The Circumplex model of affect conceptulalises emotions as varying along two dimensions, valence and arousal (Russell, 1980)
Valence is the level of pleasantness of an event and varies from negative to positive, while arousal (or intensity) is the level of autonomic activation that an event creates, and ranges from low to high.
From: https://psu.pb.unizin.org/psych425/chapter/circumplex-models/
In this example, the ‘deactivation’ end of the range is low arousal (calm), the ‘activation’ is high (excitement)
High arousal, Positive valence: Alert
Low arousal, Positive valence: Calm, content
Low arousal, Negative valence: Tired out, sad
High arousal, Negative valence: Stressed out
Arousal
Irith Bloom Empowered Dogs Conference 2021 definition of arousal: “Increased activity in certain parts of the brain, paired with an increase in sympathetic nervous system activity which together tend to depress the brain’s executive functions and result in more instinctive (over) reactive/habitual behaviour.”
Or simply: increased sympathetic nervous system activity
In high arousal there will be a default to more habitual behaviour and away from goal-oriented behaviours.

So if your dog is in a state of high arousal, don’t ask for a difficult task, switch to something simple, that can be carried out automatically. Don’t expect your dog to be able to think!
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