How to Prevent Your Dog from Biting Out of Fear – Part 4
Posted by Jeanne on November 9, 2009
Building up his confidence
Obedience training is a great vehicle for doling out praise and rewards: simply dispensing treats at random won’t do any good, since the issue here is drawing attention to achievement and good behavior (your dog can tell the difference between an earned and an un-earned reward!).
Start small, with basic obedience classes, and practice the commands for five to ten minutes every day.
Remember to set him up for success: start off with the easy commands, and make sure he’s thoroughly comfortable with them before progressing to the next level. Always treat and praise liberally for good behavior.
Desensitizing him to the fear-object
Desensitizing your dog is all about slowly accustoming him to whatever it is that’s eliciting the fear response, at a pace that’s comfortable for him.
The emphasis is on maintaining comfort levels: your aim here is to keep your dog happy and serene (as much as possible), so that he learns through direct experience that the cause of the fear isn’t actually scary after all.
So if he’s afraid of, say, the vacuum cleaner, start integrating it into daily life. Remember to move slowly and not to push him too far, too fast: start by simply leaving it out in a prominent position, where he’ll have lots of incidental contact with it (for example, in the middle of the lounge carpet). Allow him plenty of opportunity to sniff it and walk around it, Play with him near it; feed him near it. Integrate the object or the situation (whether it’s the garbage truck, strangers approaching the door, small children, driving in the car) into normal, everyday life as much as possible.
More information on this topic next week…
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