What are the five F's of a dog in stress?
Nina Gulgowski
2025-06-01 00:14:17
Count answers: 5
The five F's of stress in dogs are fight, flight, freeze, fidget or fool around, and fawn or befriend.
Fight is characterized by observable signs such as lifting lips, showing teeth, barking, growling, snarling, snapping, and biting.
Flight is marked by attempting to move away, turning away, leaning away, looking away, averting eyes, and lowering body.
Freeze involves holding still, looking away, closing eyes, lowering body, getting small, tucking tail, and showing belly while holding still or tense.
Fidget or fool around is indicated by sniffing random spots, grabbing a toy, jumping up, looking around, and being distracted.
Fawn or befriend is observable through jumping up, leaning in hard, climbing into your skin, licking face, and acting desperate.
Not all dogs will show all of the F's of stress, and there isn't always a progression in order from one to another.
Vivianne Bosco
2025-06-01 00:07:54
Count answers: 1
The first two of the five F’s are the commonly recognised ‘flight’ or ‘fight’ responses.
Flight – To flee from a perceived threat is generally the first instinctive response.
Fight – Fight usually kicks in when flight is prevented.
The other three less commonly known responses are:
Freeze – The dog stands still, there is a fixed look to his eye and he is rigid throughout his body, even appearing to hold his breath.
Faint – This is a rare response but can happen.
Fool around (or fidget or fiddle) – Dogs that rush about, jump up and down, mouth, become rough or over the top, who can’t sit still, who lick you constantly or who drop into a roll to show their bellies everytime someone approaches or touches them can fall into this category.
Aida Dickinson
2025-05-31 20:57:16
Count answers: 2
The Tellington TTouch Method has long identified 5 main coping strategies commonly used by horses, and to some extent dogs, in times of stress or anxiety.
The 5 F's Fight, flight, freeze, faint and fool around or fidget.
Within each of these broad categories there is also a scale – for instance an animal can be triggered for ‘flight’ and it might be that the response is as small as the head going up, back tightening and then he recovers before it escalates into anything greater.
All the coping strategies an animal displayed can be considered on a scale – from a small indicator to a large behaviour.
Flight is one that we are all familiar with, when faced with a stressful or fearful scenario, the animal simply tries to exit the situation as quickly as possible.
Fight is another well documented instinct where the animal will respond to the situation in a confrontational manner.
Freeze happens in dogs and horses and can be recognized too late.
Faint is the least common of the 5 coping skills, thankfully.
Faint can sometimes be seen at the track when horses are saddled quickly and tightly and the horse simply lies down.
Each of these responses are simply a reaction to external stressors or pressure.
Dustin Bechtelar
2025-05-31 20:50:01
Count answers: 3
Besides fight and flight, an animal can also freeze, faint or fool around.
In study of animal behavior this group of behaviors is called “the 5 f’s.”
The animal may also freeze, faint, fight, or fool around, or flight.
The last F, fooling around, is what I like to call “changing the subject,” it’s essentially being silly to take away attention from the stressful thing or as an effort to cause the stressful thing to change.
More often than not, an animal will initially try to escape, when there is no escape the animal may, fight.
The animal may also freeze, stop, stand still and become vigilant, faint.