Charlie charged and nipped at the salesmen every time they knocked.
Lucy lunged and snapped at the clowns walking down the street.
Bella barked and bounced at unicycles in front of her house.
Is there help?
What did all of these dogs have in common?
They were all afraid. All we had to do was observe their ears, eyes, and posture. Ears were pinned back, eyes were wide and we could see the whites, and and they had arched backs like a Halloween cat.
Do you identify with any of these situations?
Then Counter Conditioning & Desensitization might be for you! CC & D is the process of changing how a dog (or cat, or human) feels about something he is afraid of. It’s a slow process but it’s simple.
Its simple, but not easy…
We do this first by removing the dog from the full-on-frontal-all-sensation-attack-on-her-senses: We take the scary thing and make it go far away.
So- If clowns make Lucy go loony: We’ll start by making the clown go far away until he is out of sight. Once the clown is out of sight, we’ll begin a process of making him appear and dissappear. Kind of like a game of peek-a-boo, and it goes like this:
At a distance, have the clown appear for a few seconds. While he is in view, give your dog bites of filet mignon. Then, make the clown disappear. Be sure the steak disappears too.
Wait a few seconds…
Now, make the clown reappear, while filet mignon reappears. Again, make them both disappear. Repeat this over and over until when the clown appears, your dog starts drooling. (thank you Pavlov!)
We want the dog to drool because we are changing her emotional state from fear to relaxed anticipation.
Once your dog is drooling, slowly start bringing the clown closer. But be careful that you are not upsetting the dog. That could undermine the process. Take it slow, have some patience..
Eventually, the clown will be close enough to pat your pooch! And if you did this slowly enough, your pooch will be delighted.
This is called the yipee response and is touted by dog professionals such as Jean Donaldson. And, once your cautious canine has achieved this doggie state of enlightenment, you can teach her to sit instead of happily jumping up to say hello to the funny clown!
This process is very similar to desensitizing people to things such as snakes, flying in airplanes and more…
STILL NEED HELP? Email Colleen or call her at 541-601-7601.