WagMore Academy

WagMore Academy WagMore Academy provides humane, science-based dog training that strengthens your bond and supports your dog’s wellbeing.

From manners to confidence building, we help your dog thrive through positive, effective methods.

05/22/2026

Behavior can be pain communication — even when everything else looks “normal.”

05/06/2026

My anxious dog was in pain, and I didn’t know it until she was 6.

During Anxiety Awareness Week, it’s important to remember that behavior doesn’t happen in isolation.
Pain and physical discomfort can influence how a dog moves through the world—affecting things like anxiety, sensitivity, irritability, and behavior changes.
That doesn’t mean pain is the cause of every behavior concern, but it is a factor worth considering when something doesn’t feel quite right.
Working with your veterinary team is an important part of the bigger picture.

The Met Gala, anxious dog edition.
05/06/2026

The Met Gala, anxious dog edition.

05/05/2026

Continuing on for Dog Anxiety Awareness week 💛

What will actually help your dog’s anxiety?
It helps to understand what’s happening in the brain first.
When a dog is anxious, the stress response system kicks in and stress hormones—like cortisol—rise.
That shifts the brain away from a learning state and more into a survival state.
The amygdala, which processes threat, becomes more active, while areas involved in learning and memory—like the hippocampus—don’t function as effectively under high stress.
So instead of processing new information or cues, the brain is prioritizing: “Am I safe right now?”

That’s why anxious dogs can look like they “know” something one moment and then completely struggle with it the next.
It’s not inconsistency—it’s state-dependent learning.

And in that state, adding more obedience doesn’t really help, because the brain isn’t primed for learning—it’s primed for protection.

What actually helps is lowering that overall stress load over time so the nervous system can come back into balance.
Because when cortisol levels come down and the brain shifts out of threat mode, the hippocampus can do its job again—processing, learning, and forming stable associations.

05/05/2026

It’s Dog Anxiety Awareness Week 💛
There are so many factors that impact how a dog feels and responds to the world- behavior is influenced by more than what we can immediately see. Being mindful of the bigger picture helps us better support the dog in front of us 🐾

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Kent, OH
44240, 44242, 44243

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https://www.instagram.com/wagmoreacademy

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