[nagdu] stress, how much is too much?

[Julie J.]

I'm wondering how your dog's show that they are stressed and how much is 
too much?

a bit of background...a few months ago I went to an all day meeting out 
of town.  This involved about 8 hours of car travel there, an overnight 
hotel stay, the all day meeting, another hotel stay and the car ride 
home.  Monty has done all of these sorts of things before and since.  
Before this weekend he showed few signs of stress and they were minor.  
However for some reason still unknown to me Monty had a tough time this 
particular weekend.  His signs of stress included: looking at everything 
incessantly, startling at noises, lip licking, difficulty relaxing  at 
relief breaks, shaking and pulling like a crazed maniac in harness.

For me his signs of stress were pretty high.  If he had continued at 
that level I would have stopped working him.  We have struggled off and 
on for the past few months with smaller episodes of stress/anxiety.  
Overall things have improved dramatically.  Occasionally he will do the 
lip licking and the looking at everything, but he's not at a level that 
I feel is risky to his or my health or  safety.

Recent messages to the list and my own situation caused me to think 
about and ask the questions: How much is too much?  What would cause you 
to quit working a dog completely? What would cause you to quit working a 
dog in a particular situation?

Julie