Its not that only humans suffer from stress and develop stress related illness. Animals too suffer from stress. We often remain oblivious to the fact that pets also suffer from stress. Being extremely sensitive to their surrounding, pets are known to develop emotional bonding with their owners (especially dogs) as well as fellow pets and any change in the environment triggers change related stress in the same ways as it triggers stress in humans.

Stress usually is a response to stimuli involving situations that we consider to be threatening, depressing or out of control. The same is true for your dog. The animals respond by fight or flight method when threatened or frightened. During the "flight or fight" response, a complex series of chemical reactions and changes occurs in the nervous system of the body.

Sometimes, the fight or flight response doesn't work, and the animal becomes very irritated or upset, then it may adopt the conservation-withdrawal response. This response is initiated by the hippocampus (part of the brain), which then signals the hypothalamus leading to release of chemicals that stimulate the pituitary gland to produces a compound. This compound in turn activates the adrenal cortex to release corticosteroids which calm the nerves.

Long-term corticosteroid release suppresses the immune system, which makes your pet highly prone to diseases. The stomach is stimulated to release acids by the corticosteroids, which can lead to peptic ulcers. Both the fight or flight response and conservation-withdrawal tend to physically tax the animal leading to disruption of normal metabolism, growth, reproduction, and immune function, and can also cause an animal to self-mutilate. Other physiological events that occur are a decrease in heart rate, sometimes to the point of stopping completely and loss of appetite. Your pet may ultimately die "for no apparent reason."

Conditions such as infection, being kenneled, travel, breeding, separation from owner, shifting, addition or loss of a family member or another household pet, can cause stress in animals. In such cases, you dog can become extremely bored or show symptoms of severe stress such as fear, uneasiness and restiveness.

Dogs under stress can become violent, stop eating or overeat, become hypersensitive, bark incessantly, become hyperactive, destroy things or move objects in and around the household and resort to nervous licking or chewing of their own bodies. They can develop diarrhea, lose hair, develop mushrooming parasite populations, and their immune system can just disintegrate. Whats more disturbing is that stress can be a cumulative process. Each stressor by itself may not be significant and may seem apparently harmless, but when they affect your pet sequentially or simultaneously, they may push it over the threshold toward illness or death.

Stress Relieving Medicines

Dogs can be administered Stress Relievers to calm them. Some of these stress relievers claim to promote a sense of calm in animals exhibiting fear, fretting, anxiety or any unwanted behavior. But these medicines can also have certain risks and side effects. They can have toxins and induce drowsiness in your dog. These medicines may make your dog prone to reactions, drug interactions or adverse effects and are considered to be unsafe, inappropriate or completely ineffective.

These stress relievers are only meant to control short-term behavioral stress and anxiety and can be very detrimental to the pets health if administered on a long-term basis, even leading to death.

The Ultimate Remedy: PET-MUSIC

It has long been stated that music calms the savage beast and now with research to support that adage, you may be able to overcome stress or anxiety your own pet experiences. There are a variety of remedies to alleviate the stress your pet feels, and none may be more enjoyable for you and your pet than some soothing music. There is pet music to specifically provide a soothing soundtrack to lessen the stress of your pet and increase the positive brainwaves that elicit feelings of well being keeping them in good spirits.

Music therapy has revolutionized the way we can alleviate stress and anxiety in pets. It is safe with absolutely no side effects. This therapy employs music to untangle the knotted and stressed out nerves and brain, relaxing the mind-body as a whole. This music therapy is a method of beneficially recharging the cortex of the brain and distributing the latent energy throughout the nervous system of your pet. Usually, the effect of therapeutic music upon your pet is one of vitalizing, harmonizing and healing at almost every level of being. Music therapy is one of the most preferred techniques for relieving negative effects of stress.

Modern therapeutic science says that music has a massaging effect on our brain. Perhaps, that is the primary reason for widespread usage of music as anti-anxiety and antidepressant therapy and the handiest tool for relaxation when it comes to calming pets. helping ease depression, and aiding recovery from illness.