A lot of people hire me because their dog has fear. Just like in humans, fear manifests in all kinds of ways. We can usually tell when our dog is afraid of something when they display classic fear behavior such as running, hiding, avoiding, and cowering and shaking. So that is easy to tell that our dog is just afraid of something. However, fear can also be manifested in aggression. When your dog is afraid of a person or another dog (or thing, for that matter, like a garbage truck or thunder) they may lunge at them, bark, snarl, growl, and attack. This is fear based aggression, which accounts for almost all aggression in dogs.
First and foremost, get a full vet examination to make sure your dog’s fear is not coming from any pain in their body.
Then figure out exactly what the fear is of, and when it started. Often with shelter dogs, there is no way to know this. So just observe carefully what the dog is showing fear based behaviors around.
It’s not easy to get your dog over a fear. Just like us, dogs don’t just decide overnight they will never be afraid of that creepy homeless man down the street, or all yellow labs, or loud thunder. It’s not an on/off switch, but boy do we wish it was! The trick to helping your dog on the road to letting go of their fear, is patience. Recognizing and accepting that it’s going to take time. Sometimes a lot of time. Once you have made peace with that, you are well on your way to a successful behavior modification. Many books and essays are written about dogs and fear. You can read up as much as you want on this, and I actually do recommend it if you are someone with a fearful dog, or someone that likes to adopt shelter dogs, especially dogs that are coming from another country where they lived on the streets. Nicole Wilde and Patricia McConnell are excellent authors of books about fearful dogs.
However, you will probably need to hire a dog trainer to help your dog with their fear. As I said, it’s not easy to know how to help a dog overcome a fear, and you will need the expertise of a professional. If your dog is a puppy, contact a trainer right away, so you don’t end up with a deep rooted fear. Your dog trainer will outline a behavior modification plan for you to follow very closely, and show you exactly how to use distance, intensity, and duration to gradually desensitize your dog to their fear. Over time, you will be altering the levels of these things, and a dog trainer is the best way to understand exactly how much to do it and how often. These are the keys to overcoming fear, the Big Three:
Distance: You will determine how close you can get to the “trigger” (thing your dog is afraid of) without your dog panicking and displaying fear. Is it 10 feet? Is it 30 feet? Watch your dog very closely and determine the exact distance and perimeter from the trigger you need.
Intensity: You will train your dog while they are at a low level of intensity. This means the dog is aware of the trigger nearby, but the trigger is not alarming them, just causing a low level of intensity, such as glancing over and looking a bit worried, but still able to look back at you when you call their name and offer a yummy tidbit of mashed up pig parts. 😉
Duration: Duration is extremely important. Your dog will not be able to tolerate being exposed to her trigger, even at a low intensity, for very long. It depends how long for each dog and each fear. You will practice exposure for short durations a few times a day.
These three things are things that dog trainers are trained to be able to determine very accurately, and often people who are not professionals will think they can figure these things out themselves, but they are not always correct, and end up causing more fear.
Your trainer will need to know what most excites your dog as far as rewards. Often it is very yummy treats like hot dogs, chicken, cheese, beef. Sometimes it’s a favorite toy or ball. You will need to spend time figuring out what it is.
This is a primer on understanding how to work with your fearful dog and get started on training.