Dealing with DEEP seeded Fear

Fear issues can be the most difficult and lengthy canine behavioral problems to fix. As many people who have ever dealt with fear or fear based anxiety know, it can creep down deep into your mind and grow roots. Usually sparked by a traumatic experience, fear begins as a manageable unwanted surprise and grows into a silent monster, often taking the victim captive if not immediately and correctly dealt with. The fertilizer for allowing fear to take root is lack of confidence and self esteem. Where confidence is lacking in the mind, fear takes over the empty space.

Just as with humans, fear effects our canine friends the same way. In some cases, it can completely rob your dog of simple life joys and experiences, leaving them even less confident and growing in fear even more. It’s a horrible cycle but it can be stopped. Here are some tips on how to begin solving the fear issue.

1. BE CONFIDENT.

A human who can not harness a calm, quiet and confident energy, will not be able to fix a fear based behavior. Do not mistake the term confident for dominant. They are two very different things. You never want to force your dog to go through the process of moving through the fear energy, it has to be something they make a decision to do for themselves. A good handler will be able to use confident energy to inspire the dog to want to push past their own fear for the promise of a reward. This does not mean begging and bribing a dog through frustration to move through their fear. This approach will never work. The handler must be the leader, not a boss. The way you can harness this energy is by emotionally placing yourself into a memory of a time you were in a leadership role. Whether is was a moment in time as a parent, or at work in a certain managerial role, or a time where you felt confidence in yourself, such as, accomplishing a goal that you are very proud of. Placing yourself in the frame of mind is the first step to solving fear.

2. No rewards while in the fear state of mind.

Our first reaction to seeing our furry friends become afraid, is to go over and comfort them with petting and high pitched noises. This is not a good plan of action. What we are actually accomplishing with this reaction is enforcing emotional dependency, which in turn enables low self-confidence, which is the very fertilizer that fear needs to grow roots. Our dogs need to be able to learn how to accept something that makes them fearful and given the correct amount of time to process the information. They must also be given the courage to move through the fear. This is done through the handlers quiet, confident energy.

3. The correct comfort.

There is a time when fearful dogs need to be comforted, but this cannot happen with traditional physical touch and praise. The correct way to comfort is to harness the comforting to achieve a goal of mental, emotional and often physical forward motion. Forward motion is the key. Praising a dog who is in a paralyzed state of fear achieves nothing but backwards movement, causing the dog to move more towards low self esteem, leading to greater fear. We want the dog to be working on moving out of this state, to work through the anxiety: forward motion. This can be achieved through pressure and release; pressure, challenges the dog to tolerate and work through an uncomfortable situation, and the release is the comfort associated with the pressure being taken away at the right moment. It is important to note that the amount of pressure that the dog receives must not be enough to bring the dog over threshold (a state of mental shutdown).

For example, a dog that is afraid of people, would need a person to slowly apply pressure by systematically invading the dogs perceived safety zone in small increments (the distance between the dog and the human needed for the dog to still feel comfortable). When the dog is near threshold, the human gives the dog comfort by leaving the dogs safety zone. Each time the exercise is practiced, the distance is shortened and in this we continually ask the dog to work through the fear using (emotional) forward motion. When the distance is shortened to arms reach, the first step to creating a comforting situation using forward motion is to attempt to offer the dog a treat from your hand (which the dog should take if the handler has continually kept the dog under threshold through the entire process). The handler should then immediately turn and retreat confidently from the safety zone when the dog accepts the treat. This release of pressure usually causes the dog to leave the fear state and move forward into a state of curiosity Congratulations! You have brought your dog to his first moment out of the fear state of mind. The first hurdle is over and we can begin the slow and steady process of rebuilding confidence and self esteem by guiding the dog to trust through similar emotionally and physically challenging situations- eventually building to more physical exercises such as, agility courses, swimming or being introduced to a pack. It is important that every exercise end on a positive forward note. Ending on a negative outcome will give the dog time to think about the negativity and further plunge into low self esteem and fear. Ending on a positive note allows the dog to think in a forward linear motion and to process what happened during the exercise and what is going to happen next.

4. Feeling sorry

It is important to never allow yourself to feel sorry for your dog. This can be so very difficult for us as empathetic human beings, but is necessary to solve the problem. The empathetic energy is not confidence, and therefore detrimental to the entire process.

Think of it this way: You are cornered in your house by a very large, very angry and agitated lion (Fear). His teeth are showing, he isgrowling a low rumble, claws are sharp and at the ready:

you're terrified. Across the room in the other corner, is a person hunched over with their hands on their knees, saying

“Oh honey, I feel so sorry for you.

You poor baby, let me see if I can help”.

In another corner, a secret door swiftly swings open to a person who exclaims,

“Hey, this way!

I found a way out, let me show you!”.

Who are you going to follow? The confident person with the secret door? Or the person feeling sorry? The analogy is silly, but accurately represents the emotional process of choosing leadership through energy recognition. The energy of choice in a fearful situation is confidence.

4. Positive Association and Distraction

In many cases, positive association will work to cure fear issues. This is basically retraining your dog to see a scary object as a rewarding object, therfore, taking fear out of the equation. By rewarding your dog anytime he interacts with the object of terror, they begin to look at the object with a new set of lenses. This method is good to use for dogs that are in a state of suspicion or who are experiencing a shallow state of fear. many dogs who are in a deep fear state will not take a treat.

Another aspect of this method is playful distraction. The idea is to get your dog so involved in play, that they no longer realize that they are near the scary object. To accomplish this, begin playing with your dog a good distance away from the object. Next, slowly and methodically, move closer and closer to the object without alerting your dog to your master plan. If done correctly, your dog will be playing near the boogyman without even realizing it. When he is tired, ask him to sit near the bject and reward with positive association. Again, this meathod will not always work with all fear cases, but well worth the effort!

5. Moving the feet

The purpose of forward motion is to move the mind out of the fear state, but in many cases, the best way to put the mind in motion, is to move the legs. The physical motion keeps the wheels turning, not allowing the dog to focus on the fear. For example, If your dog is fearful of bicycles, the correct response for dealing with this terrifying piece of equipment, is not to stop and focus on the bike, but to keep moving past it, redirecting the dog when he acknowledges the scary bike. Many handlers believe that letting a dog sniff and familiarize himself with a fearful object is the key to not being afraid, but this is not usually the correct solution for established patterns. Keep in mind that fear is not rational. A dog who is skeptical or unsure of an object, should be given the chance to familiarize themselves with the object to form a conclusion that the object is no threat. When the dog is already in a mindset of fear over an object, they cannot rationalize the fear away. They have already decided that the object is a threat. At this point, to move the mind forward, we need to move the legs forward to keep the dog from becoming overly focused or parylized in terror. Redirection is a key tool in keeping your dog under threshold while still applying the pressure needed in confronting the object.

6. Change plans but remain foreword.

Sometimes, the exercise doesn't go as you planned it. If you begin applying pressure and release only to find that the dog crawls deeper into a fear mindset (and is over threshold) -even after the release, do not continue with the exercise. Remember, the exercise isn't what is important, it’s just the means to an end. The forward motion is what is important and is what is going to get your dog to move out of the fear mindset. If you are not getting forward motion, the exercise is not working as intended. So if you have to adjust your sails, do it confidently! Be easy on yourself, don’t allow yourself to feel as if a failed exercise is a personal failure, or to feel sorry for inflicting more stress onto your dog. Take it for what it is, a learning curve for you both. Whatever you do, do not work with your dog if you are stuck in this state of energy. Remember, the type of energy you feed will grow in your dog, so feeding self doubt and lack of confidence on your part will destroy any forward motion that could have been gained in a modified exercise. If you need to take a step back to revisit the drawing board, take time to do that. If anything, take note of your dog’s unexpected fearful reaction; It will give you valuable insight into what the root of the fear is or was, and help you to come up with a better exercise. You may or may not need to rework the entire plan, it is possible that all you need is a different approach.

Take your time, working through fear is a journey, not a destination.

#fear #Dogs #pressure #forward