by Michael Baugh CDBC, CPDT-KSA
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courtesy bennopictures via Flickr.com
Dealing with Dogs' Fears
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Dear @AllThingsDog Daily,
Can someone give me a little advice on my buddy MEAT?? He's an
almost 2-year-old 80 pound English Bulldog. For the most part he's an excellent
dog, but he has some quirks that I just don't and can't understand. All of a
sudden he's become spooked by just about every strange outside noise that he
hears. A little bump or something that he doesn't know, and it's grumbling and
fussing, all in the form of barking. Sometimes he'll look at me first and if I
just shake my head no and tell him it's okay, he'll lay back down.
And also,
for some reason he believes in shape shifting, I guess. The other day he was
laying in the floor looking straight at me while I put on a hat and looked in a
mirror. I turned and looked at him and he starts growling at me. Sounded
ferocious until I spoke to him and pulled of that hat. He doesn't think that
hats are evil because my brother in law always wears a hat and he never gets
that reaction. It's only when someone puts a hat on and he sees them afterward.
Is he crazy or what??
Jerry Cartwright via @AllThingsDog Daily newspaper
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Dear Jerry,
Here’s how it goes with most of us humans. If you’re about as
crazy as I am, then you’re pretty much normal. If you’re crazier, then yeah
you’re really crazy. Not so crazy? Then wow, you’ve got your act together. So
really, what is crazy? Is Meat crazy? I don’t know. From your letter he sounds
like one of the many varieties of “normal” in the world of dogs. But, we can do
better than normal. Hats off to you for reaching out for help (get it, hats
off?)
Lot’s of dogs have fears. The ones you describe are pretty
typical: sounds, and people who wear hats (yes, even if it’s you). Other dogs
are afraid of children, visitors who ring the doorbell, people who deliver
packages, tall men, women who wear sunglasses – the list goes on and on.
Crazy? Sort of, but not really. You see, if I’m born a dog then there’s a 100%
chance my mother was a dog. If I had siblings, they were all dogs too. I came
into the world as a dog, expecting to be fully a dog and do dog things. But
then, guess what? When I was a couple months old I was plopped right into a
family of humans, full of human activities, and all the weirdness that comes with
living with intelligent bipedal primates. How crazy is that?
Stay with me here. I’m still a dog, a puppy actually. Up until
I’m about 4 ½ months old I’m taking in all this data and figuring out what’s
what? Whoa, vacuum cleaner. Is that safe? Okay, maybe. There’s a visitor. Cool,
she likes me. Now we’re on a car ride. It’s a bit scary, but then we end up at
puppy class and that’s fun. So, car rides check out. They are good. As a puppy
in this early stage of my development I’m constantly evaluating events in my
life and I only have one criterion. Is
this good for me, or not?
Why? Because I’m a dog. Like all animals, I have precious little
time to experiment with things that might be dangerous. We expect most animals
to be afraid of us and the things related to our human lives. Birds, squirrels,
coyotes, and deer are all afraid of us and our stuff. The one’s who aren’t are the
exception. Crazy bird, landing on a guy’s extended finger. Crazy squirrel,
letting that lady pet him. Crazy coyote get out of here. And, oh deer. Why do
our dogs’ natural fears surprise us? Should we expect anything else?
Let’s get back to the Meat of the matter. We have to work very
conscientiously to introduce our puppies to the twists and turns of life with
humans. Honestly, most of us do a pretty crummy job of it. We skip puppy class.
We don’t give our young dogs a variety of experiences. We basically coddle and
shelter him from the world he’s going to have to deal with eventually. We miss
the importance of doing these things when he’s young, when it’s easiest, when
our efforts have the most lasting impact. If this was you, you’re not alone. My
guess is you tried your best, and maybe it just wasn’t enough. That happens to
a lot of us as well. We have a few weeks to teach our dogs how to live with us
in our wacky world, and then the fears start creeping in. I’ve been on this
planet nearly 5 decades. I get it. Even that hasn’t been enough time to figure
all this stuff out. How can a puppy do it in just a few weeks? Okay, I’ll say
it. It’s crazy.
What happened? Our dogs missed experiences in their important
early stages of development. Stuff we don’t understand scares us and the same
is true for our dogs. They grow into their fears, not out of them. Around 6-18
months we might notice our puppies hiding from certain sights, sounds and
experiences. It’s not a big deal. We do nothing, or maybe we think it’s cute.
Worst case, we push our dogs to “get used to” the scary thing. We laugh at
their fearful reaction. We shoot video. We post it on YouTube and get 17 million hits.
It’s funny, until the dog starts barking, or growling, or worse.
I’m sure this wasn’t you, but it happens so often. Let me play
the role of the dog again one last time. I don’t know what those sounds are;
they scare me. I was born a dog so I’ll do the dog thing and bark to scare them
off. I don’t know who that is – he looks different – why is he in my house.
I’ll growl to make sure he doesn’t come any closer. Oh wait it’s you. Can you
help me? I don’t understand what’s going on.
Of course you can help. Don’t let this blog post be a
replacement for working with a qualified behavior consultant. I have some ideas
for you, but you’ll need to get some in-person help to guide you through the
process. We should teach Meat a few things right off the bat:
- Dad’s
got your back. This means you’re going to teach Meat some simple skills he can
perform when scary stuff happens (usually this includes interacting with you in
some way). Use food, toys and praise. Using any kind of force or coercion will
only make the problems worse. Having his back also means you won’t force him to
handle a scary situation he’s not ready for.
- Everything’s
cool. Because we are teaching Meat using reward-based methods, we are
automatically associating food, play and praise with formerly scary things.
Your behavior consultant will call this counter conditioning, and it’s the path
we want to walk with our fearful dogs.
- Meat
has choices. I love teaching dogs to make appropriate choices to help them calm
themselves. Again, this often means interacting with you – and it almost always
means teaching calm relaxed behavior as a winning choice. Catch him in the act
of getting it right and guide his behavior with your feedback.
Chances are these sudden changes in your dog’s behavior have
actually been brewing for several months now. We frequently see a tip toward
more offensive behavior related to fear at 18-36 months. That said, check with
your veterinarian or a veterinary behaviorist to rule out any health problems.
Assuming that checks out, visit iaabc.org to
find a behavior consultant in your area. You will be asking him or her about
noise phobia, and sudden environmental contrast issues (hats off / hats on).
Both are not uncommon issues. Your trainer / consultant will probably ask you
several questions about other fears you may not have identified yet.
 |
used with permission
RobynArouty.com |
It’s not too late. Help is available. We just need to teach Meat
that he’s safe – beef up his confidence a bit. (See how I did that?). I know.
I’m crazy.
Michael
Baugh CDBC, CPDT-KSA helps people with fearful and aggressive
dogs in Houston, TX.
He’s afraid of suspension bridges and reckless drivers in pickup trucks, the
combination of which causes immediate emotional meltdown.
You may enjoy some of Michael's other posts that can all be found on the Dog Training archives page here, or check out these:
Michael's advice does not replace an actual consultation with a qualified trainer.
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