By Heidi Clayton
There are many behaviors that dogs exhibit that are based in fear and and anxiety. These behaviors may appear to be aggression such as growling when approached by strangers or barking and snarling when confronted with noises or new situations. The most common cause of these alarming behaviors is fear and anxiety.
The growl may not mean your dog is aggressive, but rather that they are scared. You may never know what caused the trauma that results in your dogs crippling fear, but there are ways to make life easier and happier for all of you.
It is very hard to train a fearful dog to be “obedient” when they are not comfortable in their own skin. If your dog is struggling with fear or anxiety related issues, the first thing you can do to help them is to change how they feel about what scares them.
The internal fear of the scary thing is what is driving their “poor” behavior. Fear from deep inside can shut down their ability to hear, see, or smell correctly. That is why they don’t hear you saying their name and asking them to sit.
The majority of people who live with a fearful dog do too much, too fast. Try writing down a list of what scares your dog. How close can people get to them before a meltdown occurs? What noises send them running towards closet? How often is this happening and how long does it take for them to recover?
I always recommend going to a veterinary behaviorist or at least seeing your regular vet to explain in detail what is occurring.
Sometimes your dog may need medications like Prozac to help regulate their emotions so that you can do any training at all. I have had success having clients give their dog a probiotic powder from Purina called Calming Care that treats anxiety through the gut. You can purchase this product without a prescription, but I always recommend speaking with a vet first. I do not recommend CBD until it becomes regulated by the FDA.
Most clients are shocked when I ask them to stop walking their fearful dog. Working on skills like offered eye contact and taking treats from you in a calm setting that is below your dogs fear threshold is always better than being out on a walk and suddenly being confronted with whatever it is that scares your dog. Changing your dogs emotional
response to what scares them is priority number one and you can’t do that out in the world where they do not feel safe and where you can not control what they are exposed to.
Using punishment based training methods on a fearful dog is the wrong approach. The only voice your dog has to tell you they are afraid of something is a growl or a whimper. Punishing that voice forces them to escalate their fear response from growling as a warning to biting the hand trying to pet them. Classical and counter conditioning based training programs are proven to be most effective in treating fear in dogs. A helpful resource on fearful dogs is a book called “The Cautious Canine” written by dog behaviorist Patricia McConnell, Ph.D.
There are more resources than ever available to help fearful and scared dogs, please feel free to email me for guidance in getting your dog help.
Heidi Clayton is a retired 25 year veteran of the Atlantic City Police Department. She started Four on the Floor Dog Training a result of her own struggle to find a positive & reward based dog trainer in the South Jersey area. She is passionate about giving every dog, even the difficult ones, a voice and the skills they need to thrive in life. She breeds, trains, and shows her own Bull Terriers under the SoraBullys’s Kennel Name.
