10/26/2026
YESTERDAY I WAS IN A CAR ACCIDENT (I promise this post is related to dogs)
First off, I'm ok physically. My car, less so. The animal responsible for the hit and run? Not located, but hopefully ok too.
Mentally, emotionally? This has been pretty hard for me. It was scary, it was sudden. I had no idea the scary thing was about to happen and therefore had no time to prepare myself. The physical and emotional manifestations of fear did not immediately disappear after the impact. Would someone else be able to "get over it" or "deal with it" faster? Probably. I've always been a sensitive animal. There's lots of awareness in my body and mind around sudden scary things, and it's not easy for me to move on from them. After the adrenaline came down later in the day I was *exhausted* and my whole body hurt. I had less ability to deal with my lovely children, my lovely husband, my lovely dogs. No one felt lovely to me. Minor inconveniences that would normally be easy to deal with caused a huge spike of tension in my body and mind, and riding in my husbands truck later in the day set me on edge. I was hyper vigilant, tense, and anxious. At home I was sad, angry, and defeated as I processed the events.
To me these responses seem reasonable. We are allowed to be scared by scary things, and we're allowed to decide what is scary to us. What about our dogs?
Hopefully I am not in another car accident in a few days and my body and mind will have time to recover. But how often does this cycle repeat for our dogs? They're put in a scary situation, it is sudden and stressful, they had no time to prepare themselves. Maybe they are also a more sensitive animal, with lots of awareness in their body and mind around scary things. It might not be easy for them to move on from it. This could cause them to have less ability to deal with normal things in their environment, maybe even things they love. Things they might normal consider minor might feel like a big deal, and they might be more likely to respond fearfully. Being in similar situations might cause physical sensations in their body because they are anticipating the scary thing happening again. They might sleep or withdraw more to try to recover.
Now what if this scary thing cycled through their life every few months? Every week? Every few days? If I were in a car accident or even a close call every few days I certainly think my mood, my mind, and outwardly *my behavior* would change. Does that mean I have a behavior problem? That I need to have my behavior modified or suppressed? Yikes. Or do I need time to recover, opportunities to decompress, help and support to feel safe?
Why should it be any different for our dogs? They're members of our families. They have emotions and fears and *we don't get to decide what is scary to them or how intense that fear is*
If any of the above sounds like your life with your dog, you're not alone. I work with many dogs every week who are scared of things in their world. Maybe some of these scary things are things we can help them learn to cope with. Maybe these things are just going to be scary and need to try to be be avoided, like a car accident. Let's talk, I can help.
Photo of the very important decompression time in the woods yesterday that I was able to share with my lovely family
