Why Your Miniature Poodle Keeps Yawning (and How to Help)

Miniature Poodle puppies have become popular household pets across the country. These adorable dogs are sweet, friendly, and loyal. While all their lovely qualities make them great pets, they are also prone to anxiety which often presents itself in this breed as excessive yarning and excessive panting.

Miniature Poodle Dog Breed Overview

This little dog breed is an athletic and friendly pet. Miniature Poodle puppies need plenty of space to run around and attention to cuddle. This energetic breed loves to play just as much as they love to relax. As long as this breed gets plenty of daily exercise and mental stimulation, they're sure to be the best-behaved dog.

Poodles have a long history as working hunting dogs. This breed is very active and will need a lot of exercise to stay healthy, but they can still happily live in apartment buildings or smaller homes thanks to their smaller size.

Miniature Poodle Size

Miniature Poodles are one of three size variations in the Poodle breed. The Standard Poodle, the Miniature Poodle, and then the Toy Poodle. The Miniature Poodle is the middle size variation, and it can grow to be 10 to 15 inches tall at the shoulders. These pets might weigh anywhere from 10 to 20 pounds, but don't let this trick you into thinking they can't run around for hours.

Miniature Poodle Temperament

Miniature Poodle puppies are very active dogs, and since they're one of the most intelligent dog breeds, they're great for first-time dog owners. They have an easy-going temperament and are amiable animals, making them great companions for family types. Also, these dogs are safe to have around young children because of their smaller size, although owners should always supervise dogs with their children when they rescue a new pup.

These incredibly intelligent dogs will become timid and anxious if they're not socialized properly, although the dogs that are will be quite the social butterflies. Most of these animals are very peaceful as long as their basic needs get met.

Owners must give intelligent dog breeds like this plenty of mental stimulation by providing interactive toys, enrichment activities, and training sessions.

It's essential to keep training sessions positive, concise, and consistent. Miniature Poodle puppies will have the most efficient learning sessions when owners only use verbal praise and treat to communicate with their dogs. It can be tempting to chastise your dog if they ignore one of your commands, but criticizing your pet during training sessions will only cause them to associate training with bad feelings. Instead, always use a positive and calm voice. If your pet stops listening to you for some reason, try to use a different command to get their attention and if that doesn't work, provide your dog one last treat and end their training sessions.

Miniature Poodle Health Overview

The Miniature Poodle has an average lifespan of between 10 and 18 years, and many of these dogs will never suffer from any severe health conditions. However, the Poodle breed is at risk of developing joint issues like hip dysplasia and patellar luxation. This breed is also prone to eye problems, ear infections, and skin infections.

The best way to avoid these infections is to clean your dog's fur by brushing it multiple times a week. Using a special pin brush will help remove excess debris, and bathing them every six to eight weeks can keep their coats looking shiny and new. The Miniature Poodle has a hypoallergenic coat which means they are great pets for people with allergies.

To avoid risking ear infections, clean your dog's face with a warm washcloth whenever you decide to bathe them. You should also know how to clean your pet's ears without harming them.

It's vital to their health that you brush these dogs' teeth every week, if not daily. This breed is prone to dental health issues like dental disease, which can cause them to develop issues like heart and respiratory disease. You can use dog oral health treats to take extra care of their teeth between brushing sessions.

Many Miniature Poodle puppies will not face any serious physical health ailments, but all of them will suffer from stress and anxiety at some point in their lives. Owners can help their dogs overcome these psychological issues by figuring out the severity of their situation and deciding the best action to take to treat it. There are plenty of ways to treat your Miniature Poodle's anxiety, and it starts with looking at some of the common causes of this medical problem.

Anxiety Causes

There are plenty of reasons Miniature Poodle might be suffering from anxiety. The best thing owners can do to aid their dogs in need is to identify what causes their pet's anxiety. Usually, you can deduce the cause of your Miniature Poodle puppy's anxiety by observing what most often occurs when they're experiencing signs of stress.

Animal behavior can be a critical factor in understanding their emotions. Dog body language can help a pet owner understand whether the occasional yawn is meaningless or if it hints at something deeper. Dog yawning or excessive yawning can indicate that your pet has this common medical problem.

The most often cause of anxiety in Miniature Poodle puppies is separation anxiety. These dogs bond closely with their owners, and they can become little balls of stress whenever they're left alone for too long of a period. Many dog owners don't know how to help their dogs adjust to their owner's absences, but allowing your dog to adjust can prevent some situations of separation anxiety from occurring.

Poor socialization is also a prevalent issue for dogs struggling with anxiety. If you don't introduce your puppy to new people, places, or pets enough, then they will become very stressed when these new things walk into their lives. If your dog gets the most anxious around other animals or in strange new environments, they struggle with poor socialization skills.

Many animals struggle with noise-induced anxiety, and dogs are commonly one of them. Dog''shave a superior sense of hearing and smell, and while these can be great attributes, they can also be painful burdens to bear. Many Miniature Poodle owners will see that their pets have signs of stress when thunderstorms, fireworks, or sirens are alarmingly loud in the areas around them.

Commonly animals like the Miniature Poodle don't get enough daily exercise because pet owners mistakenly think their small size outmatches their energy levels when it is quite the opposite. The Poodle breed used to be hunters, and they have tons of agility and energy from their breed history. When you don't give your dog the required amount of physical exercise, they begin releasing this energy in other ways that usually appear as bad behavior. However, dogs cannot control their urges or actions as much as people are, which is why it's so essential to exercise your dog daily. In addition to a lack of exercise, a lack of mental stimulation can cause excessive stress and anxiety in dogs. Often when well-trained dog misbehaves, they cannot focus their energy. After all, they have anxiety and panic attacks.

Sadly, many dogs adopted from rescues or shelters are more likely to struggle with anxiety and stress. It occurs because shelter animals often experience major traumas that cause fear-stimulated severe responses to otherwise everyday things. Dogs that were picked up in a white van and taken to a pound are now scared of white vans. Some dogs experience things like homelessness, abandonment, or neglect, which causes them to experience something like separation anxiety at a much more intense level. Also, the sad truth is that many dogs are abused and then left somewhere until a shelter finds them to care for them. Dogs that were abused experience incredibly high symptoms of anxiety and stress and can become so fearful of things they might think a person trying to play fetch with them is going to beat them with the stick instead. It's heartbreaking to see these signs in a dog, especially if it's your beloved Miniature Poodle, but owners should know that they can provide a much better life for their pets and help them try to heal from these past traumas. It will take a lot of time, patience, dedication, and love, but every dog owner should have ample supplies of these things ready before bringing a pet home.

Anxiety Symptoms

The best way to help your Miniature Poodle overcome their anxiety is to understand what causes it and the intensity of their symptoms and figure out if you can try to pre-emptively treat any anxiety symptoms they might experience. For example, if your dog has separation anxiety, you can try to treat it ahead of time when you know you'll be away from home for long periods to help them avoid stress symptoms.

Minor symptoms a Miniature Poodle might show if they have anxiety include tucking their tail between their legs, cowering, lowering their heads, or holding their ears back. Some dogs will also constantly lick their mouths when they're anxious, and Miniature Poodles often yawn repeatedly to release their anxiety. Your dog might start more intense symptoms if they struggle with anxiety by shaking or pacing around the house. If your pet is restless or repeatedly shakes like they're wet, they're trying to release that stressful energy. Sometimes a dog will also shiver like they're cold.

Some Miniature Poodle puppies will hide behind their owners when they're struggling with anxiety, and some might even try to stand under their owner's feet which can be dangerous for the owner and their pet. Sometimes these dogs will also try to mouth at their owners or push their owners toward whatever is causing them stress.

More severe symptoms your dog might show if they have anxiety include trying to escape the house or trying to prevent you from leaving. These symptoms are most commonly associated with separation anxiety, and a dog with this type of anxiety might also destroy the house in your absence. Often, dogs do this because they're having a panic attack and have no one near them to comfort them to prevent this behavior from occurring.

The more intense your dog's experience is, the more intense their symptoms. Miniature Poodle puppies that suffer from severe anxiety will refuse to eat in their anxious moments. It's rare, but sometimes dogs show aggression when they're struggling with anxiety, and they can bark, growl, whine, or mouth at you. These dogs might also have uncontrollable accidents where they vomit, urinate, or defecate. Often, anxious dogs get even more anxious after these potty accidents, and some try to eat their defecation out of fear.

It's crucial to never chastise your dog for struggling with anxiety and instead practice compassion, understanding, and patience to help treat their symptoms.

Anxiety Treatment Methods

There are plenty of methods owners can try to treat their Miniature Poodle puppy's anxiety. The best thing owners can do is attempt to help their Miniature Poodle naturally before moving on to additives and supplements. If your dog has severe anxiety symptoms, they can still greatly benefit from these natural remedies, even if you must use them in conjunction with more potent treatment methods.

The most natural and efficient anxiety treatment method is exercise. Exercise is a natural stress reliever, and many dogs don't get enough exercise as it is, which is a large part of the reason so many dogs have anxiety. If you aren't sure if your dog is getting enough daily exercise, partake in more activities with them. Some dogs also don't get enough mental stimulation, so they have outbursts to release their energy in unhealthy ways. Dog owners can find amazing ways to help their Poodle overcome their symptoms by providing special enrichment activities, interactive toys, or special training sessions.

Another natural remedy to helping your Poodle overcome their anxiety is to provide a safe space. A safe space is a new trend where owners provide their dogs with an area in the house dedicated to keeping their pets relaxed. These spaces are often full of comforting items like a dog bed, crate, water bowl, blankets, and toys. Some owners add other things to these spaces, such as dog treats, classical music playing softly in the background, or aromatherapy to help their dog destress. Ownes have total creative freedom when it comes to providing these things.

If your pet is still struggling with anxiety after trying natural remedies, then your best bet is to give them calming supplements. Many dog stores sell calming treats and supplements and dog CBD, which is excellent in helping your pet destress. Although some of these things will not be enough to help your pet on their own, combining them with the previous methods should help a Miniature Poodle suffering from moderate anxiety symptoms.

The most tempting thing for owners to treat their pets with anxiety is to provide anti-anxiety medication. Anti-anxiety medication can quickly take effect in helping your dog destress, but it also has a lot of side effects that can take a toll on your pet's health. Also, this method can become expensive, and only vets can prescribe you these medications. Anti-anxiety medication for dogs should only ever be a last resort.

Another effective but somewhat unreachable treatment method is counter conditioning treatment. Counterconditioning treatment is arguably one of the best permanent, and healthiest methods to helping your dog overcome their symptoms, especially if they're related to past traumas or poor socialization skills. The issue with counter condition treatment is that you have to hire a dog behaviorist or dog trainer to perform this treatment process with your dog, and it can become costly. Although this method works wonders, it takes a lot of patience and time to see the effects it will have on your dog, but in the end, this should help relieve many of your dog's symptoms permanently.

Conclusion

There are many ways pet owners can help their Miniature Poodle deal with their anxiety healthily. It's always best to use natural remedies first, as this both helps your dog with their symptoms more efficiently and makes your bond with your dog stronger.

It's essential to understand the cause of your pets anxiety to avoid causing repeat situations to form happening. You should also know your pet's behavioral pattern to understand the severity of their symptoms.

You can use many of these treatment methods together to be as effective as possible. Owners can provide their dogs with plenty of enrichment activities, a safe space, and calming treats to help them live their best life. As long as owners are patient and understand that it is more of a trial and error process when it comes to helping their dog relace, they will be able to find the correct method for their pet in no time.

You should help your pet live its best life by providing patience and understanding when struggling with anxiety. It might not be the greatest feeling if your dog has uncontrollable potty accidents because of their anxiety, but it is hardly something they can control. Just remember how much harder it is for your dog to deal with these issues when they can't even communicate them through words. All you need to do is be a loving, dedicated, and careful owner to assist your Miniature Poodle through this hardship.