from difficult situations. Just like humans, dogs need to experience manageable stress in order to build mental and emotional strength. This resilience can make them more adaptable to future challenges and less likely to become overwhelmed by stressors.
Stress becomes problematic when it becomes chronic or overwhelming, leading to allostatic overload. This is when the body’s efforts to cope with prolonged stress take a toll, causing issues such as digestive problems, anxiety, or even physical health problems like obesity or heart disease. This may be due to the environment, for example prolonged time in an isolated kennel, or a lack of stress resilience in the dog (which may be genetic or prenatal).
Building Stress Resilience: How Stress Helps with Stress
Stress resilience is not about avoiding stress altogether, but about learning how to cope with and recover from it. In dogs, resilience is built by repeatedly overcoming stressful situations. For instance, a puppy hearing a motorcycle for the first time may feel stressed. However, once the stressful encounter is over, the puppy’s body returns to a normal, balanced state. This process helps the brain develop neuroplasticity, which is the ability to adapt and reorganise itself in response to new experiences.
The more a dog faces and overcomes manageable stress, the better equipped they are to handle future stressors. This gradual process of adapting to stress is called allostasis, and it is crucial for both physical and emotional health. It helps dogs adapt to new situations, environments, and challenges, and allows them to regulate their stress levels effectively.
Take, for example, a dog that’s initially afraid of the sound of fireworks. Over time, with gradual exposure to this stressor in a controlled and safe way, the dog learns that the noise isn’t dangerous. As they cope with this stressor and their body recovers from it, their resilience increases. The next time they encounter fireworks, their stress response is lower, and they’re more capable of handling the situation.
The Role of Cortisol in Building Resilience
Cortisol plays a significant role in helping the body manage stress, but it’s also integral to building resilience. When a dog faces a stressful event, cortisol is released to provide the energy needed for a fight-or-flight response. This temporary boost allows the dog to respond to the threat and eventually return to a calm state once the stressor is gone.
Over time, dogs that experience tolerable levels of stress and successfully manage these experiences develop a more robust stress response system. Cortisol levels return to normal after these stress events, and the body learns to regulate its stress response more efficiently. This ability to adapt to stress is what allows dogs to become more resilient in the face of future challenges.
Toxic Stress vs. Tolerable Stress: Understanding the Difference
While some stress is beneficial, toxic stress can have lasting negative effects on a dog’s health and behaviour. Toxic stress occurs when a dog is repeatedly exposed to overwhelming stressors that they cannot adapt to or recover from. This can lead to a range of physical and emotional problems, including anxiety, digestive issues, and difficulty forming healthy social bonds.
A key factor in building resilience is the ability to cope with stress. Dogs that face situations that are too overwhelming for them—such as early-life trauma or lack of exposure—or have poor genetics may struggle to cope with future stressors (read more about genetics and prenatal effects). This can result in a heightened stress response, where even minor challenges cause significant stress.
On the other hand, tolerable stress—the kind that is manageable and within a dog’s coping abilities—helps dogs build resilience. Resilience is developed through repeated exposure to stressors, as long as these stressors do not exceed the dog’s capacity to cope. This process helps the dog become more capable of handling future stress in a healthy way.
Chronic Stress: The Impact of Unresolved Stress
Chronic stress is when a dog experiences ongoing stress that their body cannot fully recover from. This might occur when a dog is exposed to long-term stressors, like being in an unstable environment. When the body’s stress response system is constantly activated without enough time to recover, it can lead to allostatic overload.
Dogs suffering from chronic stress may appear more relaxed or indifferent to their environment, but this can actually be a sign of a blunted stress response. This means that their body has become so accustomed to prolonged stress that it no longer reacts to stressors in the way it should. Often these dogs will be described as shut down. This can lead to unpredictable behaviours, such as reactive aggression, because the dog is unable to cope with new or sudden stressors in a healthy way.
The Key to Helping Your Dog Build Resilience
As pet owners, one of the most important things we can do is help our dogs build stress resilience. This means allowing them to experience manageable stressors in a safe and controlled environment, so they can adapt and learn to cope. Whether it’s through regular exposure, intensive physical exercise, training new tasks or exposing them to new challenges, helping dogs overcome stress is crucial for their overall well-being.
Resilience is built through experience and recovery. The more your dog is able to successfully face and recover from manageable stress, the better equipped they will be to handle stress in the future. It’s about striking the right balance—providing opportunities for your dog to grow while also ensuring they’re not overwhelmed by stressors.
Conclusion: Embrace the Power of Resilience
Cortisol is a vital hormone in helping dogs manage stress, but it’s also an essential part of the process of building resilience. By allowing dogs to experience tolerable stress, we help them build emotional and physical strength, making them more adaptable and less likely to become overwhelmed in the future. Stress resilience is not just about surviving stressful situations—it’s about learning, adapting, and growing stronger. By understanding how cortisol works and how stress resilience is built, we can better support our dogs in becoming healthier, happier, and more adaptable companions.
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