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My Pup is quickly approaching adulthood and she is still a little afrad of meeting new dogs.
in particular, she gets tail-tucked around bigger dog
Submitted by shoney on Jul 06, 2007
My Pup is quickly approaching adulthood and she is still a little afrad of meeting new dogs.
in particular, she gets tail-tucked around bigger dogs - nice and all.
she is fine chasing her adopted brother (a jack russell) around all day at the dog park we frequent.
what can i do to get her anxiety out?
Answer:
You need to do a variety of things to help her through this fear.
First, you need to control your own emotions. Everything we feel goes right down the leash. So if you are anxious when you are approaching another dog with her, then she will feel that and become concerned as well. Telling you to control your emotions is easier said than done … but it’s something you need to try to focus on.
You seem to already know what her trigger is … bigger dogs. That would typically be the next item you would need to know.
Then you need to find her threshold. Is she OK with a bigger dog at 50 feet, but not at 49 feet, for example? If so, then her threshold is 50 feet.
Now, you need to work to desensitize her which simply means that we want her to be less sensitive around bigger dogs. In our example, you want her to start being OK with bigger dogs closer than 50 feet. You MUST do this slowly. Her trust in you depends on this being done at a pace with which she’s comfortable.
To desensitize her, you need to counter condition her. That means that we want to change her perspective of what happens when a bigger dog is around. If every time she gets 49 feet from a bigger dog, she gets a piece of roast beef, she’s likely to become much more comfortable with a bigger dog at 49 feet. After all, a bigger dog at 49 feet now means she gets a piece of roast beef. Basically, we are substituting her fear response with a calm response which gets her that roast beef. You want to be sure to reward only her calm responses. Once she is comfortable at 49 feet, move to 48 feet. And repeat.
You must use a friendly bigger dog as the dog she is approaching. There should not be any real reason for her to fear this dog. The dog should be friendly and socially appropriate.
There are also a variety of natural products that you could look into adding to this process which might help her be comfortable more quickly. Rescue Remedy is made from flower essences that help calm people as well as animals. It’s available from most health food and nutrition stores. DAP is another possible solution. These are Dog Appeasing Pheromones. The idea is that the pheromones are detected by the dog’s sense of smell and produces specific responses. By replicating a comfort signal, DAP can help alleviate fear and stress. Collars are available that release the pheromone. This is available from most pet stores. A Calming Cap is another possibility. The Calming Cap is designed to lessen a dog’s anxiety in high-stress situations. It reduces the visual stimulus that might be agitating the dog by filtering her vision. It is basically a cap that’s worn over the eyes similar in nature to blinders worn by horses. This, too, is available from most pet stores.
Do not, however, pet and coddle your dog when she is frightened. Although it’s a typical human response that would be welcomed by most humans, what it tells a dog is that she is correct in being frightened since you are rewarding her fear. As difficult as it is, do not give in to the temptation. Instead, reward each and every sign of courage.
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