Claire Martin on Podencos and reactivity
It’s been a while, but we are slowly finding our feet again. What better way to bring back the blog than with the next instalment from Claire Martin, our dog behaviourist and trainer extraordinaire! So here we have Reactivity – what is it and what to do about it?
What is it?
When puppies are born they have a mixture of their genetic inheritance and the effects of the environment that impact on their development. In the first 16 weeks or so of their life, they learn about the world and if they are safe and secure then they can learn that the world is a fun place, this is socialisation and once the window of their brain circuits being open to new experiences closes at about 20 weeks then socialisation is over and any future new experiences are likely to be scary to some extent. If they aren’t safe in their early weeks then their early experiences can result in deep-seated fears. Either way, new, scary things in an adolescent puppy after about 20 weeks can cause a fear reaction – usually a startle bark from the young dog. Sometimes people will tell you that you should ignore a scared dog’s fears but in fact that is the worst thing possible. You cannot make a dog more afraid by comforting their fear (contrary to popular belief) but you absolutely can help a dog to feel less afraid by comforting them when they get scared. Giving a scared dog comfort is essential.
Desensitisation and Counter Conditioning – this is the name of the process we can use to change the fear response to a scary stimulus.
Desensitisation (DS) means making the stimulus less scary by exposing a fearful dog to the stimulus at a low level – low enough that they aren’t scared of the stimulus and can look at it.
Counter Conditioning (CC) means pairing low levels of a scary stimulus with a positive experience so that the positive experience changes the emotional response to the stimulus..
A combination of those processes and a scared dog can be helped to be less afraid and accepting about something they find scary. The technique we use to DS / CC has a number of names including “LAT = Look at that”, “Open bar / Closed bar” and “Click the trigger”. They are all the same!
What to do about it?
Identify the stimulus that your dog is afraid of.
Locate somewhere where you can find that stimulus at a wide range of intensities / distances from your observation point.
Identify the highest possible value treats for your dog and make sure you have LOTS!
Go to that place and the moment your dog spots the fearful stimuli at a sufficiently great distance that they are not afraid but are just interested then reward them just for looking at the stimulus. If you clicker train – use a click to mark the look. If you don’t use a clicker mark your dogs “look” at the stimulus with the word “yes”. In all cases reward after the click or the yes.
If your dog wont take the treats you are too close to the stimulus. Move away and try again.
Soon your dog will start to look at the stimulus and then look at you – this is the perfect reaction we are after.
Don’t try and turn your dog’s back to the stimulus. If you are afraid of large hairy spiders and I put one behind you, you would loose your trust in me to protect you from the scary thing. Let them look at the scary thing.
When your dog appears relaxed and comfy with the stimulus at that distance, move closer.
The whole process can be as quick as a day or as slow as a year – it depends how deep seated the fear is, how sensitive your dog is and how skilled you are at DS/CC.
Other handy titbits of information
If your dog is afraid of strangers, don’t let them give your dog treats, you give the treats (your dog trusts you) for just looking at the stranger. Only when your dog trusts someone should they give your dog a treat. If your dog is afraid of other dogs when they are on a lead but fine off lead then it might be that they are actually frustrated rather than afraid. We can still use the same DS/CC technique to help a dog over frustration. The dog having a treat in this photo was scared and frustrated by other dogs but in time he learnt that Storm the greyhound was safe and they became real friends.
Sometimes a dog will have a stress relieving activity that helps them cope with fear – the photo here shows Tracer with an old duvet he liked to de-stuff during thunder storms, I just used to pop the stuffing back in and sew up the hole in the cover each time!
Fear of loud sounds such as thunder and fireworks. Prepare for firework season using sound apps and recordings of fireworks, instead of having them at a long distance, start at a low volume. If you don’t have time to DS/CC and you find out that there is going to be a firework display that your dog wont cope with – go to see your vet – there are short acting medications that can help. Don’t be tempted to rely on a herbal remedy if your dog is truly terrified. Sound fears can escalate quickly if they aren’t resolved and its better to use medication early on than let the fear develop.
Ask for help from a behaviourist that practices positive techniques.
Never expose your dog to a level of the thing that they are scared of that causes them to “shut down” in fear. They aren’t coping, they aren’t learning they are being flooded and sadly there are those who think that this is a training technique that works.
If you can engage your dog in play in a stressful environment such as during a thunder storm then the positive emotions and hormones released will help them not to become afraid and can help them overcome mild fear.
Claire Martin at Chrysalis K9 is a CAPBT behaviourist and trainer and currently shares her life with 10 rescue sighthounds including 5 Podencos/Podenco crosses.
