In the spirit of the holiday, I’d like to present you, Dear Reader, with a trick, a tag, and a treat.
What, you’re not familiar with the middle part of that phrase? It’s a new Halloween tradition. Trust me on this.
Want to know what that undead-Michael Jackson has to do with all this? Read on. (Hint: he’s part of the tag bit.)
Sometimes we think, “Oh, man, I’d really like to fix this annoying behavior thing, but I just don’t have the time to put into it.”
Oh, you don’t think that? Just me? Well, it’s my blog, so I’m going to talk about it anyway.
I live in Indianapolis, where the calendar runs January, February, Mud, Tornados, Welcome Race Fans, June. In the coming month I’ll be hearing about the Snake Pit at the Speedway — but at home, I’m preparing the Snake Kit.
I had a great idea for a training advertisement, all seasonal and humorous. And I had a great photographer to hand. To shoot it, however, we’d need to take a crazy, fractious dog who had been trained to polite house manners and make her look again like a stereotypical “bad dog.”
It was a ton of fun.
In mid-October, I embarked upon a new learning experience — handling and shooting a firearm. I spent nearly a year and a half researching this prospect, deciding if it were a path I wanted to start down, and I’d decided firmly that if I were to have a gun, I would train to a high level of fluency and competency.
Imagine my delight, then, when among the usual trash advice dispensed to newbies in any sport or hobby, I encountered some truly fantastic, behaviorally-sound recommendations for learning to shoot and handle safely.
You’ve tried everything — desensitization, counter-conditioning, safe places, and more — and it’s not enough? Or you know your panicked dog needs relief now while you start other protocols. Here are some more tools to consider.
As I write this post, thunder is rolling overhead with enough resonance to shake the house. As I write this post, a Doberman is curled up at the foot of my bed. That’s our only storm coping tactic at the moment. How does this work?
So you’re ready to get started combating storm fear, right? Of all the various tools we’ll cover, these will be the most generally useful for the most cases.
Desensitization and counter-conditioning are often confused, and indeed they can be similar. Both involve starting at a very low level of exposure to the trigger and gradually raising it. But they are different processes.
It’s been a very stormy year across the country, and in the Midwest in particular. Since I have three dogs with three variants of sound/storm phobia or sensitivity, my former love and thrill for dramatic weather has degraded to a dejected, “Oh, more storms?!”
But storm fear or sound phobia doesn’t have to be the end of the world for your pets or the end of sanity for you. There are many options now to help fearful or sensitive dogs (and cats!), and no reason to tolerate unnecessary suffering in animals or humans. In the next few posts, I will share what is working well for us and for others, and you can be the hero in your own household!
Remember that fantastically foul candy which made a better punisher than reinforcer? Pretty aversive stuff, would have wrecked a good training plan. But have you seen a highly-desired treat fail to reinforce as well?