Having a dog who is anxious or fearful of things can feel overwhelming. As dog owners, we want to help our dogs live the best lives possible and make them as comfortable as possible, so seeing them struggling with anxiety can be upsetting. Working with your fearful dog is a slow training process, but with time and patience, many anxious dogs can progress in working through their fears. Here are some strategies for working with fearful dogs.
Minimize stress
When working with fearful and anxious dogs, the goal is to minimize the number of unintentional encounters that our dogs have with their triggers. More isn’t better when it comes to working with fearful dogs, and instead of helping dogs to work through their fears, too many exposures to triggers can flood them. Flooding is when fearful or anxious dogs get overexposed to their triggers.
When a dog gets flooded by repeated exposure to things they are afraid of in a short period, dogs become over-aroused and can’t quickly calm down. In this situation, your dog can’t learn or form new positive associations with those triggers because they are too overwhelmed. For example, if you know your dog is anxious around dogs, don’t take your dog to a busy park where there will be many other dogs.
Change your dog’s associations:
One of the most effective ways to work with fearful and anxious dogs is to utilize counter-conditioning approaches. Counter-conditioning helps to desensitize our dogs to their triggers by shifting their association with whatever they are worried about. Counterconditioning works by pairing something your dog is upset about with the presence of something positive: usually treats, toys, and play. By pairing positive things like treats with the presence of a trigger from a safe distance over time, you can change your dog’s perspective of that trigger regardless of if it’s the sight of another dog or a skateboarder. The key is to go slow with the counterconditioning process, using a high reward rate at a distance where your dog feels safe.
Use distance:
Giving your dog space from their triggers is essential when working with fearful and anxious dogs. Use distance to help keep your anxious dog below the threshold, meaning at a level where they feel and act calm. Your dog’s level of anxiety and fear will dictate how close it is too close, so pay attention to stress signals your dog is giving off, and if your dog seems worried, give some extra distance. You can do this by crossing the street if you see something your dog is fearful or anxious about. By increasing the distance from what they find upsetting, you can help your nervous dog navigate a variety of real-world scenarios while remaining comfortable.
Don’t punish:
Even if you get irritated and frustrated by your dog’s behavior, remember that the frustrating behaviors you see come from a place of fear, anxiety, and insecurity. We never want to punish our dogs for how they express these feelings. Punishing your dog for being anxious or afraid will likely increase the behaviors you don’t want, not make them better. Punishing your dog’s fear also can erode your dog’s trust in you, making training harder and harming your relationship overall.
Go slow:
A key to success when working with fearful dogs is to go slowly through your training plan. Keep all your exposures at a pace and level your dog is comfortable with. Our dogs aren’t fearful or stressed by choice any more than those who struggle with anxiety. By going slow with your training, your dog can work through their fears at a supportive pace that feels safe; this is the key to long-term training success with anxious dogs.
When working with your dog, be realistic about your fearful and anxious dog. It can be tempting to push your training session to see if something will still upset your dog. However, forcing these interactions are unlikely to help your dog through their fears. It’s more likely to worsen your dog’s fears and increase negative behavioral symptoms like barking and lunging.
Get support:
Having a fearful or anxious dog is stressful! If you are struggling to support your dog and make progress with working through their fears, consider working with a qualified dog trainer. Ensure that any dog trainer you work with uses a positive reinforcement approach. A dog trainer can work with you and your dog and create an individualized training plan to help work through your dog’s insecurities and fears.
