Many dog owners would do anything for their dogs. They buy the best food, invest in training, shower them with affection, and purchase the latest and greatest enrichment toys. Yet some of these dogs may spend parts of their days in a low-level state of stress; panting when guests arrive, scared of loud noises, and struggling to relax. Not because their owner doesn’t love them but because being loved and feeling safe are two very different things.
Creating a sense of safety for your dog comes down to two things: the environment you build for them and the way you behave around them. Both matter more than most people realize.
What Does it Mean for a Dog to Feel Safe?
Dogs are wired to be alert to potential threats. Unlike people, who can rationalize away a worry or concern, dogs live in the present moment. This means their nervous systems are constantly scanning their environment for signs of danger. When a dog feels safe, that scanning stops. They can relax, engage, learn, and enjoy your company.
When a dog doesn’t feel safe, even in subtle ways, the opposite happens. A dog living in a state of low-level stress has an elevated heart rate, reduced ability to learn, and is more likely to react with fear or aggression (Mârza et al., 2024). Over time, that chronic stress can take a toll both physically and behaviorally.
Signs your dog feels safe include:
- Relaxed, soft body posture (e.g. lying down)
- Willingness to approach you and others
- Ability to settle and relax
- Playfulness and curiosity
- Soft, relaxed gaze
Signs your dog may not feel safe are:
- Hypervigilance – constantly scanning the environment
- Hiding or avoiding certain people or areas of the home
- Excessive panting, yawning or lip-licking
- Inability to settle and relax
- Reactivity or aggression towards people, other animals or inanimate objects
Creating a Safe Environment for Your Dog
A dog’s environment sets the stage for how they feel. You can help create a safe environment for your dog by:
Giving Your Dog Their Own Safe Space
Every dog benefits from having a place that’s just theirs. This could be a crate, a comfy chair, or a specific room where they can decompress. This is a space they should be able to choose to go to, not somewhere they are sent to as a punishment. The key features of this space are that it is always accessible, safe, and a comfortable place to be, away from children and other pets.
Prioritizing Predictability
Unpredictability is one of the biggest contributing factors to anxiety in dogs. When a dog cannot predict what’s coming next, their nervous system may stay on alert. Regular schedules for feeding, walking, play, sleep, training, and attention help your dog understand what happens in their day. This understanding and ability to anticipate important daily events can be calming for dogs. Indeed, A 2021 study in Animals found that dogs on consistent daily schedules showed measurably lower cortisol levels than those without routine—a physiological sign that structure genuinely reduces stress.
Consistent household rules are just as important. If some family members allow certain behaviors (such as jumping up or being allowed on the couch) and others don’t, this can be confusing. Consistent expectations from everyone in the home reduce this confusion and the related stress.
Managing the Dog’s Exposure to Stressors
Every dog has a threshold. This is a point beyond which they can no longer cope with a stressful situation. Responsible management means keeping your dog below that threshold as much as possible. This might mean:
- Using a baby gate to keep your dog at a distance from guests and visitors
- Putting your dog in a quiet room during loud gatherings rather than expecting them to cope
- Turning up the volume on the TV or playing white noise during storms to drown out the sound of thunder
- Walking your reactive dog during quieter times of the day to reduce the number of triggers they encounter
Management isn’t a permanent solution to behavioral issues. However, it’s an essential part of helping to prevent your dog from being repeatedly overwhelmed and feeling unsafe because of it.
How Your Behavior Affects Tour Dog’s Sense of Safety
When it comes to helping your dog feel safe, the environment is only half the equation. The other half is you! How you (and other people) interact with and behave around your dog has a profound impact on whether they feel safe and secure. To help your dog feel safer try:
Learning To Read What Your Dog Is Telling You
Dogs constantly communicate through their body language but many of their stress signals are so subtle that people miss them. A dog that’s licking their lips, yawning when not tired, turning their head away, or showing the whites of their eyes is communicating discomfort. A tucked tail, lowered body posture, or ears pinned flat are clear signals, but by the time a dog reaches that point, their stress or anxiety has increased.
Learning to recognize these early signs and respond to them is one of the most important ways you can build trust with your dog and help them feel safe. When a dog understands that telling you they’re uncomfortable actually results in the stressor being removed, they will feel heard whereas when those signals are ignored, dogs learn they have no other choice but to escalate.
Giving Your Dog Choices
One of the most meaningful changes you can make to help your dog feel safe is giving your dog more choice and control over their own interactions. This means allowing your dog to decide to approach strangers themselves rather than forcing them to. It means not holding your dog still when a child approaches to pat them or respecting a dog’s choice when they don’t come to you for a pat when you ask.
When greeting another dog, model the approach you’d like others to take: crouch down, turn sideways, avoid direct eye contact, and let the dog come to you. This body language is far less threatening than bending over and reaching out to pat them.
Keeping Your Energy Calm and Consistent
Dogs are extraordinarily sensitive to human emotional states and not just in the ways you might expect. A 2021 study by Casey et., al found that the smell of a stressed person alone was enough to shift dogs into a more negative emotional state, making them more hesitant and ‘pessimistic’ in their behavior. This means your dog can tell if you’re stressed, even if you’re pretending you’re not.
This doesn’t mean you need to be a robot. Playfulness and enthusiasm are wonderful. However, chronic household stress, frequent arguments, or people who are unpredictably reactive can keep a dog in a permanent state of mind anxiety.
Common Mistakes that Undermine a Dog’s Emotional Safety
Even well-meaning owners can make their dogs feel less safe. Try to avoid these common mistakes:
- Flooding: Forcing a dog to face something scary until they “get used to it”. This approach usually makes fear worse, not better.
- Punishing a fear response: A dog who is told off for growling at something scary doesn’t stop feeling afraid and may stop warning with a growl.
- Inconsistency between family members: Mixed signals are confusing and can be stressful.
- Misreading arousal for excitement: A dog can be highly aroused and simultaneously distressed. Excitement and anxiety can look similar.
Is It Working? How To Know if Your Dog Feels Safe
A dog who feels emotionally safe will seek you out voluntarily. They’ll be able to settle in a busy room and their body will look loose rather than rigid. They’ll engage with new experiences with curiosity rather than fear.
Feeling safe isn’t a bonus for dogs, it’s the foundation everything else is built on and is essential for optimal welfare. A dog who feels emotionally secure is easier to train, more resilient, and more bonded to their family. If you have a dog who doesn’t seem to feel safe, start with the environment, look honestly at your own behavior, and let the small changes compound over time.
References
Casey, R. A., Naj-Oleari, M., Campbell, S., Mendl, M., & Blackwell, E. J. (2021). Dogs are more pessimistic if their owners use two or more aversive training methods. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 19023.
Mârza, S. M., Munteanu, C., Papuc, I., Radu, L., Diana, P., & Purdoiu, R. C. (2024). Behavioral, physiological, and pathological approaches of cortisol in dogs. Animals, 14(23), 3536.
I would love to know how to help them feel more relaxed on a walk. My dog is constantly on alert, head turning, clearly anxious….it’s not constant, but it’s enough that I’ve tried just talking calmly, walking away from rom what might be bothering her – managed but not working in the long term.
i cant read the article even though i am signed in
When we encountered other dogs and their owners, we sometimes noticed that the ‘aggression’, anxiety or fearfulness of some dogs often reflect their owners attitudes toward other dogs. They may pull their dog away, across the road or scoop them up as soon as they see another owner and dog coming. To the more receptive owners I conveyed that our dogs were respectful and friendly and never had a negative encounter with any dog. Several owners believed us and then were stunned by the friendly normal encounter between their and our animals. They would never have thought it possible and were overjoyed that their dog didn’t ‘attack’/wasn’t ‘attacked’ by an unknown dog. For many people and dogs, this was a first experience. I hope the owners realized and remembered that their own behavior reflected on their dogs reaction, and that they eventually started to allow their dogs to meet and greet other non-aggressive or ‘not-overactive’ dogs (which in my opinion are easy to recognize).
Love your article! It made me think further as to how to help a dog feel safe during storms. Hoping there’s a way!