I worry about one of my dogs too. She's a nine year old German shepherd that my husband and I got from a rescue centre when she was about a year old. She has always been quite a nervous dog and likes lots of cuddles. I talk to her all the time. Over the past two months while I've been struggling with my PTSD, she has been badly affected too. She picks up when I am particularly upset or anxious but of course she doesn't understand what the threat is. If I am having a flashback and screaming, she runs out of the house and sits in the garden, shaking, for hours. She has also developed a real fear of our coal fire and runs out of the room whenever it spits or crackles. It has never bothered her before. I think she just needed to identify the new threat in our lives and latched onto the fire.
I feel awful for her. I wish she wasn't so affected by me. I am trying so hard to reassure her, but it's hard when I am so obviously not ok. She sees right through my false reassurances. I've taken to telling her good things that are true, so she can hear the honestly in my voice: I love her, she is beautiful, I even spent about ten minutes telling her that my jumper was green one day because it was the only true thing I thing think of to talk calmly about. She's been a little better lately.
Doing this has helped me to see the impact my behaviour is having on the world around me. I know it has impacted on my husband, my family, my work colleagues, my neighbours, and so on but seeing it in my dog has had the strongest affect. And calming her has calmed me.
