ADVICE: The Common Sense Dog
Thank you to everyone who has emailed me with questions and stories. I read each one carefully. If you are struggling with your dog, feel free to email me at askdogtrainersteph@gmail.com. I will always do my best to offer advice, and I may even use your question as the topic of a particular week’s article.
A recurring question I receive is, “How can I help my dog be less fearful with new people?” This is such a great question, and believe it or not, it has a fairly easy answer. While there are many steps that go into building confidence in a fearful dog, the first step in rehabbing fear of people is giving dogs the power of invisibility.
As with many of my articles, I want to emphasize the importance of viewing the situation from our dog’s perspective. Fearful dogs act skittish or aggressive because they BELIEVE something bad is going to happen. A dog that is fearful of humans prefers not to interact. They may show us this by cowering, moving away, growling, or even biting. Interaction from the people that make the dog nervous adds additional pressure to an already tense situation.
When we push our dogs to be pet, talked to, or interacted with by the people that scare them, we teach our dogs that we don’t fully understand their position. When they feel misunderstood, they lose trust in us and start to ask for space in their own way. This is when we see avoidance turn into aggression. The dog is asking for space in an even bigger way because it feels it is not being understood.
It is our job to change the way the dog perceives people. If you have a fearful dog, teach your friends, family, guests, and strangers to treat the dog as if it were invisible. This means no touching, no talking, and no eye contact. This does a few things to help kick start the rehabilitation process. First, it helps our dogs feel at ease, almost like we gave them a super power. Second, it allows them to move about more freely without fear of what the people in the room might do. Third, it opens the door for a very critical milestone—natural curiosity.
Very often fearful dogs want to be social but don’t feel comfortable doing so. Once they know they can enter the social world without anyone putting pressure or expectations on them, they naturally start to explore the environment and people around them. You’ll notice the dog sniffing shoes, checking hands for food, and spending more time near people.
Once your dog is comfortable with this scenario, you can start cultivating that curiosity by calmly praising your dog when they chose to interact. All other people should still continue to treat the dog as if it were invisible. (Dogs that have a bite history or have shown aggression should do these exercises with a muzzle on.) By allowing our dogs ample time to absorb the social scene, we set them up for success during the next steps of rehabilitation.
Take the time to build trust, have fun, and be the coach your dog has been looking for!
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Stephanie Vichinsky is the owner/head trainer of United K9, LLC in Post Falls. 208-964-4806
unitedk9training.com