Your dog's small world might making things worse

Sometimes when we’re helping our dogs to overcome a fear, we can find ourselves living in an ever smaller and smaller world.

⛔ a fear of dogs? Let’s avoid them.

⛔ a fear of being alone? Never leave them.

⛔ a fear of car travel? We’ll walk everywhere.

Don’t get me wrong, this is an ESSENTIAL part of the rehabilitation process. We HAVE to reduce anxiety levels before any learning can take place - a dog cannot overcome a fear by being continually exposed to it.

But, living inside this teeny tiny world isn’t good for anyone’s mental health.

For our happy head hormones to function properly we need curiosity and we need exploration. We need new and novel experiences.

So, if you’re stuck in a small world, try this:

Find a dog-safe item in your house that your dog hasn’t interacted with before.

Think about how it smells, sounds, feels.

Make an assessment about whether the item is likely to be scary for your dog. If it is, find something else.

Hold it for your dog to come and investigate, ON THEIR TERMS. Hold it still, and allow your dog to make all the moves.

Place it on the ground and quietly hold space for your dog to see, smell, touch, hear it. Taste it too if that's appropriate.

You’ll be amazed at the number of new and novel items you can find lying around at home once you start looking.

On my desk right now I have a bluetooth speaker, a just-finished jar of hand cream (with the lid on), an empty pencil case, and lots more that I could support Mickle to safely interact with.

IMPORTANT NOTE: if you don’t want your dog to take the item away, or if your dog is about to destroy the item, have something of higher value on hand to swap it out.

And let me know how it goes!!

❤️

Stephie

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Stephie is a dog training and behaviour consultant specialising in sensitive, anxious and shouty-barky dogs.

Join her on facebook with your Shouty-Barky Dog here : www.facebook.com/groups/TheShoutyBarkyDogGroup/

and with your dog that struggles to cope alone here: www.facebook.com/groups/mumsawaypupsok