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Reducing Fear in Your Dog
A gentle hand or a tasty treat doesn’t reinforce fear, it reduces it
It was one in the morning, and I was wide awake. Thunderstorms had been rolling like waves over the farm all night, and this one was so loud I thought the windows might break. Lassie, my 14-year-old Border Collie, lay panting beside me. She’s almost deaf, but the combination of a falling barometer, lightning flashes and the crashes of thunder were enough to send her into a panic. As we lay there together, I stroked her soft old head, thinking about the advice to avoid petting a dog who reacts to thunder. “You’ll just teach them to be more fearful,” according to the traditional wisdom. Only one thing: It’s not true. We’ve been taught for ages that trying to soothe frightened dogs just makes them worse. It seems logical, in a cut-and-dried, stimulus-and-response kind of way. Your dog hears thunder, he runs to you and you pet him. Voilà, your dog just got reinforced for running to you when it thunders, and worse, for being afraid of thunderstorms in the first place. But that’s not what happens, and here’s why. First, no amount of petting is going to make it worthwhile to your dog to feel panicked. Fear is no more fun for dogs than it is for people. The function of fear is to signal the body that there is danger present, and that the individual feeling fearful had better do something to make the danger, and the fear that accompanies it, go away. Think of it this way: Imagine you’re eating ice cream when someone tries to break into your house at midnight. Would the pleasure of eating ice cream “reinforce” you for being afraid, so that you’d be more afraid the next time? If anything, things would work in the reverse—you might develop an unconscious discomfort around ice cream. However, you sure as heck aren’t going to be more afraid if a burglar arrives because you were eating chocolate mocha fudge the first time it happened. There’s another reason petting your thunder-phobic dog doesn’t make him worse, and it couldn’t hurt to take a deep breath before you read it. Research on thunder-phobic dogs suggests that petting does not decrease the level of stress in the dog receiving it.* If it doesn’t decrease stress, how could it act as reinforcement? Before you write describing how your loving touch calms your own dog, please note that (1) I didn’t do the research; (2) my own dogs stop pacing and whining when I pet them during storms; and (3) I don’t care what the research says, it makes me feel better, it doesn’t hurt anything, so I do it anyway. Studying Stress On the contrary, it’s just not possible that petting your dog is going to make her more fearful the next time there’s a storm. Warnings that you’ll ruin your dog by comforting her are reminiscent of the advice from the 1930s and ’40s to avoid comforting frightened children by picking them up. That perspective was tossed out long ago by psychologists, when research made it clear that having parents they can count on when life gets scary creates bold, stable children, not dependent or fearful ones. |
This article first appeared in The Bark, Issue 50, Sep/Oct 2008
Photograph by Caziopeia
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Dr McConnell is the very best person to tell us how to help our fearful animals. She combines the best of modern science studies with the old-fashioned handed-down habits AND her heartfelt love for all animals.
My first dog changed completely due to her advice and training.
There are many reasons why her classes at th Vet school in Madison WI are always booked up with long wait lists:
she is kind and smart and has more hands-on experience with a wide variety of pets and 'feral' animals.
It might be challenging to follow her method without a live person in front of you, but try some of her videos! They are super!
(signed)
Maureen, a very happy past client!
Gee, I dont mean to be rude but John sounds like a modern day dog whisperer lol
First I think this is an excellent article that certainly brings to light some of the ancient "rules" that people just assume are right and accept as the norm.
Secondly some of johns comments just don't make sense...
First he says, through his "energy" he picked up the dog after the fight and the dog seemed to calm down and trust in his energy.
Then follows up by saying anyone who comforts a dog that is in a fearful state are idiots???
Well it seems to me, however you word it, all you have done is calmed a dog down while it was scared...
Therefore I don't think you should call people idiots for doing what is natural. As most decent people who consider their dog a pet, as opposed to a working dog or a dog with a specific job, consider that pet to simply be a member of the family and are only doing what any parent would do for their child.
I am glad someone is standing up and saying that it's ok to do something different, or simply what YOU think is right.
I know 1 thing for sure, if my dog knows it can come to me when it is scared for comfort and reassurance and that makes my dog feel better in ANY way, then guess what I'm going to do...?
I completely disagree with this article, but I think the discrepancy lies in the wording of the initial bit of conventional wisdom. You said: "You’ll just teach them to be more fearful" by petting them when they react fearfully. No. You're not going to teach them to be MORE fearful, but you're certainly reinforcing the existing reaction. When my dog does something right, he often gets stroked and scratched behind the ears in lieu of a treat. It's a reward for him! Personally...I stand by the fact that you shouldn't comfort and coddle a dog in these instances.
Thunderstorms are rare in my area, but we do have the occasional fire alarm. When the system was tested last month, we were home and my dog immediately started looking for a place to hide. I got some tasty treats out, and just fed him treats. It worked, he was still anxious but no longer trying to hide and visibly relaxed a bit.
The important part of this is next time the alarm goes off, hopefully he will look to us for treats instead of hiding (which would be problematic in an actual fire).
I own a boutique and many customers have used the thunder-shirt for any anxiety; car anxiety separation anxiety, loud noises etc. they have all reported positive feedback in seeing a difference in their pet. I would highly recommend it. It mimmicks a hug wrapping itself tightly on your pet.
I have a foster dog is afraid of people because she was mistreated and lived in a puppymill for 6 years. She is still afraid of me but scared to death of men. She did come out of her fear when I had a friend's dog visiting. I agree that other dogs bring out fear. Any suggestions on how to bring this girl around. She is currently taking prozac but I do not see that it is really helping.
"The most important factor in increasing cortisol was the presence of other dogs." Yes! We had two dogs, and the younger was terribly frightened of both fireworks and thunderstorms, then we got a 5 month old puppy who is fearless, and, guess what? Our middle dog now stays out with the other two during both thunderstorms and fireworks! I wouldn't have thought to believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. Not that everyone can handle more than one dog, but, wow, that puppy sure has made a difference!
I believe that there are different types of fear, fear from a thunderstorm is much different than fear of another dog or people etc. I would coddle my dog during a thunderstorm but will not coddle it when it shows fear of another dog/situation. When a dog goes over a certain threshold of fear there is no counter conditioning that is going to work, the only thing that will work is getting the dog out of the situation calmly.
Bunny, my 2 1/2 yr. old Cockapoo, started demonstrating fear (crouching down, eyes squinted) when some trucks and buses go by on the streets of NY. Now she had never had a problem with this previously. I don't know what happened to make her scared but it's gotten worse and worse. I tried the old "keep her walking, don't give in to her" approach. And she won't eat any treats (she's not that treat oriented) when she was scared. Her favorite thing of all is to chase the red light of a laser pointer so I've started carrying one on our walks and when I see her demonstrating fearful behavior, I point her light so she can see it. I think I'm noticing a difference since I started a week ago. It seems to get her mind off the noise and onto something she loves. I hope it continues working and that she loses this fearfulness. After all, living in NYCity, she's always going to be hearing noises like this.
chelly & bunny
A really good, thought-provoking article. My take on this is that there is a big difference between the human version of providing reassurance and the animal one. Our version is often laced with worry and anxiety at the fear that our dog is displaying and this is what the dog picks up on and learns to associate with the fearful stimulus. If a human is capable of providing a strong enough presence that doesn't project anxiety then a soothing pat or simple physical contact can help the dog.
If a fearful dog comes to me, I see this as the dog asking for me to display strength and provide 'shelter' from the fearful stimulus, not reciprocate his emotional state.
I always think of the response of the mother animal when a stimulus frightens their young; they don't wrap themselves around their young and whimper with them, they stand strong and deal with the offending stimulus if possible, or if there isn't one, simply relax and allow the anxious young to make physical contact with her, to show them with her own behaviour that there is nothing to fear.
Thanks for clearing up my own confusion about the article on thunder. I've had great success using treats to reduce my beagle/terrier mix's reactivity to other dogs. For years she frequently charged dogs we met on our walks, barking, pulling on her leash with the hair on the her back straight up. Since she is a small dog and easily controlled, this behavior was unpleasant and embarrassing, but not dangerous. Eventually it occurred to me--Duh!--that this probably wasn't much fun for her either. I had taught her to sit for treats, and started asking her to sit for a treat when I saw a dog heading our way. When I'm keeping her in a sit while treating her, she'll let a dog pass within a foot of her while staying focused on me and the treat. Now when she sees another dog heading towards us, she'll frequently react by looking up to me expectantly, slowing down and sliding her butt toward the ground. I'll pull out a treat, but not stop to give it to her until we get fairly close. In general, she seems much calmer.
The neighborhood dog people are amazed at the change. I'm amazed it took me so long to figure this out.
Nice article, but any dog I have worked with REFUSED treats when they are in a fear state of mind. A lot of times treats DON'T work especially if the dog is a high level of UNSTABLE mind.
It's true that if you are scared the dog will pick up on that.
I've also had an experience where a dog locked on the back of another dog because he reacted out of fear since the dog he locked on snapped first at him. So his fear reaction made him attack back. Right before the attack the dog gave submission signals, but the aggressor didn't stop so the feared dog did what is natural and attack back.
I couldn't get the dog to let go, cuz everyone was yelling, so I told everyone to stop, take a deep breath and I calmly told the dog to let go, and he let go of the neck. I was holding the dog and I believe he felt my energy and trusted me that I would make sure the other dog wouldn't attack back.
My point is that I don't believe in showing affection to an unstable dog. I choose to do everything with my energy, since the dog will pick on that quicker and respond quicker than if I just give him a treat. I'm definitely not going to pet a fearful dog, especially if it's not one I own. You'd be an idiot to pet a fearful dog.
John, being calm is great, and you're right that a dog in a frenzy usually won't take treats. But if your dog's already in a fight, you just need to get him out of there--that's not the time to try counterconditioning.
You use high value treats--something the dog really likes, not something you think he should like--and you start at a distance where the dog is aware of the trigger but not reacting yet. Then you gradually work your way up. A lot of people advise you to get the dog to do some other behavior, like sit or watch or whatever, but what I've found with my own reactive dog is that doing straight CCC first--teaching the dog simply that this thing he's afraid of now always means good stuff for him--makes it easier down the line to get the dog's attention and give actual cues (sit, let's go, watch me) that can help manage a situation.
Nice article, but any dog I have worked with REFUSED treats when they are in a fear state of mind. A lot of times treats DON'T work especially if the dog is a high level of UNSTABLE mind.
It's true that if you are scared the dog will pick up on that.
I've also had an experience where a dog locked on the back of another dog because he reacted out of fear since the dog he locked on snapped first at him. So his fear reaction made him attack back. Right before the attack the dog gave submission signals, but the aggressor didn't stop so the feared dog did what is natural and attack back.
I couldn't get the dog to let go, cuz everyone was yelling, so I told everyone to stop, take a deep breath and I calmly told the dog to let go, and he let go of the neck. I was holding the dog and I believe he felt my energy and trusted me that I would make sure the other dog wouldn't attack back.
My point is that I don't believe in showing affection to an unstable dog. I choose to do everything with my energy, since the dog will pick on that quicker and respond quicker than if I just give him a treat. I'm definitely not going to pet a fearful dog, especially if it's not one I own. You'd be an idiot to pet a fearful dog.
I confess, I'm an idiot, and I will gladly keep being one, because CCC works.
This is another excellent article by Patricia B. McConnell, PhD that needs to be deseminated to the dog owning public! Thanks to Patricia for all she does for dogs! Thanks to Bark for publishing articles by a positive trainer!