Dog training has come to a point where everything can be trained and everything has to be trained – and that’s so wrong. You don’t train through behaviours, you understand them, understand why the dog is acting out – and work on the underlying causes.
Let us talk fear for a moment…
Friends have 2 young children that are afraid of spiders – mainly because of constant reinforcers. The mom is petrified of spiders, the dad isn’t great with them either. If children consistently get the reinforcer of “don’t touch that spider”, it’s going to become a fear. Children can become “mirrors” of their parents, their hopes, and fears – dogs are the same. “Don’t touch that spider”, “Don’t touch the hot stove”, “Don’t go near the water”. These are reinforcers. People do the same with dogs without even realizing it – they keep removing the dog from things that scare or worry them.
Your dog is your mirror, a reflection of you – a reflection of your fears, insecurities etc. Be the change you want in your dog.
How does one work on fear? I had to babysit them for a week. One morning I was having coffee and reading the news in the back yard, they came running around the house yelling “spider!”. Ok, show me where, it was a jumping spider… I picked up the spider, sat down, put the spider on my face and resumed coffee and news. The children trust me, they were a bit freaked out that I had the thing that scared them on my face, but i never said anything. Fear turned to curiosity, and before long they wanted to hold it. What happened?
I’m respecting the fact that the kids were afraid, I didn’t throw the spider at them, didn’t ask for them not to be afraid – that doesn’t work. It’s leading by example that really works, I’m not scared, follow my lead. I respect and understand why the children were afraid of spiders, they trust me 100% – and know I wouldn’t put them in harms way. Fear turned to curiosity, and became confidence building – I didn’t terminate a fear, I’m not focused on the fear. Of course, we had the conversation about respecting spiders, they don’t need to be feared or killed – but there are spiders that can harm. Just not around here.
I do the same with my dog. He’s pretty much fearless due to trust – he trusts my judgement, trusts that I have his back and won’t put him in harms way. If we do find something he reacts to, he lets me know – I take the initiative and touch the things he’s scared of, show him that I’m not afraid, no need for you to be. I’m not terminating fears, it’s securing trust.
However… Here’s a couple of protocols that trainers push. I see this all the time in public. This is acopy and paste, their words.
Open Bar/Closed Bar: As long as the trigger is in sight, chicken (or a very special yummy treat) is being shoveled into the dog’s mouth. I also like to “cheerlead” – praise in a happy tone of voice. When the trigger moves out of sight, the chicken and cheering stop.
I watch a trainer in a local pet store last week performing this open/closed bar routine with a German Shepherd. Massive bag of dried liver, kept shovelling food into the dogs mouth, jumping around, all excited – simply because I was there with my dog. I swear I could see it in my dogs face – “what is she doing?”. I talked to the lady that was with her, this trainer had diagnosed the dog with a neurological disorder.
Training should generate excitement in people and dogs, however she’s trying to “train” the dog to not be afraid. First of all, if a dog is truly fearful, they won’t take food. That means they are more likely unsure, not afraid. Keeping the dog in an excited state only accomplishes being more aware of the surroundings.
Calm and relaxed wins the game.
Lets go back to the children that are afraid of spiders. If I were to bring a stranger in to try to terminate fear of spiders – and she used this protocol – how effective would it be? She stands the children next to a spider, gives the child food repeatedly, gets excited, jumps up and down, becomes a cheerleader – don’t be scared of the spider – don’t touch it, but don’t be afraid of it – here, have some food… What
would that accomplish?
Another protocol…
Click the Trigger: Watch the dog’s eyes. As soon as the dog looks at the trigger, click (or use a verbal marker) and immediately hold the chicken to the side of the dog’s nose, so that his eye contact is immediately broken to take the treat. Repeat. Repeat.
Again, look at children and fear of spiders – and ask yourself if this protocol would help with immediate fear. A clicker is a reinforcer – if you use a marker or a click on a dog that is in a state of fear – you’re reinforcing it.
Training for fear becomes a little bit ridiculous when you look at it in different ways.
Think different.