A Calm Christmas: Using the Readiness Web™ to Support Your Dog

Stephie Guy Author

A calmer Christmas starts with noticing which “candles” are burning for your dog. The Readiness Web™ shows you how.

Christmas can be a time of warmth, comfort and togetherness, yet for many dogs it can also be a season filled with stress. Changes to routine, extra visitors, unusual objects in the house, strong smells, decorations that move or make noise and the general bustle of the holidays all add up.

This is why I like to lean on the Readiness Web™ at this time of year. It gives us a simple way to check in with all five strands of our dog’s wellbeing: body readiness, environmental readiness, emotional readiness, social readiness and exploratory readiness.

Before we explore those strands in the context of Christmas, let me introduce you to a lovely analogy from TTouch Instructor Edie Jane Eaton (1947-2022) that fits beautifully with the season.

The Candle Analogy

Edie described stressors as candles. Some burn brightly. Some flicker quietly in the background. Each one adds light and heat, and when too many are burning at once, the room becomes overwhelming. For dogs, those candles are the things they notice, process and cope with.

Christmas tends to light a lot of candles at the same time. Loud noises, new people, changes to the home, shifts in routine, rich food smells, wrapping paper, gifts, travel, fewer walks, extra excitement. Even if these are happy things for us, every candle takes a little energy for a dog to manage.

Our job is to notice which candles are burning and to soften or extinguish the ones we can. When we do that, our dogs have more capacity to cope with the ones we can’t change.

The Readiness Web™ helps us do this systematically.

Click the image or follow this link to read more about the Readiness Web™ : www.CalmerCanines.co.uk/readiness

Body Readiness

Christmas often brings disrupted sleep, irregular mealtimes, more energetic play from visiting children, longer periods inside and changes to the dog’s movement patterns. All of this affects the body.

Things to look for

• Has your dog had enough rest
• Are walks shorter, faster or happening at different times
• Are they eating more treats than usual
• Are they showing signs of discomfort when navigating decorations, furniture or busy rooms

How you can support

• Protect rest as a priority. Create a quiet place that stays consistent throughout the season
• Keep movement familiar. Stick to your dog’s preferred pace and terrain as much as you can
• Balance festive food with what their body is used to, and offer gentle forage activities rather than overexciting play
• Notice any changes in posture, pace or tension and give them space away from the action when needed

Environmental Readiness

The environment is often the strand that changes the most at Christmas. New scents, lights, sounds and movement can add multiple candles at once.

Things to look for

• Christmas trees that weren't there before
• Decorations that move or jingle, both indoors and out
• Candles, fairy lights and cooking smells
• Presents on the floor and increased household clutter

How you can support

• Introduce changes gradually where possible
• Give your dog time to investigate the tree or new items at their own pace
• Use soft lighting and predictable layouts to help them feel secure
• Create a clear path through busy rooms so they can move without feeling trapped
• Provide a retreat space a few steps away from the main activity and join them there if they need you

Emotional Readiness

Even small changes can shift your dog’s emotional temperature. Excitement, confusion, frustration or worry can build up like wax in the candle dish.

Things to look for

• Shifts in energy
• Quiet signals that tell you your dog is unsure, such as slower movement, hesitation or a change in breathing
• Difficulty settling

How you can support

• Keep familiar rituals going, especially around meals, walks and bedtime
• Offer slow activities that help the nervous system settle, such as sniffing games or ACE free work
• Give more processing time than usual. Let them choose whether to join in or take themselves away
• Watch for the subtle signs so you can dial down other candles before emotional overwhelm takes hold

Social Readiness

Visitors, gatherings and family dynamics all affect your dog’s sense of social safety.

Things to look for

• People arriving unexpectedly
• Extra noise and movement
• Children who want to interact more than your dog wants to
• Changes to who is home and when

How you can support

• Let your dog choose who they spend time with
• Use gates or calm zones to give them protected space
• Brief visitors on how your dog prefers to be approached, or not approached
• Keep greetings simple and low key
• Allow your dog plenty of breaks away from social pressure
• Have decompression support on hand at all times for example toys to destuff, cardboard to destroy, a favourite Free Work station ready to load

Exploratory Readiness

Christmas offers new things to sniff, explore and work out. This can be enriching, but it can also be overwhelming if too many exploratory candles are burning at once.

Things to look for

• New objects on the floor
• Wrapping paper, food packaging and toys scattered around
• Parcels, deliveries and increased door activity

How you can support

• Give them small, manageable opportunities to explore
• Offer safe sniffing activities that allow for gentle curiosity
• Keep potentially hazardous items out of reach
• Reduce clutter when possible so exploration stays comfortable rather than chaotic

Bringing It All Together

When we use the five strands of the Readiness Web™ to scan our dog’s day, we can see which candles are burning brightly and which ones we can dim or even blow out. Sometimes all it takes is removing one candle to give your dog the space they need to feel settled again.

A calm Christmas is not about eliminating all excitement or shutting everything down. It is about noticing what your dog is telling you through their body, their behaviour and their choices, then helping them stay within a level of light and warmth they can comfortably manage.