Soap box tangent: how I approach bravery in client dogs

Different trainers have different views. That’s exactly the way it should be because different dogs and different owners need different solutions. What I do has worked well for myself, my dogs and my clients. Maybe it will work for you too. Maybe it won’t. If it doesn’t, I am sure there is a trainer out there whose approach is just right for YOU and your dog! And if you don’t find that trainer, you’ll just come up with your very own approach!

Being a lifelong learner is important to me, and my approach to fear and insecurity has evolved over the years I’ve worked as a professional trainer. Initially, I was very methodical: counterconditioning and desensitization, please! Then I discovered more nuanced and seemingly less stressful protocols like BAT and a lot of CU ideas. I tried using them with as many client dogs as possible (they are great, especially – if you ask me – CU).

Today, I look at the dog in front of me, their human and their environment. First, we make sure the dog’s baseline needs are being met (exercise, mental stimulation, social needs etc). Baseline needs differ from dog to dog – some need a lot of mental stimulation, some need a lot of exercise, some need a lot of social contact, some need a little bit of all, not much of any or something completely different such as a job (herding, hunting, obedience, bite work …).

Once we have met the baseline needs for 3-4 weeks, we take another look at the challenge. Is it even still a challenge or has it disappeared all on its own once we started meeting previously unmet needs? (Textbook example: a client with a young husky upped their dog’s daily exercise and offered frozen Kongs while they were at work rather than a bowl of food after they got home. We sprinkled a little management on top of it – and the dog stopped destroying the apartment, no further training needed!)

If the challenge is still present, the approach I choose will be the one that is …

• easiest to implement and
• most likely to succeed and
• takes up the least amount of time and resources for whoever I am working with.

This means wildly different things depending on the owner’s resources (financial, time-wise, access to helper dogs and human support systems), where they live (urban, suburban, rural), what kind of dog keeping culture surrounds them, how they think (do you want fast solutions? Does authoritarian dog training appeal to you? Do you want to give your dog all the time in the world? Would you like to be a permissive handler? Somewhere in the middle, a different combination, something else entirely?) How experienced are you training dogs? How mobile are you (are you ablebodied? Do you have a car?) And of course it also depends on your dog: who is your dog and what is their baseline behavior in the face of the stimulus we are concerned with?

Depending on all of the above, no two training plans will look exactly the same. I may send you to consult with a veterinary behaviorist, with a general vet or I may even refer you out to a different trainer I believe will be a better fit. Or I’ll work with you in any number of different ways!

… and in my own dogs!

I will work with the dog in front of me and I am pretty relaxed these days. (I used to have a dog who wanted to murder other dogs. Once you’ve had that dog, everything else seems pretty minor in comparison.)

If my dog’s level of insecurity (my word for low-intensity distance-increasing behaviors) does NOT tip into fear (my word for mid-intensitiy distance-increasing behaviors) or even panic (my word for high-intensity distance-increasing behaviors), I will approach the challenge as organically as possible.

Space permitting and with the concerning stimulus being stationary and evoking insecurity, I may simply walk past a few times with my off leash dog. The May 27 video below (“Marching band madness”) is an example of this.

I may also apply the magic hands trick, bring the mildly insecurity provoking object into a safe environment (see the balloon in the June 14 video) or let my dog watch a confident dog interact with an object (magic paws if you will) – again, see June 14 video).

Faced with fear, I will be more systematic and likely use either CU or classical CC/DS with my dogs.

Faced with panic, I would put my dog on anti-anxiety meds until I got down to “fear” level intensity and then use CU or classical CC/DS.

How about human animals?

For myself, I gamify specific life challenges whenever possible. It is the approach of my choice and it works amazingly well for me, especially when there is a clear start and end date for a particular challenge.

Trusted friends I can safely share my challenges, vent to and celebrate successes with are a crucial element as well.

(Again – just me. It’s not for everyone and that’s totally okay – there are countless ways of dealing with challenges, and what works for one person doesn’t necessarily work for the next.)

Just like for our dogs, meds may be part of the training (or life) plan, and so may be therapy – the human version of seeing a dog trainer/behavior specialist!

Video examples (dog, not human training!)

May 26, 2023: Recreating scary situations in safe environments: tarps blowing in the wind become curtains blowing in a fan

On today’s adventure loop, we saw a tarp blowing in the wind and Chai got a little spooked. After watching it for a while, she was able to cautiously walk past it. This is the second time I have seen this reaction to something blowing in the wind – that’s my cue that tarp feelings aren’t a one-off thing and we need to work on things blowing in the wind! When we got home, I set up the fan and pointed it at the curtains:

May 27, 2023 (Chai’s 51st day with me) – mastering marching band madness

June 9, 2023: braving the glass elevator at the mall without big sister Game

You might remember that Chai had a scary encounter with an elevator door (it closed on her tail) and ended up being suspicious of that particular elevator. The video below is from her second time riding a different elevator – the first time without Game and the second time overall. We rode it several times. Brave puppy!

June 14, 2023: bringing previously (mildly) suspicious objects into a safe and familiar environment; having a confident dog model interaction with a suspicious object; organic counterconditioning through play

Another way to help dogs get used to weird things is to bring them into an environment that is already charged with feelings of safety. This is what I did with a balloon Chai thought was suspicious when it was blowing around in the street. While we were out on a walk, I used the Magic Hands trick on it. Then, since Chai seemed fine with it, I took it home to let it blow around the air stream of the fan some more. Chai wasn’t fazed by its movement anymore at this point. Together with Game, she destroyed it (it took about 30 seconds and is sadly not on the video because the camera was facing the wrong way), and then the dogs went into dog/dog play. This is excellent because play is a wonderful way to reset, recover and have fun. By playing after interacting with a not-entirely-neutral object, we are counterconditioning the feelings about that object. (I don’t think we need to be doing much counterconditioning anymore at this point – Chai fearlessly approaches the balloon in the beginning of the video – but I’m showing it to you to give you yet another idea for how to help your (mildly concerned) dog accept a novel object. Both its presence in a safe environment and a confident dog modeling interaction with the object can be a game changer.

Caveat: do not introduce something your dog is utterly panicked about into their safe space! This could backfire and make the safe space feel less safe!

June 16, 2023: Magic hands in combination with negative reinforcement (distance) in a difficult situation.

Chai mastered the construction corridor right as I was ready to leave and find another way past!

June 27, 2023: magic hands and negative reinforcement off leash

June 29, 2023: braving the fountain pump with magic hands and R- (second time)

The treat toss relief game

Real life examples: in August, Chai was suspicious of the warm, loud sound/air coming from a vent we passed. We walked past several times, each time marking with my cookie toss marker and tossing the cookie away from the entry once we had passed the vent.

I’m calling this the treat toss/relief game (until I think of a sexier name). It is R- because having moved past the entrance is a relief. Of course I made sure the leash stayed loose the entire time and let Chai decide with how much distance she wanted to move past the vent. Chai’s comfort curves allowed her to have agency and be brave. Every time we passed, her curve was less pronounced and she was able to pass closer to the vent.

She still kept a little distance when we ended that first session, but has since – we’ve gone back to practice a few times – lost all fear of the vent.

In December, Chai encountered a suspicious tree stump on a sidewalk in our neighborhood and we applied the same strategy. After walking past several times and getting treat-toss relief on either side, she bravely walked up to the tree stump and sniffed it!

Here’s an example of what this looks like with a pretend suspicious object – on and off leash:

Puppies/juvenile dogs and fear responses

Young dogs are still learning about the world. Their brains are under construction, and occasionally, they will respond in unexpected ways to things that, to our human eyes/minds, are perfectly normal. Sometimes, they’ll even have a day where they will respond with suspicion to something they have previously been fine with such as your trash can.

If you take your dog out into the world on a regular basis and these incidents are few and far between – no need to worry at all. Chances are you’ve just encountered an object while the part of the brain that considers this object normal is closed for business. (I imagine puppies and juvenile dogs with cartoon brains, and one part of the cartoon brain, for example, says, “Trash cans are okay.” As your dog grows up, there may be days when that part of the brain is taking a vacation and not accessible to the rest of your dog. Don’t panic – just come back another day or use one of the organic strategies to remind your dog of that part of their brain.

Royalty-free Pixabay image by GDJ – thank you!

When to take further measures

If a particular fear persists for more than a week – think about training that may help; organic or structured. Example of a more structured session: Control Unleashed games or Shaping Confidence!

Shaping Confidence

Hadley demoes what Shaping Confidence looks like when encountering a rude penguin in the outskirts of Vienna, where penguins are an invasive species and not supposed to hang around doorways:

The clip above is an older video (ca. 2015; hence the less than great quality). Look at the video description to read my thoughts on this session at the time!

CU games

In the video below, Windsprite Winnie and her wonderful human Chantal play LAT and TAB:

LAT is hands down my favorite CU game for environmentally sensitive dogs! I LOVE working on it because I’ve seen the most amazing results. Winnie is an environmentally sensitive dog, but Chantal has helped her grow her comfort zone and relax in more and more spaces by first playing CU games (like Look At That and Take A Breath) and then shifting to chewing on Toppls while watching the world go by.

If fears gets worse or if your dog responds fearfully to many different stimuli in many different environments all the time, see a veterinary behaviorist (if you live in a country where behavior is a veterinary specialty) or consult with a trainer specializing in behavior who has a basic knowledge of medications and connections to vets (if there are no veterinary behaviorists in your country).

One US-based team of vets and trainers (who also offer virtual services) I recommend is Behavior Vets (New York, Colorado, virtual).