Ever heard the phrase “shake it off” after you had a hard time with something? Well in dogs - a shake off is the bodies attempt to bring the nervous system back to homeostasis after experiencing a spike in cortisol. When you see your dog shake off, ask yourself what could they be stressing about? 👉🏻 Did it happen after a social interaction with another dog? 👉🏻 Did it happen after the dreadful nail trim? 👉🏻 or maybe it happened after they were being pet by a stranger. Dog shake off to relea

“Shaking it off” is the most pronounced early stress (relief) signal that we can observe in dogs! We will often see dogs show this AFTER a tense or slightly stressful situation had passed. You can think of “shaking it off” as a sort of reset button - like the dog is literally shaking off what happened and is ready to move on. Dogs who play wildly with each other will also “shake it off” after an intense round of chasing or wrestling. If you observe this behavior in situations where you didn’t th