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Before we can address
these three very different emotions we must first understand them, these
are not definitive definitions but they will give you an idea of the
differences between them and will hopefully help you to understand a
little more as to how your dog is feeling and why he is behaving in the
way he is.
Fear
is an emotional response to a perceived threat or danger, fear is a
survival mechanism which occurs in response to a stimulus such as a loud
noise and is designed to avoid pain. For example, a dog may become
frightened of loud noises because he fears the noises may hurt him.
Fear is a learnt behaviour and often starts with experiences as a puppy
during the ‘critical period’ (between 8-12 weeks) at this time a puppy
is at his most sensitive to new experiences and only one fearful
experience could have a lasting impact, but fear can be learnt at any
age. Later in life it can be the result of repeated bad experiences for
example physical punishment or aggression from other dogs.
Phobia
is an irrational fear that has no specific cause or basis, dogs can
experience phobias just like people can, for example Agoraphobia – a
fear of large spaces is particularly common and
Aurophobia a fear of gold which, I
believe, also extends to other shiny objects.
Anxiety
is different to fear in that there does not need to be an actual
stimulus, just the potential of that stimulus. Anxiety can be seen in
dogs during the fireworks season, the responses to the loud bangs are
fear responses but many dogs become extremely anxious during the day in
anticipation of the fireworks and this is anxiety. Dogs can also become
anxious about going for a walk, this is again in anticipation of what
could happen on the walk and not a fear of the walk itself, a dog that
is anxious of the walk may try to hide when you get the lead out or may
curl up into a tight ball and shiver.
The first step when
dealing with a fearful dog is to diagnose which emotional state you are
dealing with as this will affect the way in which you begin training,
once you are sure what kind of fear the dog is experiencing, you must
then also discover the source of the fear, if this can be done then
training can begin, however in the case of the rescue dog you may not
always have that information and therefore will have to rely on guess
work. In the case of a fearful dog where you know the cause; for
example, a dog that is frightened of cars, training will involve
repeated exposure to cars starting at a low enough level that he can
cope for example in a playing field, you will be far enough away that he
is fairly calm but close enough to still see and hear the cars, and
gradually, over time, increasing the intensity so that eventually you
are standing near a motorway at 5.30pm (at a safe distance, of course).
Treats should not be used for this type of training as it is likely that
even though the dog appears calm he still may be frightened inside and
if you give this dog a treat you could be inadvertently rewarding
fearful behaviour and his behaviour around cars will get worse not
better. Just wait for him to be calm and under control and then
increase the intensity by either getting closer to the road or finding a
busier road. When training a dog that is suffering anxiety, treat the
cause of the anxiety and ignore any anxious behaviour. In the earlier
example, the dog was anxious about the loud noises from fireworks, to
treat this fear I would recommend a noise CD, this is a CD that has
recorded on it various different sounds that a dog is likely to be
afraid of and they usually include cars, screaming children, trains and
fireworks etc. Play the CD at a low volume to start with so that it is
virtually inaudible and put it on a loop when you are out at work so
that it plays over and over again, over a period of weeks very gradually
increase the volume, at each stage be sure that your dog is completely
used to the noise at each level before turning it up again, otherwise
you will do more harm than good. Eventually, you will have the CD
playing at full volume and your dog will not bat an eyelid.
Do not attempt to do any
kind of fear rehabilitation until you are 100% sure that your dog sees
you as his leader in all situations, he must trust you implicitly in
order for this kind of training to be effective. Also, do not try to
train a dog that has a phobia as this kind of problem needs an expert
that knows exactly what they are doing. |
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