Understanding Your Dogs Fears

By Langley Cornwell

My dog Frosty had a serious fear of loud noises. She was most terrified when it stormed, when there were fireworks or when guns were being shot. She would salivate, pace and hide. Once we were able to understand what she was afraid of, it made it easier to help her when she was faced with the things that scared her.

Fear can be a crippling emotion and when it comes to your dog, fear can drive his actions and lead to bad and even dangerous behavior. Understanding the fears that your dog experiences can help you, as a responsible pet owner, better help your canine companion.

Things that scare your dog may seem silly or inconsequential, but to your pooch they are monumental. What are some common fears that dogs exhibit?

Noises

The noise created by vacuum cleaners, certain appliances and even lawnmowers have been known to scare some dogs. In the house, sudden loud noises like those from a mixer, a blender or some other small appliance can startle and upset any dog.

Often, the reverberation of loud sounds off the walls of an enclosed room can frighten your dog. In the great outdoors, though, dogs can react poorly to the lawnmower. In all cases, a dog is simply unable to make sense of the movement and the noise, and it results in fear.

In the same way, some dogs may be frightened by thunder, lightning or fireworks. It is possible to rehabilitate some dogs from such fears through therapy, positive encouragement and even medications. However, avoiding the things that frighten your dog, if feasible, may be the best way to deal with their fears.

Floors

Some dogs may be frightened of slick floors or even an unfamiliar floor. Slick floors can cause your dog to become unsteady and clumsy on her feet, which can scare her.

Some dogs may fear stepping from one type of flooring onto another such as going from carpet to vinyl flooring or vice versa. My neighbors dog will not walk on hardwood floors. She has little carpeted paths through the rooms in her house that have hardwoods.

People

People are also a common fear for dogs. Some dogs may fear men specifically, or people in uniforms. If you have a dog that is fearful of people, always make strangers aware of this and discourage them from approaching your dog.

Recognize the Signs

Knowing your dogs triggers and the signs that he is becoming afraid is a must. Once you discover your dogs fears, pay close attention to how he acts. A tail tucked between the legs, ears laid back, whimpering, whining, cowering, barking, salivating and other behaviors can indicate fear.

A scared dog can even become aggressive, so it is especially important to understand your dogs fears and recognize the signs of fear. Understanding when your dog is becoming frightened and needs your intervention is imperative.

Soothing Fears

Containment is the best solution for many fears your dog may have. Put your dog inside the house or in a contained kennel when you are mowing your lawn. A dog frightened of a thunderstorm may feel safer and more secure in their crate until the storm has passed. A dog that is afraid of fireworks should have a safe place at home or secured inside their crate during any local fireworks display within earshot.

With my dog Frosty, I would crate her when I knew a storm was moving in. If a storm sneaked up on us or I wasted time with getting her into the crate, she would run and hide underneath the bed.

Being aware and observant of your dogs behavior can save you from frustration and save your dog from stress. Be ready to take action when your dog is faced with a fear.

While our first instinct with a frightened dog is to pet her and talk soothingly, much like we would do with a child, the best course of action is always removal from the situation. At some point, you may have the opportunity to introduce your dog to the source of fear under better circumstances. That would be the time to try to lessen the fear through positive reinforcement with CANIDAE TidNips treats and perhaps eventually allowing your dog to examine the source of the fear (if possible).

Ultimately, though, be ready to remove and contain your dog when she is frightened. This is the best option for her safety and the safety of those around her.

Top photo by Carterse
Bottom photo by Gareth Williams

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Overcoming fears in Fearful Dogs

Dogs have fears for several reasons, that is a whole article to itself and weve covered it in the article link to the right called Fearful Dogs we also made a Lens at Squidoo for more general tips on Confidence Building for Fearful Dogs. Be sure to check them out too.

Here I hope to talk about ways to overcome those fears youll find in fearful dogs. There are several ways to do so. I think the most popular method is by using the clicker and treats. So I am going to cover some basics on using a clicker and some treats to help your dog overcome some fears.

The first thing you need to do, is make sure to charge the clicker. Be sure your dog knows what that click means. If your completely new to clicker training, be sure to check out Clicking With Your Dog along with Click for Joy! I can not recommend those two books enough. They are great for anybody interested in clicker training.

If you dont yet have a clicker, their are many out there to choose from. My favorite to use is the StarMark Clicker. However you can use iClicks too. Im not a huge fan of them simply because they are so quiet. If you have a sensitive dog or a fearful dog, those might be the way to go though. These also come with a wrist coil to keep them hooked to your wrist for easy grabbing.

Now that you should have the needed equipment, lets continue. Once your dog knows what the clicker means, you will want to teach them to target. Targeting is simply touching their nose to a certain thing. You can use your hand, finger, a lid off a container, a pen or even a stick to teach this. If your not sure how to teach target, I again recommend Clicking With Your Dog this book will teach you how to train target, along with several other things that will help your dog come out of his shell and gain confidence.

Once your dog knows how to target, you will be able to use it for several different things! Targeting is used in so many different training instances, its a must teach! Now you can start getting things your dog is fearful of and at first just start in the same room with the object or person, or what ever he is afraid of. If its another dog, then have somebody hold the other dog. Now you can practice targeting on the other side of the room, gradually targeting closer and closer to the feared object. You want to make this varied, sometimes be closer, other times move back. In doing so, your dog will pay less attention to moving closer to the object.

You might not get up to the object in the same lesson or the same day. If your dog is truly terrified, take a few days of just working in the same room with that object. Eventually youll be able to work right up next to the feared object, getting your dog touching all around it. Your end goal is to teach the dog to touch his nose to the feared object. Rewarding heavily when he does! The first feared object will be the hardest to get your dog close to and to touching, but every object after that will get easier and easier. Before long your dog will be running over to previously feared object, touching his nose to it then looking at you going... Now wheres my treat?. You can use this procedure with just about everything your dog is afraid of, if its a person, have them touch the persons hand.

If its a dog they are fearful of, youll take a different approach to teaching them how to overcome that fear. You still want to get them used to working in the same room as the other dog and working closer and closer, but not necessarily touching the other dog. Be sure the other dog is gentle and kind. You dont want to use an overly hyper dog the first time you do this. One that can ignore the fearful dog would be best. You want to get your dog up where he can feel safe sniffing the other dog with out the other dog scaring him off. Once your dog is able to meet several nice dogs, you can gradually start adding in a little more dogs who would like to play. Your goal here is to be able to let other dog go and both can play together. Dont use an overly playful dog on the first time either, if its too much for the fearful dog, they will run and hide. Fearful dogs dont always know how to play at first and need time to learn how.

There are several more ways to go about overcoming fears in fearful dogs, I recommend checking into Help for Your Fearful Dog: A Step-by-Step Guide to Helping Your Dog Conquer His Fears. This book is easy to read and really does take you step by step in helping your dog overcome fears. Another book would be Scaredy Dog! Understanding & Rehabilitating Your Reactive Dog.

Those two books can help owners of fearful dogs tremendously! Some other books you can look into would be The Cautious Canine
and Help for Your Shy Dog: Turning Your Terrified Dog into a Terrific Pet.

Any one of those books will get you headed in the right direction with your dog. Pick on and read it, get started on your dog!

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