What is a Fearful Pet?

Some pets are by nature more anxious and fearful than others. They are easily startled, tend to be afraid of new or unfamiliar situations and settings and may even be quite shy in temperament.

What Causes Fear in Pets?

Certain situations or traumatic experiences can make even the calmest of pets fearful and anxious. Most pets are sensitive to loud noises and cats in particular are very sensitive to new or changing surroundings. Fireworks, thunderstorms, a trip to the vet, small children and moving are all examples of things that can make your pet scared and unsettled.

Pets can also develop phobias to certain triggers and may respond with panic at simply seeing or hearing the object of their phobia. It’s important to remember that your reactions to fearful stimuli and your pets fear response greatly affect your pet. For example, if you fuss over them when they are irrationally scared of something, you are inadvertently rewarding the behavior and suggesting to them that there was something to fear in the first place.

Pets can also pick up on human fear and stress and so it is not uncommon for pets to become anxious if their owners are constantly under stress. Other factors that contribute to anxiety and fearfulness in pets include amount of time left at home alone, poor unbalanced diets and a lack of exercise.

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Help for Fearful

Natural remedies

The best way to deal with a fearful pet is to remain calm and try not to fuss over your pet too much. This may be difficult, but luckily there are a few natural herbal and homeopathic ingredients that can help. Certain natural ingredients have a long history of use for their anxiety-reducing and calming properties. Passiflora incarnata for example has excellent calming and anti-anxiety effects and is often used to treat anxiety, shock and tension.

Scullcap is also well known for its soothing and relaxing qualities and has been used as a natural way to treat a number of anxiety disorders. The biochemic tissue salt Kali. Phos. helps to relax those with nervous dispositions or those sensitive to change or stress, while Arg. nit. is an excellent remedy for fear and phobias and is often used to reduce the digestive discomfort and nausea often associated with stress and fear.

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