Safety first— Why physical and emotional safety are so important

In my last blog, I mentioned that prioritising an animal’s sense of safety always comes first. This post explains what that really means. A pet who doesn’t feel safe — whether that’s a dog or a cat — can’t learn, settle, or enjoy life. And the behaviours we find difficult are very often just your pet trying to feel safer.

Why can’t you simply train your way out of a behaviour problem?

“Aggression is because of a lack of training isn’t it? You can train a dog not to be aggressive, can’t you?”

My answer to these questions is no, and that doesn’t just apply to aggression either – it can apply to almost any behaviour your cat or dog does that you’re finding difficult.

The belief that any behaviour can simply be ‘trained away’ if you just find the right technique is a common misconception. It’s true that some unwanted behaviours become learnt, often because we’ve inadvertently rewarded them without meaning to. And a few dogs have never had basic training such as toilet training. But most of the behaviours that worry my clients aren’t bad habits at all — they’re communication and coping mechanisms. It’s almost always a pet telling us that they don’t feel safe. They may feel threatened, uncertain, frustrated or in pain. And you can’t train away a feeling.

Your pet’s needs as a hierarchy

This is where it helps to picture your pet’s needs as a hierarchy — a set of building blocks, each one resting on the one below. The framework I use is adapted from Griffin and colleagues’ 2023 research on the hierarchy of dogs’ needs, but the same principles apply just as well to cats. Here’s what it looks like:

• Physical safety – a body free from pain and illness, appropriate food and free access to water, preferred resting places, the ability to toilet safely and move comfortably. This is the foundation.
• Emotional safety and stability – a calm, secure environment, gentle handling and predictable interactions with people, and the freedom to make choices. Alongside physical safety, this is also the foundation.
• Building relationships – companionship and support. Most dogs need safe interactions with their own species; for cats it’s far more individual, but no animal should feel lonely or trapped in unwanted company. This builds and depends upon physical and emotional safety.
• Kind training methods — reward-based, force-free, and allowing choice. With the relationships established, we can start working on training.
• Enrichment – play, problem-solving, and safe chances to explore. This sits at the top of the hierarchy.

Just how important is enrichment?

But this is where I disagree slightly with this model. It’s tempting to treat enrichment as a luxury — something to add once everything else is sorted. But for many cats and dogs it works the other way round too: the right kind of enrichment actually helps an animal feel safe.

Sniffing, foraging, problem-solving, exploring at their own pace and for cats being able to safely perform hunting behaviours (don’t worry, this can be done without harming rodents or birds) are all important. Letting a pet use all their senses, make their own choices, and build up their confidence helps strengthen their feeling of safety.

One of my favourite foundational exercises is ACE Free Work, developed by the late Sarah Fisher at Tilley Farm. It’s a calm, animal-led set-up of different surfaces, objects and scents that they can investigate entirely in their own time — not being told what to do, nothing to get right, just choice and curiosity. It works beautifully for dogs and cats alike, and as a bonus, watching how a pet moves and makes choices during Free Work can reveal subtle signs of discomfort that are otherwise easy to miss.

What about training?

Notice where training sits: near the top. It rests on the foundations beneath it— physical safety, emotional safety, and social connection. And that’s my point: training is only ever as solid as the layers underneath it.

That doesn’t mean a distressed animal can’t learn. They can, and can do so alarmingly quickly. A frightened brain learns fast, but it learns the wrong things: that the world is unsafe, that a place or a person means trouble, that the safest bet is to avoid or escape. What it can’t do is take on a new, calmer way of coping. Ask a dog or cat to learn while their body hurts, or while they feel unsafe, unsettled or out of control, and you’re building on sand.

Can you train a pet not to be aggressive?

Sometimes you can teach an animal to suppress the outward signs — to stop growling, to freeze and shutdown rather than snap or lunge. But if the underlying feeling of being unsafe remains, nothing has actually changed. You’ve only turned down the volume on the warning. Under enough pressure, the behaviour returns, often with less warning than before — which is frequently more dangerous.

Why punishment makes things worse

Using fear or pain to ‘fix’ a behaviour teaches a distressed brain the one lesson it learns fastest — that the world is unsafe. You might silence the outward signs for a while, but you’ve deepened the very feeling that caused them — and the problem tends to resurface, often worse than before.

Safety first isn’t soft or indulgent. It’s the fastest, most reliable route to the calm, confident dog or cat you’re hoping for.

So what do I mean by ‘safety’?

To me it means that a patient is both physically and emotionally safe; the two are inseparable.

• Physical safety: a body free from pain or illness, and an environment that doesn’t hurt, startle or overwhelm.
• Emotional safety: feeling that the world is predictable, that they have some choice and control, and that their people are a source of comfort rather than pressure.

A pet in pain rarely feels emotionally secure; and a frightened or frustrated animal’s body is flooded with stress affecting their health. You can’t address one and ignore the other.

Physical safety: freedom from pain and a healthy body

Physical safety starts with the basics: good food, fresh water, comfortable rest and sleep, and a body that can digest, move and toilet in comfort. Get these wrong and nothing feels secure — a hungry, exhausted or uncomfortable animal is not a settled one. And beyond the basics, pain and illness erode a sense of safety more than almost anything else.

But remember dogs in pain don’t always limp and they don’t often moan or complain — but many changes in behaviour get what I call my ‘spidey senses’ tingling that we need to be looking for a physical problem.

And what about cats? — because they are prey as well as predators, they are masters of hiding discomfort and illness, and frequently vets and behaviourists need to use all their detective skills.

If in doubt we should rule pain out!

Emotional safety: predictability, choice and trust

Predictability

Routines and gentle consistent interactions from everyone in their life tell a pet what to expect — unpredictability is frightening.

Choice and control (agency)

Letting an animal say “yes” and “no” — to approach, to retreat, to sniff, to hide, to stop — is one of the most powerful ways to build security. Forcing, luring or demanding obedience removes choice and can quietly erode trust.

Trust in their people

Pets feel safer when their people are predictable, a source of comfort, and a safe base to return to for reassurance; never the source of fear or pressure.

How can you help your pet feel safer?

• Follow your pet’s lead. Let them set the pace; let them approach and retreat in their own time, and turn back when they ask.
• Give a safe retreat. A quiet space they can choose, that no one disturbs — for cats, that often means somewhere high up or tucked away to hide.
• Look for signs of pain, not just fear. A change in behaviour can be the first sign of discomfort, a dog who’s slower to rise, a cat who’s stopped jumping up, or an animal who’s simply become more irritable.
• Give them a break from what’s hard. Stepping back from a trigger is often the first active step, not a last resort. If a dog is too frightened or sore to face a walk, pausing walks will take the pressure off body and mind at once. For a cat easing off on handling and visitors can be a critical part of helping them feel safe at home. Their needs are still met while you rebuild confidence.
• Read the subtle signals. Freezing, a lowered or crouched body, tucked tail, lip-licking, turning away — or, in cats, flattened ears, a swishing tail, or hiding — are quiet ways of saying ‘this is too much’ — potentially physically as well as emotionally.
• Never force, drag or scold. Pressure undoes trust — and if pain is the cause, forcing an animal through it makes both the hurt and the fear worse.