Fears in Dogs
Fear in dogs is a complex problem that usually leads to a wide variety of behaviours many of which are
labeled ‘aggression’.
Fear is both an emotional response and behavioural to a situation that an individual finds scary - fear is an
important response because it keeps the body out of harm’s way.
Fear is highly individual and the things that a dog may be scared of sometimes seem ridiculous to us but
because it is so individual specific training and behaviour modification exercises need to be shaped for the
specific dog in a specific situation.
It is important to understand that you can’t just tell the dog not to be afraid anymore or indeed hope that
they just get over it - these approaches are likely to lead to the issue becoming worse.
Fear is usually seen in dogs as a result of missing out on crucial socialisation and/or as a result of the dog
having a bad experience in a specific situation; in some cases the dog need only have had one negative
experience for him to generalise a fearful response to many similar situations.
The most important part of working and living with fearful dogs is to make sure to prevent the dog being
exposed to a situation that they cannot handle. This may force the dog to feel that they need to use
‘aggression’ to keep the scary thing away and it is likely to make further behaviour modification more
difficult. Working with fearful dogs takes time and patience and therefore much commitment from the
owner/s.
It is vital that owners begin to understand their dogs subtle signaling that communicates that a situation is
becoming too much. The dog must learn to look to their owner for guidance and for them to know that
their owner will get them out of scary situations.
We will work on two sides of fear…
Emotional Response to Fear
the first part of the program is known as ‘desensitisation and counterconditioning’ or D+C and is
used to help the dog feel more comfortable about something they find scary - this may be
strangers, a noise, other dogs, traffic etc.
the dog is gradually introduced to the scary thing while been given something he finds very
rewarding
scary things are never introduced at a strength that the dog finds frightening
as the dog becomes more comfortable with the scary thing at a safe distance than distance can be
decreased gradually
we always work within the dogs own comfort levels
the idea is to turn the once scary thing into a predictor of something yummy!
First we must establish a safe distance – this is the distance from the scary thing, at which your dog does
not show a fearful response.
Any time the dog alerts to the presence of the scary thing at the safe distance, high value rewards are
continuously made available.
As soon as the scary thing goes away so do the rewards.
We are teaching your dog that every time a scary thing turns up, it means that something great is to
follow!
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anne.petcentral@gmail.com www.petcentral.yolasite.com www.pawsitivedawgs.wordpress.com
Once the dog is expecting the reward upon alerting to the scary thing we can begin to move a little closer.
We start working from there again but if we notice that the dog is more spooked we need to move back so
as to prevent a fearful response.
Behavioural Response to Fear:
we will also work on the behaviours that your dog expresses as a result of him being afraid
dogs that exhibit ‘fearful’ behaviour do so because they want distance - they may do this by trying
to get away and if this is not possible they may bark, growl and lunge in an attempt to get the
scary thing to move away
we don’t want to push the dog that far; rather we want to teach him that calmer distance-
increasing signaling gets the dog what he wants - distance
it is important to recognise the subtle signals that your dog shows when a situation is becoming too
much for him
these may include changes in pupil shape and size, stiffening, whiskers moving forward, ears
alerting, freezing, hackles standing up and many other individual variations – these are commonly
associated with arousal and the dog’s behaviour is likely to escalate
at the earliest sign of your dog alerting to something they may find scary you should stop your
approach
watch closely for polite distance increasing signaling such as sniffing the ground, head turns or lip
licks – as soon as your dog demonstrates any of these, say YES! and move quickly away from the
scary thing
once you have moved far enough away reward your dog with a high value reward and a quick
game to reduce the tension
practice approaching again to your safe distance and repeat
By using these two approaches we can teach dogs to feel differently about a scary thing and to offer
alternative behaviours to barking, lunging and growling.
It is essential to understand that the use of aversives (unpleasant things) is absolutely unacceptable and
counter-intuitive when working with fearful dogs (or any dogs for that matter!). Using tightening collars,
physical punishers or telling your dog off for his behaviour in response to scary things is likely to make the
situation much much worse.
It may take quite a while before you are in tune with your dog’s fear and for your dog to understand that
he can rely on you to get him out of scary situations so we will also work on building a relationship
between you and your fearful dog.
Some great fearful dog resources:
Click to Calm by Emma Parsons
Control Unleashed by Leslie McDevitt
http://fearfuldogs.com/
http://ahimsadogtraining.com/blog/2009/08/20/bat-in-englis/
check out our blog on calming crazy canine behaviour for lots of programs that will certainly
help fearful dogs: http://pawsitivedawgs.wordpress.com/crazy-canines/
Pet Central pawsitive pet dog training & behaviour
anne.petcentral@gmail.com www.petcentral.yolasite.com www.pawsitivedawgs.wordpress.com