How to have a happy dog and other lessons from Crufts experts

Perhaps your dog is easily agitated and you’ve never been able to understand why. According to Dr Wedderburn, the answer might be – and don’t laugh – childhood trauma. “Many, many dogs these days are reactive and get anxious in new situations,” he explains. “They get aggressive and fearful, which is often because they’re badly socialised when they’re young.”

“Puppies have a socialisation window in their brain up until four months of age,” Dr Wedderburn says. “Whenever they come across a new experience, their brain will accept it as being part of the normal world. If they don’t meet experiences until they’re older than that, until they’re maybe five or six months of age, then their brain is fearful and anxious instead and they retain that fear and anxiety for the rest of their lives.”

Trainer Cox has plenty of experience dealing with anxious dogs: “The most important thing is to recognise that the dog is overstimulated and remove them from that environment. Some dogs like gentle stroking, others like a quiet, calm voice or soft food or something else to chew. Maybe a snuffle mat that they can do a little bit of sniffy work – that tends to take their arousal levels down.”

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