Behavior Books

[Diana]

thunderstorm

Good to know that article helped you, Caro! I also read in the dog books not to reinforce fear. However, I agree with McConnell that it's not a fun emotion for the dog to feel. Buffy doesn't enjoy feeling fear, and she's not going to be like, "ooh, there's a train, I should start shaking in fright so I get a hot dog." I think she's just shaking in fright and sometimes the hot dog distracts her and makes her think about something else. I too noticed a huge difference when I started letting her sit in my lap or near my legs around the trains and get some really good treats. Eventually she would relax... especially if I started doing sits and downs so she had something else to think about.

Thanks for the threshold advice too--that's really helpful to me. I need to figure out what her threshold for this is and get her comfortable there before we can go any further.

 

[Kobe]

Thank you very much for the advise.
I will try a more gradual change and keeping more distance from other dogs. Also try to associate the situation with a nice treat.

 

[Caro]

Hi Kobe - you might also want to try to teach him to go between your legs (or some other action) when he is feeling fearful (this was taught to me by a vet psych). I use this approach with Tully and now if she is scared she will run between someones legs rather than snapping. Admittedly lately she has been a bit brazen and will leave my side to bark at other dogs but if they come up to meet her she still goes between my legs! The idea is to let them know you will protect them (affirming your leadership) and that coming to you is the appropriate way of dealing with fear.

The way it worked was as soon as I thought she would react I walked over the top of her so she was between my legs. You can also try to teach a dog to sit - but the beauty of shelties is they are small enough to fit under you and it is natural do this when their mind is stirred up with stress - whereas sitting is not a natural response. But before this I did 2 weeks of walking away as soon as she reacted or may have reacted. Again the idea is to let the dog know you are dealing with their fear. So if you see another dog turn and walk briskly away without saying anything to the dog. Then you move on to strategies of distractions (food or a squeaky toy perhaps) and the between your legs thing. But as someone mentioned, you do need to get an idea of how close your dog can be to another dog before you start work on the behaviour.

Sorry about the long post - if you have any questions please feel free to start up a new thread.