While we are looking for the thing that is going to make our dogs behave more like a dog who isnt fearful, our dogs are suffering. There are products and techniques that can complement the work we need to do, but they never replace it. For many of us the process of how we desensitize and counter condition or teach new behaviors is foreign. We are not aware of the degree to which we need to split up behaviors and responses in order to either CC or reinforce. A dog who is afraid of people she sees out walking may need to sit in a car with the windows closed at the far end of a parking lot and be fed cheese when she sees people in the distance. Once we see that she has made the connection that the people appearing make cheese happen, we can roll down the windows or open the door. Then we stand outside the car and feed when people go by, we move a feet closer to people, each move predicated on the dogs behavior indicating that when she see people she expects food. We create and follow a protocol like this building to the point when the dog can be out on the sidewalk, see people and gleefully look to you for her steak. People now, instead of causing a fearful response, cause a happy, anticipatory one. It can take a week, or it could take years. But this is the kind and effective way we help our square peg dogs fit into the holes they are being forced to live in.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 12:33:48 +0000
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