Anxiety May Cause Gray Hair in Dogs 

Anxiety May Cause Gray Hair in Dogs 

A new study has revealed that even dog’s fur can go gray if they are going through anxiety.  Younger dogs who were impulsive and anxious were more likely to have prematurely gray muzzles compared to dogs that were not impulsive and anxious, researchers have found.

The researchers also traveled to dog parks and veterinary clinics to give questionnaires to several dog parents.  Questions were based around the dog’s behavior, age, and health.  The researchers proceeded to take two mug shots of each dog.  Light colored dogs were excluded from the sample as their coloring made it difficult to determine whether their muzzles were gray.

To take a deeper dive into each dog’s anxiety level, the researchers based questions around their dog’s behavior, including whether the dog destroyed things when left alone, experienced hair loss, and if the dog was shy or anxious around new people or other dogs.  To determine the level of impulsivity, the researchers asked whether the dog jumped on people and if it could be calmed easily.  Two independent raters graded each photo on a scale of 0 to 3, with a 0 indicating no muzzle grayness and 3 indicating full muzzle grayness.

It was determined that female dogs had higher levels of grayness than male dogs did.  Furthermore, dogs that showed fear towards loud noises and new animals and people tended to have more gray fur as well.  The good thing about this study is that it determines that premature gray muzzles are a sign of anxiety or fear issues.  Owners should be aware if their younger dog has any gray fur. It’s not too late to turn some things around!