I recently ordered a new key for my car. As I was close to arriving at the dealership on Monday morning to have the new key programmed, I realized that I left the new key at home. I was so annoyed with myself. As I gnashed my teeth together, my rational self-talk seeped in. "Why are you so mad? You have plenty of time today." 

So I began reflecting on why my pulse rate was racing. That's when I realized that the aggressive drivers tailgating at high speeds and zipping in and out of traffic were stressing me out. My stress was building and realizing that I had to drive even longer around these drivers created a bad mood bomb. 

Stress is cumulative. We dog trainers often refer to this as trigger stacking. As triggers and stress build, resilience diminishes. A dog's trigger stacking may look like this: 

So how can we decrease triggers to improve resilience? If your dog is hypervigilant at the window, cover your windows with vinyl film. This will let light through while making the window opaque and blocking the view. 

If sounds trigger your dog to bark, attenuate the outdoor sounds with indoor sounds. Play Through a Dog's Ear as background music. Place a white noise machine near the front door. Live in an apartment building with lots of hallway noise? Turn your microwave fan on high during increased hallway traffic times. 

These two changes make space for further training and behavior modification. This stress mitigation, along with training, can help improve your dog's behavior inside and outside your home. Remember, the less stressed your dog is, the less stressed you'll be about your dog. Let's turn a case of the Mondays into Friyay vibes!