Training Tip: Keeping Your Dog Safe, Part 2

Training tip from Nancy Fierer, SSD’s founder and director

In October, I wrote about Fear and Keeping Your Dog Safe, and I would like to revisit it because I consider it so important.

Our dogs look to us for support and consistency. At Susquehanna Service Dogs, we do this through clear clicker training techniques and consistent rules and expectations in the home, as well as by providing love, food, and shelter. I know we all do these things (or strive to) and our dogs count on us for it.

But there is more to keeping your dog safe. When you’re out and about in the world with your dog in training or even with your pet—no matter where you go—you encounter many situations that can be stressful, cause fear, or actually be physically harmful for the dog.

For example, we all watch where we’re walking and if we see broken glass or a dangerous surface, we make sure our dog avoids the area. This may mean we don’t enter, we pick up our pup, or we take a detour. If we miss seeing the broken glass, the dog is at risk of getting cut. Will the dog always be cut, need a vet visit, or have permanent damage as a result? You all know the answer. Mostly likely no, but once in a while, yes.

Like with the broken glass on the ground, we need to recognize when to take action to keep our dogs safe and how exactly to do that. There are two things to keep an eye out for:

·         Fear of other dogs and animals

·         Newly developed fear or an object or situation

I’m only going to cover fear of other dogs and animals here, because I’ve already covered newly developed fears in a previous post, but here are a few extra tips. Consider going to potentially scary places for just a few minutes or looking at it from a distance. A good example is fireworks. Distance and short duration are key here. For example, don’t go downtown Harrisburg on the 4^th of July with your pup to sit by the river and watch the fireworks. Prepare for success by looking for possible failure, stressors, and “danger.”

Your dog could show signs of fear around any other dog. These could be dogs in your home, from puppy class, from your neighborhood, or strange dogs. When this happens, do not allow on-leash greetings or unsupervised play, especially in smaller enclosures, and don’t allow dominant behavior, whether it’s your dog or the other dog. Remove your dog immediately and then think about the situation. Sometimes, everyone was just too excited and when all are calm, play can resume. However, if there was any fear on the part of your dog, don’t let the dogs play together again.

Ultimately, when a dog is fearful of a situation, it has two options—fight or flight. If the dog cannot leave (flight), then the only option they’re left with is fight. Do I mean a dog fight? Sometimes that may happen, but more likely, the dog will give a warning that any smart, confident dog will listen to. Your dog may resort to growling, snapping, or a hard stare. Each time your dog successfully deters the other dog, your dog is rewarded for its “aggressive” behavior. If your dog actually barks or snarls significantly, adrenaline is released, and this good feeling is a strong reinforcer that has a huge impact on your dog’s future behavior. It creates a strong reinforcement history and then next time, the dog may choose to use this aggressive, inappropriate behavior sooner. This behavior can easily become generalized and then it becomes a problem.

Don’t try to fix aggressive behavior. Simply avoid it. Keep the dog from practicing the behavior because you don’t want to make it stronger. If you have an SSD dog, this is the perfect time to ask the trainers for help, because you can reverse a little problem before it turns into a big one.

This is all part of keeping your dog safe. Remember, your dog is being fearful when they’re acting aggressively and wants to be safe. 

Training Tip: Fear and Keeping Your Dog Safe

Service dogs need to be able to go almost anywhere with their partner, and that means that the dog needs to be confident about going into potentially scary situations. (Scary for a dog, that is.)  A dog could exhibit fear in a variety of situations. How do you train a dog to not be afraid?

At Susquehanna Service Dogs, we used to have a saying: “Remember the back door and keep your dog safe.” This “back door” is your escape route if your dog is looking or acting fearful.

Some fears are small and don’t necessarily require you to use back door and leave. Let’s say that you and your dog are visiting a farm. Your dog sees a cow and starts to act fearful, maybe even barking a little bit. You can let your dog know that it’s okay and there’s no reason to fear the cow by using treats. Give your dog a treat for looking at the cow (and not barking). The dog should learn to associate the cow with treats, and they will see that there’s nothing to fear. Then the next time they see a cow, give them treats as soon as they look at it. This method works well for small fears in the environment.

But what do you do when your dog has bigger fears or they’re still afraid of the same thing the third time they’ve encountered it?

If your dog sees another dog or a person who looks scary to them, and starts acting terrified, your best option is to leave and not return. Why is it a good idea to take the back door and leave in this situation? Every time your dog experiences extreme worry and starts barking or growling, that barking and growling is releasing adrenaline, which makes the dog feel better and rewards the dog each time for this aggressive behavior. Each time the dog barks or growls with this adrenaline rush reward, the behavior becomes stronger. This means that it’s harder and maybe even impossible to remove the aggression with absolute security. By leaving, you prevent your dog from being rewarded for barking at the scary dog or person. If they’re not rewarded with that adrenaline rush, it will be easier the next time the dogs sees that scary dog or person.

Now, sometimes dogs are afraid of objects, like an elevator. If this is the case, just stop riding elevators for a while, especially if you have a puppy. It’s possible that the puppy may be going through a fear period which they will outgrow. Once the puppy has matured a bit, you can try taking an elevator again. (If you have an SSD dog, make sure you’ve talked to a trainer about the proper way for service dogs to enter and exit an elevator.) When you do return to the elevator, make sure you have lots of yummy power treats with you and only plan on riding the elevator once. Sometimes this will end the fear and the dog will be recovered. However, be careful not to try different elevators while your dog is fearful of them. You don’t want to create a generalized fear of elevators.

When it’s time to introduce a dog to a situation, place, object, person, or animal that caused the initial fearfulness, try to set it up in the best possible situation. If your dog is meeting another dog, follow appropriate dog greeting procedure and make sure that the other dog is sweet, nice, and never a threat to other dogs. Always start with something easy and avoid challenging situations.

And remember, if your dog still shows fear, do not press the point. Take the back door and leave.

What happens if your dog shows fear and worry, and you don’t have the choice to leave? Just pick the safest option for you and your dog. For example, if your dog is afraid of the vet’s office, just try to get your dog inside and use lots of treats. Sometime when you don’t have an appointment, go back to the vet and just sit in the car and give your dog lots of treats. When your dog is okay with that, try going inside, give them lots of treats, and leave. But if you have an appointment, just take the easiest, fastest, and safest way possible to get your dog inside, so the experience is over as soon as possible.

If you take your dog somewhere and your dog becomes fearful of a location that that you must go through in order to leave, use the same method that you would with the vet. Use lots of treats and even lure your dog with the treats. Get through the fearful location as quickly as possible so you don’t increase the length of time your dog is anxious. Don’t worry about clicking. Just give your dog treats. Then the next time you need to go to this location, make sure you have another plan in place in case your dog still exhibits fear.

Remember, keep your dog safe and use that back door. When in doubt, be safe and leave. Don’t practice over and over hoping to acclimate your dog to the thing they fear. You will most likely just end up making your dog even more fearful, and that fear will become cemented. Don’t be afraid to ask for advice and find a new approach. And never net your dog practice aggressive, fear-based behavior. Every time you let your dog act aggressively, they are reinforced for the aggression.

There are many other ways to deal with fear. There is Constructional Aggression Treatment (CAT), Behavior Adjustment Training (BAT), the “look at that game,” and of course, classical conditioning.

If you have an SSD dog, please call a trainer for advice.