In order to train successfully, is it important to understand your dog’s communication. When a dog experiences stress (whether this is good or bad such as  excitement vs fear), this raises their arousal levels. During this, stress hormones will increase in the blood. If it occurs at high levels or over a longer period of time, it can take up to 72 hours for these hormones to return to baseline levels, which means the dog will be in a higher state of arousal during this time. Using calming enrichment activities can help to reduce this quicker.

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Every animal (even humans!) has a limit for how much stress they can cope with, this will differ greatly depending on the dog’s life experiences, genetics, diet, living environment and health/medical conditions. Each activity that rises a dog’s stress levels (even good stress like excitement), proceeds to add more ‘water’ to the dog's ‘bucket’, and if this continues eventually the bucket will overflow and the dog will have a reaction. Sniffing, licking and chewing are all naturally calming activities, which is where the enrichment activities come into play! All activities which encourage these behaviours help to calm the dog and create positive associations.

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