Sensory needs and sensory thresholds

off leash frolic in sensorily rich environment of the woods

Have your dog’s sensory needs been met? What are sensory needs? Does everybody have sensory needs?

Yes, humans as well as dogs have sensory needs. Our senses are the only way we experience the world. We cannot have any experience without our senses. There are five main senses that we learned in kindergarten, namely sense of hearing, smell, touch, taste, and vision. In recent years science found we also have sense of proprioception or spatial sense, vestibular or balance sense, and interoception or sense of things going on inside of our body.

During early development each individual develops their senses uniquely, shaped by experiences and development, both nature and nurture play a role in how we grow up sensorily. We develop preferences for sensory channels, or how we take in the world around us, and form different thresholds for those sensory channels. It’s a bit more complicated than this, but you get the idea.

In general we humans share a high sensory demand for visual input. We say things like “seeing is believing” and quickly feel disoriented in darkness. Dogs’ olfactory sense or sense of smell is much more dominant for them that in humans so as a result they can adjust to visual impairment much faster than humans. Different species have different preferences for sensory input needs.

But no matter the species… 

All senses working together create the experience we call life.

Through sensory input we gather information about ourselves and the world, and in response to this information we make adjustments to match the information we’re receiving.

Self-regulation of our body and emotions is a response to the stimuli we receive through our senses.

We rely on our senses for meeting our physical and emotional needs. Which makes us seek sensory stimulation as information which we can use to feel safe and fulfilled, inside out.

Ok, enough theory, let me give you an example.

A dog left home alone with her biological need to move around, smell, etc will not be able to settle down and relax until her sensory needs have been met.

To relieve a sense of unfulfilled energy she will likely use her mouth to calm herself - reach a sensory threshold. Especially when her movement is limited and no other sense is available to be constructively engaged, tactile stimulation becomes her available channel for meeting the sensory threshold in attempt to self regulate. So she chews through her bedding and maybe even couch. It helps her meet a sensory threshold! Now she can relax until the human comes home and offers her the more appropriate sensory experience of outdoor movement: rich proprioceptive and vestibular stimulation of running, olfactory stimulation through interesting smells, visual and auditory stim when interacting with her humans, tactile stimulation when she’s running and brushing against different surfaces and randomly mouthing objects in the environment. She’s likely also feeling that comfort of her temperature and heartbeat rising and falling to make her feel more lively and in control of her body, thus meeting her interoceptive threshold.

All these experiences together have a profound effect on her brain, and its ability to create homeostasis in the body and mind.

If we miss this important sensory piece in the puzzle of our journey we may always misunderstand them, and possibly ourselves as well.

So. Have you met your sensory needs today?

How about your dog’s?

If you’re feeling antsy or amped or stressed or anxious, try the multi sensory therapy of the great outdoors with your dog. Watch them engage their senses and see how they respond to certain stimuli. And don't forget to stop and smell the roses yourself.